Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end...

When we were in Douz, it got up to 120 degrees with above 110 degrees being typical. When we left Douz on the 24th, we saw that the forecast for the next few days was around 36 degrees Celsius (about 97 degrees). Our reaction was, "Wow, it's going to be really cool". I guess after a week of 110 and up, 97 feels like spring.

Originally, we weren't going to go to Matmata for the night of the 24th, but Nidhal's parents said that they were having company over and Nidhal took that to mean that we should find another place to stay for the night. So Matmata! We left Douz in the early afternoon and drove through the mountains to get to Matmata. When we arrived, we stopped at a museum that showed the typical houses of Matmata (built into the side of a mountain). We then ate some lunch where we met some Mexicans, and then we went to the hotel... and were pleasantly surprised. It was quite nice and our room. . . . . was a cave! It was a traditional Matmata dwelling and was kept naturally cool without the need for air conditioning. Almost the whole hotel was carved out of the mountain.

We spent the evening watching the sunset over the desert mountains and relaxing. It was our only night in Matmata.

Looking back over the hotels, I can definitely say that the El Mouradi in Tozeur was the best. It was the cleanest with the most luxury and the best food. Even though we were given a suite at the El Mouradi in Douz, the hotel in Tozeur was newer and just better. One thing that annoyed me, though, was the closing times of the pools, especially in Djerba. When I'm in a hotel on the sea, I want to swim in the sea during the daylight hours and then swim in the pool after dinner. But no, not an option. The pool closed at 7:30pm, about the time that the sun went down. Seriously. Ridiculous. The other hotels' pools closed a little later, but it was usually not late enough to be able to swim after dinner (dinner at the hotels ran from around 7pm to around 9pm). So that annoyed me. Both the hotels in Djerba and Matmata could have been cleaned better, but both were certainly nice and I wouldn't hesitate to go back to either one.

In conclusion, it was a great trip, a great vacation. Luckily, Tunisia's coast runs from north to south so I can go swimming in the Mediterranean back in Tunis.