Down South

Walking around the Southern town of Matmata you need to make sure you keep your eyes on the ground otherwise you run the risk of falling into a hole, a really, really big hole. While the mountains and scenery may be gorgeous the earliest inhabitants of the region didn't mar the natural beauty of the landscape by building their homes where they could admire the scenery, instead they lived underground in Troglodyte pit homes. Eight or nine families would work together digging out these giant pits and would live in their semi-subterranean homes together where it was cooler. A lot of them are now abandoned or used to store animals and farm equipment but some of them are wired for electric with satellite TV. Arriving at night I didn't see any of this til the next day. Of course I still got the experience,

I stayed in one while I was there. A very pleasant place called Hotel Marhala. It was listed in Lonely Planet's budget options and recommended over the Star Wars' Hotel- Sidi Driss. While it's a nice place- clean room, super clean bathroom, good food, nice owner- Lonely Planet totally had a bias against Star Wars telling people it was a superior choice over Sidi Driss citing camera toting Star Wars fans as a detractor. However, I got several noisy tourists who felt they could just walk into my room as they toured the hotel. While the owner apologized it was still annoying. So while I'd recommend Hotel Marhala, if you want to stay at Luke Skywalker's house don't let the guide book throw you off.

No matter what anyone says Matmata is wired for the tourist trade. Hell the whole country is with something like over 60% of its GDP coming from tourism. The town is full of tour guides, only three of them are licensed with the local tourism board. One big way locals bring in cash is by toting out their camels, no such thing as a free ride here, if they even catch you taking pictures it's going to cost you. One enterprising man was bottle feeding his baby camel outside one of the main hotels hoping to catch shutter happy tourists.



























 

An abandoned troglodyte pit home.

 

In one of the more modern homes open to tourists- a small fee is greatly appreciated- we saw an old fashioned mill. Can you imagine grinding grain by turning a rock round and round.

I find it infinitely amusing that STOP works in every country unless you are talking to children, then it's about as meaningful as the word NO.

 

Thank you fellow tourists: now kids come out everywhere demanding money, caramels, and pens (I hear the Japanese are particularly bad for this).

 

I might have snuck through here and into one of the abandoned homes.

 

View from the hillside. See what I mean if you aren't careful there are pits everywhere!

 

Do I really need to tell you whose house this is?

 

I'm in their dining room- the one that's used in the movie!!!!

 

Tamezret is a town about 12k West of Matmata. While it has some gorgeous scenery and a cool little hillside town that made me think of a medieval town it's not worth spending more than an hour and be prepared to be hassled by men in the village who want to take you to see the museum.

 Like I said kinda like a medieval town.



They love their elaborate doors in this country.

I really enjoyed my time down south, it was a nice break from the North and I feel like I learned a lot about the culture however I really hated feeling like such a tourist. Still if you do come to Tunisia I would totally recommend coming to Matmata and if you need to get around they have decent bus transport- albeit crowded- so don't get talked into a guide. And enjoy the scenery!!