A late-Ottoman era bey of Tunis had a private train which he used until there stopped being Ottomans and beys. That train has now been refurbished for the tourist trade as the Lézard Rouge. It travels up and down a small canyon leading to a phosphate mine once a day. The rest of the time, the rails are used for a Koyaanisqatsiesque rape of the landscape. Metlaoui, the origin of the Lézard Rouge, is about a half hour drive north from Tozeur. We took this train ride the day before the eclipse. Inside the train...