David's Diary: Monday, October 19, 2002

First Impressions of Tunisia

We are not going to do school today, so we all sleep in. I start work on settling the boat in for the winter. The watermaker must be sterilized, which we get done today. Over the next week we have a long list of chores that need to be done so that Dragonsinger will be in top form to carry us around the Mediterranean next year.

After an afternoon nap we go for a walk. We follow the beach next to the marina. There are few tourists out, but many hotels behind the road that follows the beach.

Tiny Fishing Port

We continue along until we see a small fishing port. There are only a few small boats inside. We know that further along the coast is a large commercial fishing port, but I doubt that we will walk that far tonight.

Local Building

The streets are clean and paved. Most buildings are white-washed. We don't know what this building is for, but we take a picture showcasing the interesting arches and tower. We don't have a map of Monastir, so we don't know which part of town we are in. Perhaps the building is a mosque or a government building or just a rich person's house?

Sheep Grazing in the Street

Continuing along the waterfront we come around a corner and discover sheep grazing on short bits of grass next to the road. We do not know if this will be a common occurence in Monastir, but it does let us know that we are in a different place with different customs.

Local transportation via a horse

We leave the waterfront and walk along one of the streets of Monastir. We immediately see a wagon hitched to a horse. Average income in Tunisia is much lower than in Canada or Western Europe. While all the streets are paved, the horse and wagon indicate to us that there will be a variety of means of transportation. During our walk along the beach we saw a few cars, but not many compared to what we would have seen in Croatia, Italy, or Malta.

Happy Tunisian Children

As we start making our way home we pass a group of children playing outside. They wave and call to us. We're clearly strangers by the way we dress and look. I stop and the children all pose so that I can take a few pictures. We continue along and eventually make our way back to the boat as the sun starts to set on our second evening in Tunisia.