I got up this morning and it was OK out. So I decided to take one last walk around the perimeter of Saint Louis. Then I went back in, showered, packed, and said goodbye to Richard and Andreas. I had to wake them up since they partied quite late last night. ;-)
The total was about 18000 CFA (US$36) for three nights and a breakfast. Not bad at all. Then I walked toward the bridge until a taxi passed. He quoted 1000 CFA to take me to the gare routier and I accepted. This time I would take a sept-place and not some bus that fills up slow and makes lots of stops. A sept-place is a seven seater. It seats, in addition to the driver, 1 in front, 3 in the middle, and 3 in the rear.
When I got to the sept-place, I was the last passenger. I got the left rear seat. A kid was next to me and he kept leaning into me because he was afraid of the cute girl on the other side. I paid 5600 CFA (US$11) and we were on our way in no time. It was 9-ish. We first stopped for gas where I noticed the driver paid 813 CFA per liter. That's like $1.60 per liter or about $7 per gallon. Yikes!
The highway was not to crowded. We made good time passing all sorts of stuff until about noon where we got close to Dakar. Then we hit the Dakar noon rush traffic. We stopped and the mango sellers came. I thought we weren't doing this with the sept-places. In fact, we weren't. The cute girl was at her stop. She got out and the kid and I got to spread out a bit. :-)
The ride was relatively cool. There was cloud cover most of the morning and with the windows open, the breeze was cool. We were only stopped by the police one time.
They let me off in front of the Gare Routier Pompiers at about 1pm, and I walked to the Hotel Provençial hoping for a room--preferably the same room with the free WiFi from the bar next door. Voila! I got it! So I uploaded my Saint Louis blogs, checked up on the blogs I read, managed some email, etc. It's so nice to have WiFi.
Right after I got my room, I needed water and an Orange Fanta. I haven't had water since last night when I drank 1.5 liters right after coming back from the yummy Vietnamese place. I went to the Total where they keep bottles in the freezer but none were super cold. Then when I got to the front of the line, they had a shift change. I sat there watching them count money while I was dying of thirst. Finally I could pay, but I only had a 5000 CFA bill and they couldn't take that because the new shift doesn't start with enough money. So I just back to the end of the line. By the time I got to the front again, they could let me pay with a 5000 CFA note. I left the store and had Orange Fanta. It was the best Orange Fanta I ever had in my life.
August 9, 2008 17:23 Senegal local time
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