Tunisia Experiences June 2005

Created by doina. Last modified on 2005-08-02 12:33:49
Countries: Tunisia

Hello to all from Bizerte, Tunisia, located on the northern shore towards Algeria. Did a short overnite passage from Trapani, Sicily to Bizerte. The day portion was pure sail, 10 knots on the beam, yankee, stay, main and mizzen loving the gentle breeze. Chautauqua, with its clean bottom, flew along at 6-6.5 knots, sometimes slowing down to the mid 5 knot range. The boat was hardly heeled, it was one of our best sails ever. But, with the arrival of evening, and the setting sun, the wind was abruptly turned off, and so, the iron jenny did the overnite passage. Pulled in at 9am, med moored for only the second time in two years, and waited on the boat for the officials to clear us. About 20 minutes later, two officials came over, and found out what it is like to climb onto the bowsprit and haul oneself up onto our boat. We gave them the option of doing the paperwork on the dock, but, as we have been told, they like to see the insides of boats as well. More out of curiosity than inspection of any sort.

Once we identified ourselves as Americans, they took great pains to make sure we understood, in a combination of French and English, with a sprinkling of Arabic also, that they liked America, Americans. No mention by them of Bush or the Iraqi war. Our French is limited, so they just handed us the paperwork, and we filled it out. Quicker than them asking questions, and us, somewhat tired, trying to understand. A third officer climbed on and came below. He spoke decent English, so the tempo and fun picked up a bit. And no foreign official, in 7 years of cruising, has ever given "Miss Blonde" Priscilla a hard time. She charms them all. We did have one difficulty; after almost a year in Italy, we kept using Italian phrases, not French or English. They thought it funny; we blamed it on being tired.

They also politely asked if they could stamp our passports, which we agreed to. This may be due to the fact that they do not allow people into Tunisia with South African & Israeli stamps in the passports. Don’t know if South Africa and Israel reciprocate on this political level.

We asked about dress code – can a woman wear shorts, men in tshirts, to which they all responded “no problem”. Priscilla doesn’t require a skirt!

They gladly drank Coke, mineral water and Sprite. Towards the end, they asked what “presents” we had for them. Spiro T. Agnew lives!!!! We were empty handed, and they quickly let the issue go. One said they can’t do cigarettes, as too easily seen – an interesting comment we thought. So, after an hour of talk, paperwork, and some vocabulary lessons in Arabic, French and English, they climbed over the bow sprit a second time, and left!! Our Q flag came down, and just the homemade Tunisian flag now flew on the starboard spreader line. Taking a walk into the town next to the marina revealed cheap internet at $1.50/hour, but with the French style keyboard which has several letters in different positions than an American keyboard. The ATM dispensed Tunisian Dinars, at $0.77 buying 1 Dinar. A nice change from the dollar/euro exchange rate. A large central outdoor fruit and veggie market assures us we won’t starve! Fruits and veggies are much cheaper than Portugal, Spain or Italy. The marina, now in high season, cost us $17/day, including water and electricity, so reasonable enough to splurge for a few days.

TUNISIA - DAY 2 Our first full day in Bizerte. We trod off from the marina to go exploring in the town a bit. Walking around and watching the people, looking into the small shops, etc is fascinating. We stop at a “fast food” place and buy a freshly made cheese crepe and tonic water for TD 1.8. It fed the both of us!! Similar crepes sold in the Balearic islands for 5 euros(about $6.25). Wandering around, a short friendly man, with a Yankees baseball cap approaches us, asks if we are off a boat, or in a hotel. We asked him the direction to the local market, which Don had seen the previous night. He says he will show us. Well, show us he does - the old market, the old town, his house, Turkish baths, horses and chickens in stalls within a person’s home, lots of different workshops for grinding of spices, woodworking, the old kasbah fort, which was Spanish at one time and the Medina.

The Turkish bath is heated by wood, which was delivered by a horse drawn cart. The horse wore a fez on it’s head. Two young boys carried wood, one piece at a time, from the cart, thru an alleyway and around the back to the rear of the bath, where the fire was made to heat the water. Inside the bath, it was hot, and Don didn’t go into the steam area itself, but Priscilla ventured in for a look. In the outer section, covered with mats for sitting, was a faucet/sink with cold water for refreshing oneself after the bath.

At one point, when we stop for water/soft drinks, walking into the place I pictured Sidney Greenstreet sitting at one of the tables, but I have no idea where the Maltese Falcon is. The place had that kind of feel to it! Also, by the fort is a large outdoor stadium for plays and concerts. The city is about 100,000 in population, so a wide variety of life styles exist. Mosques were everywhere, prayers being 5x/day. At the end, we part giving him TD 10 for his “tour”, he wanted 25, but it was a buyers market. A German friend, who charters his boat and winters in Tunisia told us that you offer to pay about half of what people ask for tours, etc. So we are getting used to the Tunisian tourist method of doing business – ask and tell pricing after the fact. But we are improving at asking the price first. The only negative of the day was not expecting to take a street tour, and therefore, not having our camera with us, but the visuals are etched into our memories!

Day 3: We go out early while it is cool and head for the market. The market is extremely old, but the fruits and veggies inside are fresh and numerous beyond belief. Melons – honeydew, cantaloupe style – are everywhere. Huge compared to the States, and inexpensive. We put two – weighing 7kg or 15.4 lbs total – into our backpacks. Cost was $2.40US. We also pick up lettuce, carrots, lemons, etc. There are many little shops, most very small – 10’ x 10’ would be large; some are so small as to have room for only a head and sink if it was in the US. Yet stacked up in the shops are a wide range of items. Shops with used appliances, furniture, electronics are also in abundance. And stacked up does not mean on shelves all the time. Many times, the merchandise is just stacked on top of each other – no pulling out from the bottom; the shopkeeper will unstack stuff until he can remove what you want. Bread is fresh, and whole grain – and again, very inexpensive. We buy 3 large loaves for TD 0.800, or about $0.65 for all three. They are heavier grained and less crumbly than the Italian bread we have had for the past year.

People always ask where we are from; are we German, English? We tell them no, we are Americans, and to date, they light up, shake our hands, and tell us how much they like America. A vast contrast to what we see and read on the web/news. Many say it is their dream to go to America. So the Statue of Liberty still sends a powerful visual message to the world. When we explain we are on our boat, the conversations get more inquisitive, as to how long it took, are there other crew, how big is the boat, etc.

We jerry can fuel from the wharf back to our dock, a short walk. Diesel is TD 0.56/liter($1.65/galUS), or less than half the price of Portugal, Spain, Italy- typically $5US or more per gallon. A welcomed change from Europe.

Day 4 We arise early to catch the 7:30 am train to Tunis. Two round trip tickets cost 10.80 Dinars (a little over $8). The trip takes 1 ¾ hrs one way. The train is on time (a change from Italy!), and fills up as we get closer to Tunis. We stop at the tourist bureau, where we get a detailed itinerary for our 1 day visit. We take the surface tram to the Musee de Bardo – the world famous tile museum. Two words describe the tiles – absolutely amazing! We have seen many tiles before, similar in the small size of the individual tile squares, but these designs are enormous. The time it must have taken to do the designs, figures, etc is hard to imagine. Some are two stories tall. It makes the Pompei museum in Naples go pale. After a few hours of enjoying this, we leave and look for a taxi to the TGM station, where we board another train for the 20 minute ride to Carthage. Given the technology of the day, this city was enormous, with an inner and outer harbour, coliseum, baths, and an overwhelming defensive high ground view of the Med seacoast.

Coming back into Tunis proper, we stroll down the Avenue de France, which is a very wide avenue with a large pedestrian island separating traffic. Trees (and shade) line the middle. We walk to the Medina, the old quarter, and words will now fail to describe the narrow streets lined with shops, and crates lined up in the street just outside the shops with everything imaginable. The pedestrian traffic density is unreal, totally unreal!! (and I-Don-am from NYC) You just move with the masses. Shops seemed to be grouped by what they sell, shoes, spices, clothing, etc. With ice creams in hand, it is time to head back to the train station and back to Bezerte.

The next few days we spend in Bizerte, planning to return to Sardinia. But the regular activities of buying food, boat maintenance and afternoon siesta – it is becoming hot – fill our time. Evenings we roam the old quarter, flea market and just soak up watching the everyday lives of the Tunisians. There are streets named after JFK in Tunis and Mohamed Ali in Bizerte. But no other American personalities seemed to have warmed the hearts of Tunisians. Watching weather, we see a window with light, but favorable winds to head to Sardinia, and checking back into EU land. But we want to return to Tunisia some day in the future. Like the Azores, it was a special visit for us!

So with a good weather window, we check out of the marina, where the honor system is used. They ask if we used water and electricity everyday. Water was 2 days, electric all days, so the bill is adjusted downward for this. We explain to the customs/immigration officials that we want to check out in the evening so we can start early the next day. They tell us they will come to the boat in an hour. Two officials show up, and after the bow sprit climb aboard experience, come down below. We offer them soft drink, and they want to know if we have American bottled Coca Cola. We show them it is their Tunisian bottled Coca Cola, so a slight disappointment, but they gladly drink it.

Tunisian currency, the Dinar, is not allowed to be taken out or brought into the country. Paper currency starts with a TD 10 note. TD 5, 1 and less are all coins, with three decimal places verses our two. One Dinar is written as 1.000. They ask us if we have any Dinars left, and we tell them we have coins totaling less than one Dinar. They tell us to keep it as souvenirs! Passports are stamped again, showing the exit date, and off they go. The next morning, we toss off lines at 7am and head out of the harbor with great memories etched inside of us. It is a motorsail trip back to Sardinia, but at least the fuel being used is relatively cheap!

Don Davis, s/v Chautauqua