Senegal

This last weekend I traveled to Dakar, the capitol of Senegal, with a friend to pick up someone at the airport. The drive was neither short nor smooth, but Jake, the American teacher, managed to maneuver the pothole-laden pathway rather nicely. We took off early Saturday morning, crossed on the ferry to the Northern side of Gambia, and started our approximate 150 m drive to Dakar. After a very bumpy, hot drive to Kaulack about 1/3 of the way to Dakar, we were informed at the security checkpoint in Senegal that we needed to get a piece of paper at the border, another 1.5 h back on the crappy road. We tried to talk our way out of it, but it was to no avail. Three hours later we arrived back to the checkpoint with paper in hand and nobody even wanted to check it. This is a snippet of how the 3rd world works - chaotic and unpredictable.

On the outskirts of Dakar are new roadways being constructed, actual proper highways, I was nicely surprised, however the roads used for the meantime are absolute helter skelter. There are fruit and vegetable stands setup in the median, cars driving towards oncoming traffic, horse and donkey carts merging on and off, sellers running through halted traffic to sell any various item, for example: dates, calling cards, bottles, and pens; and no road markings whatsoever. They did have signs for general directions of towns - and I emphasize 'general.'

We arrived in downtown Dakar around 8p and drove around looking for a hotel. The area was pleasantly similar to a large U.S. city. I couldn't believe I was in West Africa. Banjul and The Gambia are about 100 years behind Dakar. We found a hotel and then went to grab something to eat. We stopped by a small bar/restaurant and had some food and a beer and watched as France upset New Zealand in the Rugby World Cup. We then stopped by a bakery that had the sweetest smell taken in by my nose in 2 years. We promptly went back to the hotel, gobbled our decadent sweets and passed out.

The next morning we drove to the harbor and took a ferry out to Goree Island for the day. It was an old French colonized slave island. It was very interesting and beautiful (check at the link) and worth the time visiting. After arriving back on the mainland we drove to the airport, found a really nice hotel, swam, and took in some food while we waited up the rest of the night until the 6am flight came in. Without any sleep we drove back to Gambia and finally arrived around 430p. It was great to take a break from The Gambia, and nice to see what this place can strive towards, economically and developmentally.

I'll post some pics of the trip soon.