On Friday I headed into Thies in the late afternoon after a meeting with Ecole 4 about Junior Achievement. Much to Alyssa's dismay, I missed watching the royal wedding that morning in Thies and my attempt to look at pictures online did not appease her. She forgave me though and the girls and I made a delicious dinner before hitting the hay in preparation for our early morning departure.
Day 1: South of the Border
Early Saturday morning we were all up early and at the garage in Thies. We somehow managed to immediately get a car (this would be the first in a long string of shockingly fortunate transportation occurrences) and were in Kaolack in a few hours. After switching cars in the Kaolack garage it was on to Farafenni which is the border crossing between Senegal and The Gambia. We were stopped by passport control, and although I tried to put the schmooze on and convince the customs officials that we didn't need visas because we were special, my effort was to no avail. After a couple hours waiting to purchase them, we had visas in hand and crossed the border to head east. Our one quandary was attempting to exchange money which proved to be difficult since banks are all closed on Saturday afternoons and conveniently lock up all of their ATMs. We exchanged money with some sketchy dude on a corner and then headed east.
We reached our destination of Georgetown in the late afternoon (or, in the local language Jangjangbureh which is way more fun to say). Georgetown is actually on a large island in the middle of the Gambia river, so we took a little boat across and met a couple of local Gambians who insisted they help us find a campement to stay in. Since we had no reservations and no clue really of where to stay, we took them up on the offer and they led us all over town showing us various lodging. One place was the "Governer's Rest House" which was a building in the yard of the governor's mansion and had creepy bedrooms with bright pink satin bedspreads (no thanks). The place we ended up staying was quaint and super cheap; it had running water which was really all that we could ask for at that point since showers were desperately needed.
We also negotiated a boat tour for the next day with the guides who had helped us find lodging. Our original plan was to hire a boat to the local chimpanzee rehabilitation center which is on an island further down the river. Turns out that island was over four hours away and the trip would have been astronomically expensive. After brief disappointment, we agreed to hire the boat for a couple hours in the early morning to take us through the nature preserve close by. We were promised we would see baboons and hippos. After a delicious chicken dinner and cocktails, it was off to bed.
Day 2: Sandbar Hippo Party
Early the next morning, we were up and ready to go see all of the supposed wildlife we had heard about. Our boat was, hands down, one of the best parts of the trip. We lovingly nicknamed it Apocalypse Now, because if you've ever seen the movie you can picture our boat in your head. How a boat made out of what appears to be scrap metal floats down a river is beyond me.
Apocalypse Now?
When we had made boat tour arrangements the day before and the guide promised us hippos, we all were very skeptical. He also specifically said "you will see hippos jumping around on a sandbar." I had immediately burst out laughing because I just pictured some musical number from a full length animated Disney movie and could hardly believe that happens in real life. But, down the river we went nonetheless, willing to enjoy the beautiful morning anyways.
After over an hour, with one sighting of a few monkeys, and many sightings of hippo shaped logs and garbage, we were just about to tell the guide to turn the boat around. Then all of a sudden the guide stopped the boat and cruised over to the shoreline and pointed into the forest. We were only a few meters away from a giant troop of baboons running all over the place through the bushes. They were fascinating to watch. Male baboons are really huge up close, and the babies were rolling around tackling each other. I had to believe they felt intruded upon as the males were growling at us and did not look too happy.
The guide insisted we continue on a bit, and we happily obliged, feeling satisfied with the baboon sighting. Then we rounded a bend in the river and the guide pointed in the distance: "hippos!" The boat cruised up to a sandbar where a family of hippos was hanging out in the water. We got about as close as we could without being reckless since hippos are actually extremely dangerous in the wild. And one of them was literally jumping on the sandbar. I could not believe it and probably could have just sat there watching them for hours. I don't think I will ever grow out of my love for animals, especially in the wild, and I'm completely okay with that. We watched in astonishment until the guide finally told us it was time to head back.
even though you can't really tell, that's a hippo!
When we reached Georgetown again, it was time to start another full day of transportation hopping. The objective of the day was to make it all the way to the west coast and the capital of Banjul by nightfall, and we barely accomplished this. From our Apocalypse Now boat, we took a several hour sept-place back to Farafenni where we were the day before, transfered into a rusted out mini bus to the river crossing, took a ferry south across the Gambia river, transfered into another scary mini bus, stopped at a garage to find transportation to Banjul, then took another mini bus for about 4 hours over the bumpiest, dirtiest road in the country all the way to Banjul, and then finally a taxi to the Peace Corps regional house. We were absolutely filthy and I think we actually scared the Gambian volunteers who were in the house when we busted in covered in dirt and sweat. A shower has never felt so good.
As a reward for being such heroic travelers, we went out to Chinese food for dinner. Chinese food in three different African countries: check. On the way to and from the restaurant, it was really interesting to observe how Banjul compares to anything in Senegal. It is much, much smaller than Dakar, but overall I would say appears to be more developed. The Gambia ranks 20 spots higher in worldwide development rankings compared to Senegal and one can see subtle differences that makes this true. The roads are definitely nicer, actual working traffic lights exist, and there appears to be a lot of investment in corporate developments like strip malls and the like.
Full of Chinese food and exhausted from all day traveling, we called it an early night.
Day 3: "It's Nice To Be Nice"
The third day of our trip was our only "free day" that did not involve heavy traveling. We spoke with several Gambian volunteers and they gave us some advice on where to go and what to see. We took a cab into Banjul, which was about as exciting as any Senegalese city tends to be. We saw the infamous "big arch" which is....just a big arch. After walking around the tourist market which proved to be full of Senegalese imports and highly unimpressive, we took a walk along the beach. The beach was actually really beautiful, and would have been very relaxing if not for the Gambian "bumsters" who would not leave us alone. We've all grown accustomed to just ignoring random advances from strangers, but these guys were pros at being unrelenting. They kept chiding us for not talking with them and continued to repeat "it's nice to be nice" which I could not help finding hilarious and said it during the rest of the trip. We had our fill of Banjul and headed back to the area where the Peace Corps house is located to grab lunch (delicious pizza and garlic bread! Is it sad how much of what I write about revolves around food?)
Later in the afternoon we went out to a bar that sat right on the water with several Gambian volunteers. The view was spectacular and we watched the sun set while all sorts of fishing boats brought in their late afternoon catches.
It was great to swap Peace Corps stories and it sounds like several of the volunteers we met will be making their way to Senegal at some point so we promised to hook them up with contacts. We headed back towards the regional house and made a bee-line for the infamous Mexican restaurant that several of our friends back in Senegal had raved about. Trying not to have high expectations, we were actually pretty impressed with the food, although it was overpriced. But still: Mexican food! I can't wait until I am on the same continent as the real thing.
Having already made a pact to go big or go home, we headed to the main bar/club neighborhood called SeneGambia in hopes of finding some random Gambian nightclub with our names on it. However, we were struggling really hard to overcome a food coma and the lack of a social scene. I'm not sure why we expected there to be massive crowds out on a Monday night after a national holiday. But we rallied anyways! I got the inside scoop from a bartender and off to Aquarius we went, which is supposed to be the best club on the block. There were zero people when we arrived and we all burst out laughing. That did not deter us, and we danced the night away. I think the club eventually hit double digits, but the dance floor was basically us and some awkward Gambian guys and we could not have cared less. I also found it amusing that we could watch CNN on a giant TV screen behind the DJ instead of music videos. CNN while dancing to house music is my idea of a good time.
Day 4: Still....Traveling
Staying out really late knowing you need to be up at 5:30 to head home always seems like a good idea at the time. The next morning was quite rough. With a solid three hours of sleep behind us, we were at the ferry terminal by 6:45 and luckily got tickets on the first ferry of the morning to cross from Banjul to the northern bank of the Gambia river. This would have been totally fine, but the ferry took forever. And instead of being seated in a seat on the actual ferry, we had to buy seats on a crazy old scrap metal mini bus on the deck of the ferry to make sure we had transport once on the other side. Rocking back and forth for several hours inside a death trap after a night out is not fun by any stretch of the imagination.
Finally we reached the other side, made our way to the border crossing, and then hired a donkey cart to take us to the garage in Karang, Senegal. I really wanted to somehow ride a train on this trip so I could literally cross off every type of transportation in a four day time frame. Alyssa and I were shocked to learn that there were direct cars to Thies, so we miraculously bought the last two seats. After a 5ish hour journey to Thies, and then a car to Pout, I made it back home Tuesday night and collapsed into bed. It was a great trip, although a bit of a whirlwind, and I'm glad my friends and I were able to see The Gambia before heading home.
Now I'm ready to tackle May and will be starting my last set of Junior Achievement classes tomorrow. Last night I invited the Peace Corps trainees who live in Pout over to my house for a salad and mango smoothie party: equal parts fun and delicious. I forgot how wonderful a mango smoothie can be! They'll be swearing in as official volunteers next week, which is crazy because it means I am that much closer to finishing up.
Cheers from Senegal!
It's nice to be nice.
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