Day 3: Star Wars and Stunning Landscapes

On the last day of our tour, we woke up, packed up and looked out at our view from our hotel while chatting. Then all of a sudden we looked up and saw the mountain town was covered with a cloud. Just like that. It was covered! It was just crazy to us how fast it happened!

After breakfast, we packed up and headed to our first stop- the caves of Ghomrassen. There are paintings on rocks from thousands of years ago. 

A Cow

Other animals I cannot remember

This painting is peeling

Our next stop was Ksar Hedada that was a set of Star Wars for the "The Phantom of the Menace". This is a local ksar that they built the set around. 

It was neat to imagine where they were filming and where the stars stood and what they did. It was really quite beautiful.

Afterwards we started our long trek to Matmata which was through the mountains but there was beautiful landscape all along the way! It did also include a lot of carsickness but it sure was beautiful!

Do you see the dinosaur up there? We saw a couple of hills like this. Crazy!

Love the everyday life of those living in the moutainside!

Once we made it to the Matmata area, we stopped at a neighboring Berber village called Tamezret. It was beautiful with beautiful views. 

These cute little doors never get old to me!

So after that my camera battery died, my cell phone memory got full, yada yada yada. I know I took more pictures but I cannot find them. We explored a Troglodyte home (open roof with covered rooms circled around it) and saw Matmata. Then we took the fairy back to Djerba and James flew back to Tunis. Catherine and I spent the day exploring Djerba. That blog's next!

Day 2: Tatouine and Surrounding Areas

The second full day of our trip was spent around the area we were staying in- where our cave hotel was. We started out touring the mountainside village of Chenini. We got to see how they use to live and how some people still live there today.

A berber taxi... Donkey! HA!

We got to see an old fashion oil press that is still used today. It is run by a camel walking around a large circle.

Here is our tour guide with the camel. It is off season for olives now so the camel gets to rest. 

Then we set off to explore the mountainside village! Always fun to see how they use to live and to make predictions of what they used for different things. 

The mosque

view from up top

After we finished exploring, we had a drink at this sweet coffee shop built right into the moutain

Then we headed to downtown Tatouine and walked around the souk to see the fruits, vegetables and items for sale. 

Such beautiful pottery

Colorful fabric

Then we headed to our final moutainside village Duoiret to explore and walk around. To be honest at this point I was hot and tired so I did not explore this village as much. The heat got to me so I tried to stay inside each home as I explored and I must say, I did find some cool things. But man I was hot!

Loved the glass bottles

And the shoes... they were everywhere!

Then we headed back to our jeep and drove to the Mosque of the Seven Sleepers (based on a story from the Koran). The mosque was built around the cave where they say the seven sleepers lie.

This was the first mosque in Tunisian we got to go in so it was quite exciting. 

There were also tombs and stones around the mosque.

The area around the mosque was just as beautiful.

Then we headed back to our cave hotel in Chenini to rest before dinner.

Sunset on the mosque in Chenini