Senegal

Driving into Senegal, the kids and people were a lot friendlier than even Mauritania. I got this feeling like we are finally in West Africa. We drove until dark to a great campground in St. Louis. It had great wifi and a little bar where the beer was cold and delicious. There is nothing like a very cold beer after a long and hot day in the truck. The cook group whipped up some pasta, I ate it and then shaved the boys hair. They made a man’s bet between the two of them. They actually look really good with shaved heads. After that I passed out early. Everyone else stayed up late drinking and having a good time. I would have stayed up and enjoyed the festivities but wanted to wake up at 4 AM and Gmail chat home. After a few hours of chatting, I downloaded the next game of thrones then got up made some coffee, and took a walk to the beach. The beach was magnificent. White sand beaches as far as the eye can see. Not a person in sight, only miles and miles of sand and garbage.  We left a short while later to Dakar.

We stayed at a hotel that offered camping. It was right on the beach, umbrellas and a bar no farther away than 100 yards. I unfortunately got the feeling that all my stuff would get stolen. Luckily for me Sarah upgraded to a hotel room and I was able to charge and store my stuff in her room. I owe her big time. The next day, I pack up my camera, Ben, Steph, Sarah, Nico and I took off to the city of Dakar… Wow! That’s all I can really say about Dakar. It’s completely madness, everyone trying to get your attention, trying to get you to follow them to stores, trying to show you were to go (they get commission if you buy something) For instance Ben wanted to get a haircut, there were two guys following us, trying to show us a warehouse where they make mumu’s. Ben stopped got a haircut and gave the guy and extra $2 for doing a good job. Both guys that were following us tried to get commission and almost ended up getting into WWIII. We were able to ditch them so that was refreshing. We found out the next day that all you need to do is smile and keep walking, don’t talk to them, don’t make eye contact just walk. This is of course really hard to do when you see something you are interested in. I was looking for a lightweight zip up track jacket for at nighttime against the mozzies and malaria. (Side note been taking Doxy for a week now and all good in the hood, last time I took it was bad… very bad nauseous, and running to the bathroom every 20 minutes) I would stop then there would be 10 people trying to get me to go every which way but the way I wanted to go. 3 hours of this and I was burnt out. Took the taxi back to the hotel, and spent the day relaxing on the beach. That night we went to a live music bar. I was hesitant to go because I didn’t want to spend the money on drinks. I heard beers were only $2 a beer and no cover charge. Everyone minus Carlos, and Tony took a 20 minute taxi ride to a Casino (slot machines only) and on the other side of the casino had this bar. The band was just setting up once we arrived. There were about 4 women all drinking sodas eying us once we went got inside. About 15 minutes later we had live local Senegalese music and the bar was packing up. More and more single beautiful women were coming into the bar. The reason why I keep mentioning there is there is no such thing as beautiful single women in Senegal. They were all prostitutes; it was a very interesting process. The women would come in order a cheap soda and sit at a table. The older geezer would come in and buy a prostitute a drink then talk a while. After that they would disappear. It’s a weird situation to me. Normally at a bar, or nightclub I would make eye contact with a girl, talk with her a while then go on my way. If I even made eye contact with the girls they would automatically think I was looking to buy. I spent the whole time bull shitting with Ben, and Nico keeping my eyes to myself. It was really cool because the beers were more expensive then I was told and Steph and Ben bought all my drinks telling me I needed to save my money for South Africa.

Two days later we left the beautiful beaches to the unknown. We were off to Guinea, all we heard was the roads were almost impassable. We drove a long day a good 12 hours to about 30km from the border of Guinea. We finally hit extremely hot weather. The temperatures were 100 degrees, and our bodies were diffidently not used to it. We passed this town called Madina Gounas it was probably the most spectacular event thing I have ever witness. It was Sunday and market day, and there were thousands and thousands of women all dressed up in their beautiful colorful dresses. All of them waving and smiling with everything imaginable balanced on their heads with kids wrapped in their shawls. It was absolutely unbelievable. At that moment, I knew I was at the right place at the right moment. I was traveling Africa driving to places normal people have never been to or even heard about. That night we free camped and it was our turn to cook. Ben, Steph and I cooked up a mean spicy stew. The head never got cooler than 80 degrees with zero wind to cool us. It was probably one of my worst night’s sleeps ever. I got 2 hours of sleep, then laid there sweating until 5 then feel asleep for another hours. The next day we were off to cross the border to Guinea.