The port of call for today was Dakar, Senegal, a new stop for us and many of our friends. The country of Senegal has a population of 14,000,000 people that speak French and Wolof, as well as some English. The capital is Dakar, a city of 2 ½ million people. According to Lonely Planet, Senegal is one of West Africa’s most rewarding countries. It has coastal beaches, mangrove forests, savannah woodlands, and dusty Sahel desert. It provides a perfect backdrop for migratory birds, coming here from Europe by the millions. There are slavery monuments along with devout religious traditions. They are also known for their international music stars.
The best time to visit is November through February for the cooler dry season. Things to see are Ile de Goree, the monument island dedicated to the Africans who were cast into slavery. See the Grand Mosque and the colonial architecture. Beautiful beaches are a plus, and bird –watching during the migration season must be exciting.
What do they eat here? Try a dish of rice cooked in tomato sauce with chunks of fish, veggies, and spices. Grilled chicken marinated with onion and lemon juice is another favorite.
Drink: hibiscus juice, ginger beer, and baobab juice are the top three.
A random fact is: Touba is the site for one of the African pilgrimages. It happens 48 days after Islamic New Year. Two million people descend on town for this pilgrimage.
The capital city of Dakar was once the center of French presence in Africa. Dakar has a strong economy and is a place that attracts many immigrants. It is filled with banks, markets, night cafes, and lots of music. Big on the list are restaurants featuring French, Moroccan, and Senegalese dishes, most of which come with peanut sauce and seafood.
A reminder of the past, old wooden boats will pull up on beaches of upscale resorts, cafes, and bars. Their religions include Islam, Christian, and Animism. Peanuts, corn, rice, and millet are their main exports. Iron ore, phosphates, and fish processing keep most of the people employed.
The tours for here were $130 to $400, for durations of 3 ½ to 9 hours. The highlights of the city was the most reasonable tour, then they got increasingly expensive. The only city tour that was affordable was what most folks took. The more expensive were rides out of town to see the island where millions of natives had been shipped to the New World. This was the ferry to Ile de Goree, where 40 million natives were thrust into slavery.
A few tours were offered as mini-safaris with large trucks as transports, and there was a long trip to see Lake Retba, a pink lake from an algae bloom. This tour included lunch. One longer excursion took the folks to the Bandia Wildlife Reserve , 40 miles out of Dakar. You would see very old baobab trees here. These trees can be 100 feet in circumference, making them the widest in the world. These bottle-shaped monsters can hold up to 318 gallons of water. The inner bark also provides fiber for ropes. Their flowers open at night, and are pollinated by bats. Legend has it that the baobab was cursed, pulled from the ground, and planted upside down.
For those of us that did not book a tour, we assumed that by taking the free shuttle would be a good start for our normal walkabout. In retrospect, this was a place to take an organized tour. The small shuttle buses took us to Place de la Independence, a 10 minute ride out of the port to the center of the downtown city. Waiting until the bulk of the tour buses left, we went off after 10am. There was a massive craft market on the pier, but we would have time later to check it out.
So we got on the bus, which took about 10 minutes to take us uphill in traffic to our drop-off point. Normally, we are taken to a central area of the city, surrounded with cafes, restaurants, and hotels. Nice hotels. Not so today. Besides the city’s largest main park, this place was run down, and almost deserted. With one big exception. There were “barnacles”, those people that stick to you like glue, offering to take you anywhere you wished to go. Even escort you to the shopping district, which was 10 blocks away. Not just a few of these imposing fellows, but a dozen of them.
Not looking good, we were hassled every two feet, by a number of unsavory-looking but intimidating young local men. Some were selling stuff we did not want. Anything to part you from whatever money we had with us. Tomorrow we would hear scary stories of what happened to some of the passengers and crew alike. More about that later.
One thing we did buy was a Senegal t-shirt for $5, before we dove back on the waiting shuttle with most all of the guests we came here with. Some pushy vendors followed us into the bus with offers of expensive perfume and more trinkets. The driver told them to get off, and he quickly closed the bus door, and off we went. Honestly, we felt like we had just been fed to the lions.
To be fair, we did learn later in the day, that there was a nice hotel not too far from this park. However, when all of us asked these locals, they said no hotel was near there. Instead, they wanted us to pay them to escort us elsewhere. Even the handful of crew members did not go off in search of their internet venture. Figuring that we would find a market selling the same things that were on the pier, then why not go back there and see what was available.
And that is what we did…..peruse the treasures at the pier. Not that we needed anything, it is always free to look, right? Stone necklaces were on every sheet on the ground, and it was easy to find one that went perfectly with my blouse. Wood carvings abounded….and nice ones at that. We do have a conservative collection of African warriors and matching mates. So when a nice, sturdy pair was spotted, the bargaining began. This is part of the fun, we think. The vendors here were not too pushy, and we figured they would know their bottom line, where they were making enough on their items, and settled for a fair price. So we ended up with a pair of ironwood carvings of a warrior, complete with arrows and a pitch fork, smoking a pipe. He has a female counter part, in native costume. Good thing our luggage is not weighed when it is shipped back home. This was our last chance to find such exotic carvings, so we will have a better memory of our visit here. One of the wooden masks also found its way into our possession. It is called a queen mask, complete with hair made from bamboo. Compared to some of the wild-looking scary masks, this one is almost attractive. Once back on the ship, we never left again.
Keeping busy with photos, we enjoyed a lunch of Dive In food again, since the dining room was closed today at noon. The sail away was at 5:30pm, so we went up to deck nine to get panoramic photos of the area we mostly did not see. There was a lot of bird activity however, so we did get some good shots of the black kites, cormorants, egrets, vultures, and some tiny canaries.
Once again, we were delayed while we waited for some late buses, and a late local pilot. Finally pulling out of the dock, we passed by Ile de Goree, getting some close-up shots of the former island where so many natives were transported across the Atlantic Ocean. Terribly horrible history, but it is a nice-looking island a mere two miles off of the mainland.
We were now heading towards the last stop in this part of the world……Cape Verde.
Most of us were present for dinner, sharing stories of the day. Most of them took tours, and one of them was a trip to the Bandia Reserve with many animals of Africa roaming on 2500 acres. At least Ken got out of the rat race in the city to see the desert countryside, as well as the Pink Lake. Barb had gone with her dance hosts buddies, only to turn around and come back to the ship like we did. Attempting to hire a driver to take them on a short tour never worked out for them either. Not giving up yet, the trio walked towards the nearest market called Marche Kermel. They ran into a lady, who had lost the group she was with. Worried about how she would get back to the ship, Barb and her buddies escorted her back to the pier. She was most happy. Brenda had done a city highlight tour, and did see the main attractions of the city in the safety of the bus. Back at the pier, she also checked out the crafts, telling the vendors that she looked going one way, then might buy on the way back…..a new line she learned today. It worked, as they gladly allowed her to look.
We do know that there were a few negative things that happened today with guests and crew, but we would find out more tomorrow. We both agreed we were glad to have stopped here, but it would be a one-time thing for us. Perhaps we did not see the higher end of society in Dakar, but someone made a remark that this would be worse than a third world country in their minds.
Instead of a performance in the Queen’s Lounge, they showed a 2 hour 45 minute movie, The Legend of 1900, about a baby boy discovered in 1900 on an ocean liner, who grows up to become a pianist, never setting foot on land. Entertaining fiction, of course.
Good news – the clocks went back one hour. We are now only six hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time.
Bill & Mary Ann
We will find some treasures later
Vendor at the city’s largest main park
Many faces of Senegal
Queen mask of Senegal
