The first distinction of the day was to have had the worst coffee I the world for breakfast. Bought other foodstuffs off the tops of people's heads, at stations. Spent a couple of hours in the middle of the day, sitting on the steps between cars, riding in the open air. The day was sunny and I enjoyed watching the world fly past. We arrived at Dakar, Senegal, about 2pm-- earlier than I had figured. My roommate had, as is the custom on train trips, bought stocks along the way and by the end of the trip, our cabin was overflowing with fruit, cola nuts, brooms, boxes and three live chickens!I quickly found the tourist bureau, which was still in siesta, so I toured a bit. Referring to the guidebook I brought, I started looking at cheap hotels, meanwhile inquiring at any I saw. There's such an overwhelming lack of vacancies that I took the first one I found. Normally a $20 room, knocked down to $16 because the A/C was out, it's the most luxurious room I've had yet, with a private bathroom as big as some bedrooms I've had in Morocco. After settling and resting, I found the tourist bureau open and got some literature on the town. I was pleased to find several bookstores with novels in English, but most of these were trashy romances, detective stories, etc.-- almost gave up when my diligence was rewarded with a copy of Gulliver's Travels, something I've recently wanted to read.
Dakar seems to be modeled after Paris, with its big, modern boulevards, expensive sidewalk cafés, etc. and there are many French who live and work here. Between Swift and the International Herald Tribune, I read myself to sleep.PHOTO CREDIT 1
PHOTO CREDIT 2
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