The neighborhood of N’Gor of Dakar can be reached only by two roads, the rest is blocked by a large military airport. The place feels very different from downtown Dakar: it’s very rich, modern, and clean, and half of it is new development. Large billboards advertise split-level luxury condos that are in total contrast to…

I found it hard to find beauty in Senegal. Everything is simple, functional, and dusty. But N’Gor island is beautiful with its painted buildings, its artist, and its flowers. N’Gor sounds like a Star Trek species but it’s a neighborhood in the northwest of Dakar, with a small island a few hundred meters off its…

There are people who believe that Ramadan, the month-long Muslim fasting period, is threatening Western culture somehow. To me it looks the other way around – based on the ads I see in Dakar, Ramadan is turning into some kind of commercialized Black Friday. Welcome to Western culture. I was a bit afraid of Ramadan…

Saint-Louis is at the northern border of Senegal. It’s scenically located on two narrow parallel islands between the mainland and the Atlantic. A lot of colonial architecture has survived here, although sometimes crumbling. It gives the city charm, something that the utilitarian downtown of the capital Dakar lacks completely. It’s also quite clean, only the…

The name sounds like Dior but it’s another simple small village down the coast. No luxury here. I am staying with a local family in their simple home. There is little design, everything is practical. Things are stacked on the floor where necessary, plastic lawn chairs, curtains for doors, no windows in the rooms. The…

I had booked a guide recommended by the hotel in Mbour, so we took off in the morning. First to get supplies at the stinky market in Djifer, then we picked up kayaks and paddled for a long time through the mangroves in the delta. The guide had a big kayak stacked high with tents,…

In fact it is a baobab tree. They look different here than in the Madagascar movie.… Read the rest

Much of Senegal is in the Sahel zone, a dry band spanning Africa, and it shows. Most village and town streets are just sand, like on a beach. Few trees, savannah shrubs, or just large expanses of sandy fields. To find color and life you need to see the coast. Buildings are mostly cinderblocks, compacted…

It’s so amazingly quiet in my Mbour resort, I wanted to find out where all the tourists are. They are 6km to the north, in Saly, where the buffet hotels and French hypermarchés are. Saw people with white skin, and despite Ramadan the restaurants are open. I’ll spare you the pictures because I didn’t take…

Took an early bus to Mbour at the Atlantic coast. A little north is Saly, which is more popular, but it’s rather too touristy there for me, with its big buffet hotels. I found a wonderful tranquil resort right at the beach. To get on a bus, evem if it’s only a hundred kilometers, you…

The capital of Senegal doesn’t know what to do with tourists. They don’t get many. While Dakar is still a notch above Dhaka in Bangladesh, poverty and shantytowns are pervasive, making more modern neighborhoods feel like investor transplants airlifted in place. I do not feel welcome here but I didn’t let that stop me. The…

My first visit to Africa south of the Mediterranean countries! I am in Dakar, the capital of Senegal. It’s seriously warm here, the forecast says 27 degrees but it feels much warmer. I hear the calls from the mosque next door, people are out celebrating the sunset because it’s Ramadan and sunset marks the end…