No. 1 (and we only miss me) After years of traveling in Africa, I concluded, very personal, that the role of tourist, as an alternative and responsible, not the most suitable for crossing gates, beyond which there are only landscapes but wonderful human beings, with whom, and for many known reasons, it is often impossible to interact correctly. Would be something if the concept of "traveling" was not exploited and despised by those who do not want to admit that "even their shoes leave marks."
It begins where the 'Africa? But of course, from Tunisia. The 'beginning of a journey of a continent, doubts, and sometimes of' irony!
Douz in some ways is a symbolic place. For a variety of reasons, some questionable, it is identified with the desert cheaper. For some of us it ends there, on the first dune, for others it 's just the beginning ...
People who have read the guide on Tunisia published by Lonely Planet may have noticed that Although rich in information attendibilissimo, is essentially an invitation not to visit Tunisia. Phrases like "Lost in the middle of nowhere, the 'city of Sbeitla insignificant ..." are simply demoralizing. Conversely some publications tend to emphasize and mythologizing, misrepresenting reality.
What follows is a story, but a sort of picture of some of our ways of doing things. it was written some years ago, but it still looks today.
arrived in Douz one day in February. A handful of tourists
logistically well-organized: tree-ghi booked, Land Rover brand-new and multilingual guide. A dozen more vacationers' that prepared and organized the mental level. For a homogeneous but inconsistent knowledge of the real-ta 'Tuni-si-na amalgamated ten very personal concepts of' exoticism. Ten so exotic that you would not have to add them to palpation a real grain of sand. Ten pictures of the same camel and everyone and 'brought home a camel different. Ten clones on Kodak paper and slides over 'fake camel rag rugs and crafted especially for us, tourists. But we brought home too. However, the things that re-sco-best are not always the most 'snel-le,-with a few concepts but very confused Sanci' someone who the world had a good practice.
arrived in Douz a day in February, was on Thursday '. I could also mention the exact time and day, and still be an ordinary day, except that on Thursday there 'market in Douz. We came in search of exoticism and the travel agency had made sure we arrived on the day-mile king. Then there I thought, but I have not been able to exploit the knowledge that it was the day of Jupiter-more 'exotic, Giron-zo-the-go among the market stalls-to stop. In apnea Mental smells and colors that stuz-zi-ca-bay my emotions and made a large chaise-no-know-what in l'an-angle in my heart where all would be to follow-sediment-tion in the blue memory. The market-to, how many images are dense and flavorful that it was hard to hunt in the whole 'goal-vo! Special aunts, huge baskets overflowing with colorful powders and ammic-songs. Spice ... the spices were those that had not been round-the collec-tive memory by spreading an aroma that finally led us to Douz. I like all thrust his hands into the baskets, touched the powder and then bringing his fingers under his nose for the smell in my set of appli-. It is a ritual, but what I knew then. Baskets as Acquasana-tier. Asper-tion of spices in that church which was the market. But we celebrated the pilgrims trascuram-mo-Brant, then were only hands outstretched for alms, dark hands receiving the compensation for so-the relics that trans-Tammo with us not knowing that the home would be transmuted into ro- blasphemous fetishes. Li-dark between the sell-ers Heavenly Brant, as we were committed to protect ourselves from Gere 'atavistic fear of difference. All right spices, ceramics, water pipes, carpets and palm trees, but no human beings! One thing at a time to re-comb ... but the primary objective inane-but-you-ti-, do less harm. Do not mo-strange what you do not want to see. Of course, it was not a thing well done, but at least in this picture mystic and 'quote also repentance, and there is not bad at all. Only a few grams of repentance but from 'smell so' intense that I would be in the indi-be-ta-to Douz with a different spirit-to-know. Just to be re-called: I came not of course in Douz in pilgrimage, who knows of prey 'such as trailers or one regret-men-ti. I went back to re-check if all things, at which point the peo-ple were still in place. Perhaps with a little 'presumption of-uncle-ne I went there hoping that still lingers in 'the air' smell of spices, that the desert and palm trees were even more 'exotic as I found them then. More 's nice on the books and photos. I went back to pack for the beautiful jars of clay where the market was full of Douz.
In short, we must recognize that we arrived in Douz on a particular day, on Thursday ', the market day. A bother to read them on all the tour guides there 'written on Thursday in Douz market is held weekly. "It 's one of the most' important in Tunisia. One of those rare places in which 'you can still see nomads expose their animals to market".
Our guide was truly multilingual prepared: driver-sse us through a maze of stalls of clothes, and already 'them I felt like the bristles of the brush on the palette, until the' Noah's Ark '. We stood stunned on the first step of a staircase that descended into a valley where the land since time immemorial (it looks like it 'effect) there is a market-to cattle. We had reached a position with a single glance and hugged the target market of most animals' imported from Tunisia. Cam-mel-li, donkeys, goats and CEEC-king. A greenhouse-lation fasci-sci-nan-te. There were also nomads, never forget, were them! In front of or aligned with their soul-li. One wonders if there would be swarms of living creatures that exist on other days. On Monday for example. How was the Market Square on Monday? I did not think, as I believe there have ever thought anyone. Pushing through the crowd drunk with exoticism. A quick tour of the square and going up the stairs glad you did. To be fair I felt a tinge of bitterness due to my clothing that seems to cry-ing "are not one of you." I wanted to be in the most 'complete sample to the bottom of the market of Douz. Host and non host. I think I unconsciously wanted a camel of my own to show with pride and re-sell almost sorry. Fire-King and prepare an exaggerated price for a dra-stich downward showing healthy teeth of the beast. But unfortunately there is sudden nomads and merchants. My only exposure Tunisian Dinars left to the usual rash purchases. How not to buy a desert rose? And then the second because 'and' more 'beautiful. The third 'cause it costs less. The fourth to give it to someone who had not thought of yet. The fifth and subsequent so I took 'a little' for greed, a little 'for addiction. I put the stones in the bag and the superficiality of the desert 'and I Piazzai before the Land Rover ready to go. Where? Perhaps what I saw-Cuno, leaning on the low entrance to a cave-man-ta-tion lives of Matmata. But how can I be sure I was right in the crowd of tourists overwhelmed by 'the word troglodyte stench? In Matmata we went there ourselves, but first we have tasted to the full the dream-like atmosphere of Douz. For me to de-crown and 'was always the desert: a vast, flat, piattissi dist-sa-ma of sab-bia. The sea of \u200b\u200bsand, what else could it be? Ben-who 'have seen films and docu-men-ta-ri-compartment showing peaks and endorse-ments, despite I have con-firmed their eyes on pictures of' author whose subjects were always in the desert spite of the shrubs, stones and variety 'of the land-Fri, no geographical feature or landscape had never changed my concept of a sea of \u200b\u200bsand. Even the waves I thought it was flat enough. It 'hard to change the finished works of our imagination to be able to overlap the strokes with reality'. It would be like admitting that a framed painting and 'to be remade, you first make another one. Yet when I put my feet on the edge of the sea of \u200b\u200bsand Douz discovered that it was flat and was not even the ornament diaphanous I had imagined. How many indescribable emotions in an instant! A huge sand dune, beyond which they hid countless grains of sand dunes in sti-available small and large mounds, contours of fingerprints ani-mals. Grains in any order on the dry leaves of the sparse shrubs. Depressions and craters emptied by the wind before all this the great dune Douz. The malicious and does not imply that 'this was the wind to form sand hill, but the proprietors of the hotels to the delight of tourists. It 's a sad eventuality', but the dune and 'beautiful el' army of Dari-drome to his feet and 'ready to dispense exciting voyages in the sea of \u200b\u200bsand. Yes! Sea of \u200b\u200bsand! That maintains at least the name. And 'this impressive sea seen from behind the dune. Its size hides the hotels and the City 'entire SO' is just sand and sun. And it 's the climax of' exoticism. You can not not fall in love, and 'love at first sight. E ' true, then grew, but there under 'the substance, the colors are true and pure sand and the relationship is strengthened. I test-to-in with a follow-to-den-sa-re in intangible-gi-ni-com more than sen-te-ni, but I dis-for the real-to-ta 'had created a new vision. That 's another reason why I came one day market in Douz: I wanted to find out if the desert that I had seen and touched-Steve actually existing. I wanted to check if my love, my fantasies were in-flowed on his mood. It was so 'after three years from the first travel-Thu Douz happened to a market day. We rented a 'car in Tunisia and we left it in a day Mon-qua-que, but the doors of the deser-to-Jupiter was still of'. If what he told me-no-cu-ra 'and that' was in Douz in a market day, Ciero-comin 'on over there and think' and always a market or 'just-in Jupiters'.
's only difference, and if you really need to point out' that it was in February but the month of August. There was always
-no-nit-organized groups with their out-does the street, perhaps a sign that nothing was cam-blasted. Giamma car park- confi-ciosi in a comfortable street meet-not get down to explain why the walkers left the sti-vettu King so 'far, and we hope inoltram-mo-Zosi in the marketplace-to. With much disappointment-mission found that all had been vendu-to: vases, carpets, spices and exotic. Sold out. Remained on the shelves only common items such as shoes, rubber-handled tools, plastic containers of 'alu-minium, luc-label, flashlight-that spare parts for gas cookers, fruits and vegeta-king who had little to no- if not co-exotic edible bile. But this' a matter of taste. And the market-to-remember so fascinating that do? the intense smell, mystics offi-ti-cian, the 'atmo-spherical-ra, who had allegedly made the end' atmo-sphere of the first three years? Sold too 'it together with the terra-cotta amphorae. Three, it remained Soltan-to-three and with prammo. Not because 'they were beautiful, but for what it means-room. We, the recent re-deposits of 'Tunisian handicrafts. Only later and I 'got the idea to detect in one of the satel-lite-stri-bu-tion on the surface of all terrestrial amphorae Tunis-ne. Unfortunately I never had time to ask the pro-National Geographic In-prostitutes-this-it is interesting to investigate geographical.
We headed towards the market, hoping the animals, stalls with clothes, there was yet no-ra, but the colors were faded. To be fair, there was not even the animals, but again another disappointment. And it was the fault of donkeys and cam-Melli. Sco-Primm that 'essen-tion of the market were not our emo-tions, but those beasts. We remembered the animal heads hanging on the 'door of the butcher's second' Arab custom. One in particular: head of camel. That day, according to Islamic rites, the butchered meat that belonged to-head, the most 'horrifying I have ever seen. Not that the glazed eyes of a cow to be preferable, but that the camel-and I 'impressed. There
-ra-no Finally, the rabbit and chicken mix-gliate trapped in baskets and crates, cardboard-ne, sheep and goats. Their eyes were frightened results, awareness of leg snare, the certainty of the yoke, the 'useless waiting for a thread of green grass, the lack of' shadow in the sun in August, was the sense of day-to-give in gestures of the people to give defi-nite-va-tion a 'footprint to that of Jupiter' market.
With our three jars full of disappointment-sio-ne and perhaps with a lace-co-za of experiences in more 'us DIRI-stones to the car. Sco-Primm then that the experience is not conquered in a couple of thursday: You were trapped in the market. All the streets of acces-so, and therefore flight had been cross-senna-you from the poly-aunt. We went back and forth between the crowd of the market-to-Douz escort you from a crowd of kids eager to pluck import-package in return for big tips. Dodging carts and crossed lanes built to measure the sides of 'car. We greeted women-ple-sse on the doorstep. We passed shops of blacksmiths and carpenters. In short we did but just in time to re-observed to be true Douz that lurked behind the market that we were outside. Fos-suc-ces-so if the market-to-be was under house sareb al-tret-tan-to interest-ing?
Happy to have done but unfortunately we were disappointed to be DIRI-gem-mo in the south. We passed the great dune-ing with the hope that at least she had retained its charm. Another disappointment-sion: have sprung up all around a forest of choices, here they are the famous cathedrals in the desert! But the view is not much left. Perhaps it 's true that the pro-prie-ta-ri hotels have had a hand in the deser-to' innal-Zare a large dune, but it 's true that the desert has enabled them to build hotels. For my part I say that a large dune of Douz and 'as a' uncertain work in dusty glass case of a museum poorly maintained. I just want to know who and why 'stole the name plate with the explanation of.
short, and 'facice arrive in Douz, on the day of the market, even in summer,-me-not easy to resign' idea that in places that dreams do not bind us Biso-campaigns-would never go back. I still wonder if that poor-a difference of twenty degrees centi-gra-to-have flowed into the fate of that day's market-one of Jupiter 'in August.
