Saint Louis

I had a chance to walk around a bit of Saint Louis.  It's a small place--at least the island part.  There seem to be more flies than there were in Dakar.  It is roughly laid out in a grid and has 3 bridges.  There is one street with most of the restaurants and a bunch of tourist shops.  There are a few internet cafe's though I haven't had a chance to stop in yet.  (Right now it is about 33°C or 90°F inside and it's sunny outside.  So I don't really feel like heading out to find the internet.  I'm content just doing my blogs on my laptop.)  The city was once the capital of Senegal and Mauritania and was laid out by the French and still has buildings in the French colonial style.

On the west side of the river is a fishing village that looks like a shanty-town.  I'll probably check it out today or tomorrow when it's not so hot.

Since a lot of tourists come here, there is the usual assortment of hustlers.  One guy started to talk to me, but fortunately, I was right by the hostel and escaped him there--he did come into the lobby, claiming to be a friend of the manager.  I've been able to nip a few attempts to accost me in the bud.  I'm getting better at the firm "stay out of my way" stance.  I no longer feel like I'm being rude to merchants who are constantly trying to get me into their stores to buy stuff I don't want or need.

I have heard muezzins calling people to prayer here in Saint Louis for the first time since leaving Morocco.  There is a Grand Mosque not far from our hostel so we hear it all night long.

One benefit of the heat is that I'm able to dry my laundry pretty quickly.  I did 2 shirts, a pair of pants, a pair of socks, and underwear this morning at about 10am.  I put them out in the sun.  By 1pm, they were dry.  The shirts and pants, at least.  I didn't put the socks and underwear out.  That Mir Express hand washing detergent is amazing.  Just a little detergent and it just pulls out the dirt and sweat.  And it rinses easily.

I just sort of did a back and forth sweep of most of the streets in the afternoon.  I had to shake off a few hustlers and merchants trying to get my attention so they could smooth-talk me into their store, but I'm getting good at just ignoring them and waving but looking like I'm not in the mood for shopping.

One merchant was in the youth hostel and tried to show me his jewelry--necklaces and bracelets, but I gave up after about 2 minutes because I wasn't going to buy any and he was wasting his time.

August 7, 2008 22:00 Senegal local time