Bonjour-Mundo!

Hey all,

I have successfully made it to Morocco. Nothing too exciting to report as of yet, except for the ticket agent in Dakar who tried to tell me my ticket reservation wasnt vaild. Brief heartattack on my part; but after a strong talking to; he magically made it valid again; hmmm. We have been in Casablanca for a few hours and will leave for Marakesh tomorrow morning. Casablanca is one big huge city, kind of similiar to Madrid, but definitely more of a middle eastern feel. We tried to find this enormous mosque earlier, but were very unsuccessful. We got to see a little of the Moroccan countryside from the plane and taking the train into the city this morning, and it was really beautiful. I expected more of a desert, but everything was incredibly green and covered with these brilliant orange wildflowers.

I am excited to see what the rest of the country has to offer. Our route will take us from here to Marakesh, possibly in the atlas mountains, a daytrip to some waterfalls (I forget the name); essouria on the coast, up to El Jadida, and back to Casablanca.

My time in Senegal is flying by, hard to believe I will be headed to Morocco in 3 short days. Things are still going well, aside from a little upset stomach, and I have been very pleased with my trip thus far. The Senegalese continue to be an incredibly welcoming people and it has been wonderful to experience all their great hospitality.

In the past few days Emily and I took a quick boat ride to Isle de NDor spent time with her host family as well as Lamines family, and also took a trip up north to a city called Saint Louis (pronounced San Lew EE). NDor was beautiful. Its just a tiny island off the coast of Dakar and we spent the day just laying on the beach and enjoying the sunshine. We also had the most amazing shrimp of my life at this cute little restaurant on the water.

Our trip to Saint Louis was for sure a cultural one for me, as we stayed with a friend of a friend Emily knows. I had been told we might have to chance to stay in this big huge house, but instead where we ended up was more of a concrete block with a sand filled courtyard of sorts and no running water. With the exception of one particularly annoying man; the family was very sweet though and insisted on cooking us meals and sharing their home with us. They had two very cute little babies as well which kept em and I entertained. The pace of life in the village where they lived was definitely very slow, and as much as I tried, I still found myself getting a little ancy.

When we managed to get away from the house where we were staying we went into town in Saint Louis and enjoyed the sights and shops it had to offer. We took a little horse carriage ride around town and it was very interesting to see the different sides of the city. One half is paved roads with french colonial buildings, lots of little shops and not too many people on the street. If you cross one short little bridge accross the river and head into the fishermans village; the difference is night and day. Here everything is dirt and sand, people crowd the streets. The little children jumped up and down as they saw as chanting Toobab, Toobab! (White person, white person) The houses are concrete slabs not much more then a room or two, and telephone lines tangled above the roofs in disordered fashion. The people seemed to smile, but the poverty was extremely evident. We walked out to the beach and there were stacks and stacks of dried fish and fish remains, a very weird sight. Apparently some of this gets shipped all over senegal and some even to Europe.

In addition to touring the town we also went to a bird park a bit more north still of Saint Louis. Although I thought it was a bit over priced, it was fun to see. We took a boat out into this huge lake area and saw lots of pelicans, an eagle of African sorts, other assorted birds, a warthog on the shore, and quite a few crocodiles. We also a huge python curled up on the shore when we were getting out of our boat.

The trip to and from Saint Louis was in a sept place, or 7 person station wagon, an african cultural experience to be had. The way there went fine, but coming homle involved lots of traffic and a very sore back for me. But we made it; and I was glad to get some travel outside Dakar.

My time is running low, but I will try to get one more post in before we leave for Morocco. I hope you all are well; I love getting your emails from home.

Lots of love from Senegal!

The past two days have been great! The night before last we attended a concert of Senegalese music and had a great time. The band had two vocalists, two acoustic guitars, one electric, bongos and a regular drumset. Although I enjoyed the music. the people who got up and danced where almost more entertaining for me…they included one guy, who emily aptly described as dancing like a rubberband, some other senegalese aomen, and perhaps most entertaining of all…the 60 or so year old french woman, man could she get her groove on! 😉

Yesterday was probably one of my most favorite days so far and what brought about the title of todays post. First we took a ferry to an island off the coast of dakar, an old slave post known as goree island. It was incredibly peaceful and beautiful. The water was a perfect blue and was even more set off by the colorful buildings. There are no cars or motorbikes on the island so everything is a bit more relaxed then dakar. We wandered through the streets, sat and enjoyed the sunshine and the birds flying overhead, took lots of pictures…hopefully I can get them on here soon!; had lunch; and I successfully bargained for a really nice ebony mask.

 After goree, we returned to emilys for a quick nap, then we took a taxi to this neighborhood called medina to meet emilys friend laye. Medina is a sight to see in itself, a very poor area of dakar. The smell in the air is not exactly roses, and the garbage overflows in parts. Children are playing everywhere and soccerballs are kicked up and down. Along the central street there are market stalls that seem to go on forever. The market is strangly juxtaposed however with a bright and shining rainbow foods like grocery about halfway down that we bought dinner in one night. It is the oddest sight.

In any case, last night after we finally found laye, he gathered up a bunch of supplies while we waited in his familys home. Then he took us down to where the locals buy their fish. Emily has talked about this market on the other blog and it truly is wonderful. Its right on the beach and happens as the fishermen bring in their catch in the early evening. First we walked through where all the boats are piled up. Huge dugout canoes; all painted in bright wonderful colors; just like the mini busses that drive around town. Then you pass into the fish part, and man are their fish. Tables and tables and bowls and plates and aisles of fish. All fresh caught and all sorts of sizes and colors. We worked our way down to the bottom and the fish are layed out on steel plates in the sand with the waves rolling in behind them. It was almost as if they had washed up from the sea just for us to eat. Laye picked us out a bunch and then we headed up to get small baggies of sauce and some onion and cucumber. After walking a little further down the beach, we found ourselves a spot and laye proceded to start a fire and set the fish upon our little grill. We cut up the vegetetables and he mixed them with the sauces. And then as soon as the fish were cooked we had ourselves a picnic listening to the waves crash and the pebbles roll back with the tide. It was delicious.

I am enjoying Senegal more and more each day. Things are going very well, and I am so lucky to have such an excellent tour guide! Thanks to Em!

Today was my first real experience with the market in downtown Dakar. It was for sure an interesting site.  Lots of people selling everything from oranges and tomatoes to irons and fake pumas (em got a really cute pink pair). I love seeing everything all laid out to buy, especially the foods. A guy even pulled up while emily was looking at shoes and unloaded an entire truck of particularly slimy looking huge fish, grouper I think they said. (Hopefully it wasn’t the same fish I ate yesterday at lunch!)

I absolutely love watching the crowds, the people and their way of life. The patterns of clothes are bright and colorful and everyone we met has been extremely friendly. We started off this afternoon going fabric shopping. Emily has found herself a few guys who act sort of as guides to bring us through the various stalls. Apparently this leads to less hasseling.

We found a shop…well a room of sorts, selling the type of fabric we were looking for, something called indigo. Its just what it sounds like, fabric patterned in a deep blue almost purple. Emily had bought some in burkina faso, and I thought it would make a great skirt. So, after some hard bargaining on emily’s part we got what we wanted and headed to the tailor shop. I was also fascinated with the tailors as it was another room filled with about 10 men, not women, all working old school sewing machines. There was crazy fabric all over. He took our measurements and I am excited to see how things turn out. We will get our clothes (emily had a bunch of stuff made as well) when we return next week from saint louis. 

Otherwise, life has been good here so far. The food is good, lots of rice and sauces. Today was a couscous with a yummy onion sauce. We drove along the coast today as well, the surf was impressive, wonderfully picturesque crashing into the rocks. Tonight we are attending a concert of senegalese music, hopefully it will be fun. Tomorrow I believe we will be off to one of the islands.  I hope you are all doing well!

After 26 or so VERY long hours, I have finally arrived in Senegal, Dakar to be specific. So far; so good. The trip here was not the most fun and I arrived grimy and exhausted; but I made it. The flight from Madrid to Dakar was interesting as they drove us out to the plane , but then we couldnt get on until they loaded 4 men from the back of a police van onto the plane, then a french man ran around yelling because he thought his luggage wasnt being put on board…which then turned into half the plane freaking out, I had no clue what was going on. Luckily it was all a misunderstanding, and the spanish speaking senegalese man that was sitting next to me mananged to ask and explain everything to me. And luckily; all the luggqge mqde it in one piece. Crazy people. Emily picked me up along with Lamine…her senegalese boyfriend and a friend of his. We took a taxi back to her place and I crashed. There has been no electricity in her area for the past week or so, so needless to say there wasnt much to see when I got there around 11pm.

In the morning I saw her house, its very nice; big, and had adorable baby kittens in the courtyard. My first impressions of Dakar have been good. Its almost exactly like what I pictured an African city to be like in my head. A little dusty in parts, lots of cars and lots of people, lots of random animals….think goats and horse drawn buggy things. There are also lots of these very colorful mini bus things which we rode into town. Ecuador people, think of something kind of like a chiva from festivales de quito. Much of the development is run down, and the poverty in some places is very evident. There are random piles of stuff, garbage, tires, one plqce we drove by seemed to have a pile of old tvs.

The people have been very friendly and are understanding of my lack of french. So far Ive got one phrase in wolof.. mangi fii rekk, basically translated, i am fine.

Its been extremely interesting for me to just people watch, there is a pretty much even mixture of people in traditional clothes and those dressed in a more western style. Today the one white person we saw was wearing nothing but white mens briefs, a puffy bunny tail and bunny ears…hmm, no wonder they think we Americans are nuts.  There are women carrying goods on their head and people trying to get us to buy their wares. The market slogan is apparently if you cant find it here; you dont need it. And according to emily, its the truth. Hopefully I will see more of it soon…Alex, be prepared to bring stuff home for me 🙂

Allrighty, I hope you are all doing well, be sure to send me your address if you would like a postcard. The rest of the week we will be in dakar I believe; then we are going to some islands on the coast and a place called saint louis, I will try to keep the map updated. Keep in touch, even if I dont get the chanc eto respond to your email; I love to read them. Take Care! I will update again soon.

T-Minus 3 Days and counting! I will soon be in Senegal to join Ms Emily on our journey, I could not be more excited!! I am starting to think about packing…I made a list. But so far most stuff is just sitting in a pile on my floor waiting to be stuffed in my backpack. I’ve discovered that putting 4 months of supplies in 65 cubic liters is harder then I thought. Shoot. Oh well. In any case, hopefully it will all work out and I will be ready for my billion hour airport adventure and make it into Senegal on the evening of March 13th.

So hopefully this is where you will be able to keep up with me as I make my trip around the globe. We’ve got lots of fun adventures planned, from trekking in the Moroccan High Atlas, Semana Santa in Sevilla, Wine Tasting in Hungary, and hopefully all the crazy adrenaline filled fun we can handle/afford in New Zealand. The maps on the bottom right of the page will be updated as I travel, so you should be able to track our progress through each country.

Just a little background…Bonjour-Mundo, Em and I came up with this to represent our trip and the two of us. Bonjour for Emily and her French (hopefully will be very useful in Senegal and Morocco) and Mundo (world) for me and my Spanish, which I am very excited to use again in Spain. As Emily has put it so wonderfully on the other site…we’ve opted to take this trip after graduating because we would much rather avoid the “real world” of work by getting out and experiencing the actual real world. I hope you will all enjoy reading about our adventures and excursions, and maybe they will inspire you to do something similiar someday on your own. Or at least, hopefully it will give you something fun to read while sitting bored at work.

Besos y Abrazos,
Nicki

Emily and I out for a night on the town before our trip.