This morning there was no power when I woke up, so I'll post this tonight while there is power.
Tomorrow morning I'm heading to Guinea-Bissau. This is one of the lesser developed countries in West Africa. No ATMs which is why I made 2 trips in the last two days taking out the maximum. Also, the power there is not reliable and the internet is probably going to be spotty. Also it will be raining. Ugh!!! And they speak not French or English, but Portuguese. Oh well. I'll try to get to Guinea as soon as possible. If I like Bissau enough, I might pick up my Mali visa there, otherwise, it'll have to wait till Conakry.
So bye bye, Senegal. You are an amazing country! I think you are like America was in the 1880's. The same spirit and the same level of development. I look forward to recounting my memories of you in the rest of my years.
August 17, 2008 20:56 Senegalese local time
2 comments:
WARNING!!! Guinea-Bissau has been a hot spot for drug smuggling and narcocrime for several years: many remote beaches, no real police force to speak of, so the drugs are shipped there from South America and rerouted to Europe by land. This is *not* a place for tourists. Be *extremely* wary of any local who speaks English and remember that some of the "Americans" you meet there are actually wanted by the FBI.
And finally, Guinea-Bissau is in the middle of a cholera epidemic, kind of endemic there anyway. (Didn't you check the news????)
Good luck!
Just back from there.
I traveled in Guinea-Bissau for about a week in 2003 (I was an American student in Senegal at the time), would be happy to give you some tips. Email me: cfarivar [at] cfarivar [dot] org
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