June 19 – Dakar, Senegal

Weather – 27º

here we are

Steps – 6,122

Humidity – 79%

Country #101!

This morning we disembarked the additional security team that has been with us since South Africa – I take that to mean we are in a safer part of Africa. As I mentioned when I talked about heightened security a while back, we are never, worried – EVER about our safety on Regent. I suspect I’d feel the same on any cruise line. No team of 5 pirates wanted to take over a ship full of 600 passengers and as many crew. Plus, no cruise line wants to be hijacked.

supervising sail in

I know Regent brings on the additional security team it to cover themselves, but that ultimately helps us. We talked to a staff person recently about Regent’s insurance and how

Dakar street life

on a day-to-day basis in some parts of the world it’s all about how much it would take to insure going into some ports – Middle East depending on the situation (or not even)…expensive…Mediterranean, less so. Obviously, there are other factors that go into to it, but when the bottom line is involved, that increases my safety.

We originally scheduled to dock at 11AM with our tour out at 12:15; however, due to the strong current and offloading the security team, we ended up docking at 3:30. Fine with us.

We booked “Highlights of Dakar” which was only supposed to be 4hrs and was shortened to 3. No problem, poop happens. In fact, very little poop of any

significance has happened during the last month and a half. Maybe I shouldn’t tempt fate, but we’re almost done and so far, pretty much everything has been as scheduled.

African Renaissance Monument

Dakar kids

We spent the morning and early afternoon on the deck. I managed to drag myself to the gym again…will I ever want to go to the gym? Then we ordered room service.

We were debating whether to stay and have room service or go out for breakfast. We opted to stay in – we figured, this way we would get to talk to Saravanan. We haven’t seen him for a few days. Like the last time we ordered breakfast he thanked us! Sheesh Saravanan, let us thank you! Chris had an omelet; I had avocado toast with poached eggs. 

Dakar's Grande Mosque

I’m kinda getting into poached eggs (Mom, can you believe it??). I always like an eggs Benedict, and in the main restaurant here for dinner there is an always available appetizer of a breadcrumb coated and fried poached egg, in a parmesan/truffle sauce – wow, is it delicious, I’ve had it twice! Add to that the eggs on my avocado toast…I’m eating eggs!

Senegal is the western most country in West Africa, pop: 19 mil. Official language is French, 98% are Muslim, the capital is Dakar, pop: 4mil.

called a 'fast bus' Messa says it isn't

We weren’t really hungry for lunch (plus we are eating so, so much and could use to miss a meal) so we decided to just get a snack from the Coffee Connection. From first thing in the morning until 6PM, the Coffee Connection has small bites to eat – in the morning…cereal, fruit, yogurt, nuts, pastry, toast, bagels – in the PM…cold cuts, cheese, fruit, sweets, toast, bagels etc. All self-serve.

La Gazelle beer

Today’s tour was panoramic, described as “settle in for a revealing drive through the capital of Senegal with stops at Dakar’s traditional and contemporary attractions.” Yup, that was pretty accurate.

Because we were late arriving our tour was cut short by an hour. We lost one stop and the others we had to sprint.

Dakar is a big city, this is obvious as soon as we left the port – narrow streets, many cars (although Messa, the guide said it was a light traffic day), busses, and lots of people.

art in progress

Chris and I tried to strategize about seats on the bus. Typically, as I’ve mentioned, we like to be at the back. Most people sit as close to the front as

completed work

they can – unless you have mobility issues, I don’t get that as long as the bus has a sound system and you can hear. Sitting at the back means you’ll be off last - sometime the bus has a back door – today it did. We also wondered if there would be a mic. We opted for the back of the bus and although the bus was packed, there were a few empty seats. As soon as the doors close and we are on the go, we split up – never far from each other, but behind or across, today Chris was behind me. We also wondered about the AC, as soon as we got on it was meat locker cold – nice at

about to jump on!

first, after a while even I was a bit chilly – the driver adjusted. I will never, EVER complain about the AC being too much on an African bus…EVER!!

Highlights of our race through the city were the 52 metre African Renaissance Monument - Africa’s tallest statue. We only stopped for 10-minutes, or we would have climbed the stairs to the base of

so many shoes

the statue. If we had stopped longer, we would have bought a beer too. There was a café/ restaurant next to the statue. Knowing that Senegal was 98% Muslim, we wondered if we’d be able to find a local beer, but this place had beer.

There were various non-aggressive hawkers when the multiple busses emptied at the base of the statue – beads, sunglasses, hats…the usual. There was also a gaggle of kids with their hands out. Not sad looking kids, but kids who figure one of us is bound to give

cultural show

them something. Kids whose parents I assume worked in the restaurant or were the hawkers. As soon as the kids got too close to any of us for too long one of the guides would shoo them, and they’d run away laughing hysterically. Then when his back was turned, back they came…and the game went on and on. He even threw a rock at them at one point and they still laughed hysterically....ah, kids.

cultural show

Messa kept mentioning that Senegalese people value physical fitness, I thought he was overselling it until we arrived in the Fann Cornich district and saw many, many people running, and doing all kinds of activity – mostly men, but some women.

This is another thing we noticed. While most people on the streets were men, there were plenty of women too – again, being a Muslim country, we wondered. We’ve visited Muslim countries and often all you see are men and boys.

Dakar street scene

The affluent Fann Cornich area is home to the Door of Millennium - built in 2000 to symbolize Senegal’s entry into the new millennium. The university is in this area too – 70,000 students! This area is a contrast to the port area/downtown. Here the streets are wider, and buildings are newer.

fruit sellers

Senegal has many colours of sand – we visited an artist’s studio where art is made from this sand. The sand sticks to the board by using sap from the baobab tree. Basically, the artist painted the scene with sap and then tossed sand over the sap starting with dark and ending with the lightest sand. Then he knocked the excess sand off and voila…art! The entire process took about 5 minutes! Super interesting.

The artist studio was also a comfort stop. I think I may have missed my calling as a washroom attendant. I ended up holding a cane, a cellphone (where I caught glimpses of

downtown

ENDLESS texts – I didn’t need to see, but the font was so big I couldn’t help it), holding doors closed and dishing out toilet paper. All the while, Chris was waiting for me beer in hand. Good thing he only got one beer…we had 10 min to guzzle it. We drank a La Gazelle …Senegal’s local beer - $2USD.

The requisite cultural show was our next stop. I’ve grown to love these stops…no audience participation, and always interesting.

Another thing we noticed in Dakar was that people were selling things EVERYWHERE! From actual store fronts to carts with mangos, to a small mats with peanuts (Senegal’s largest food export) there were small shacks, movable carts, trucks, and people selling behind tables…entrepreneur-ness was all around.

Dakar street scene

BTW, I paid attention to the fruit…apples, oranges, bananas, pears, mangos.

Another interesting thing I saw on the street were small set ups frying eggs and tomatoes. I

mangos

didn’t see the final product, so I don’t know what it would be, but super interesting.

There were also numerous stalls selling popcorn. Not popcorn in a bag, but popcorn in small bucket type containers (like you’d see at home.) I was dying for some, unfortunately none for me.

downtown building

Other than the sprinting aspect of today’s tour which was a bummer, it was the kind of tour I like – multiple things to see, accompanied by a drive through the city. Other than a walking tour – this works for me.

For dinner tonight I had the ‘destination dish’. I try to have a local dish as much as I can. Tonight was an African chicken with couscous, called chermoula. Sounds fine, but, wow, it was so tasty! Chris had a beef stir-fry that is a Regent staple, it’s always good, but
could use some spice…he got our waiter to bring him a couple of sliced red chilis – I added them to mine too and we were able to finish the whole plate – feeling like real heros…impressing the staff who hail from spice loving countries.

little boats and big boats

Senegal

Because the tours came back so late, the buffet opened for a casual dinner where the dress code didn’t apply. I’m not a fan of jostling and standing to serve myself, so we rarely (maybe never) go to any buffet for dinner. It wasn’t that hard for us to take a quick
shower and change for dinner. The restaurant was quiet and calm…nice. Albert our waiter, even had some time to chat – the wait staff is usually so busy chatting is hard.

We turned our clocks back an hour, woot! Unfortunately, day after tomorrow we will have to turn our forward one hour for 2 nights…that’ll be tough!