48 Hours in a Dakar Weekend

We've now been here for two full weeks, and we're starting to get the hang of weekends in Dakar.  It's a late night city with lots going on, and since these are the few days we have without French class, we're trying to soak up as much as we can on samedis and dimanches.  This weekend was a full-on mix of food, music, new friends, history, religion, and a little bit o' culture.

Friday night, we met up with a fellow San Franciscan, Courtney, who has been living in Senegal for four months.  After taking a one-bar commission from the chocolate gift pack we delivered from mutual friends, we had a lovely night of drinking South African wine and eating Dakar-style tapas at the north end of the peninsula.   Courtney wasn't our only new friend, as we realized that the restaurant is also the watering hole for some local turkeys (Dark Crystal, anyone?).  After dinner, Julienne and I peeled off for some live reggae. Note: we got to the club at 12:15am, the band went on at 12:45am and people started pouring in as we were leaving at 1:45am.

Sunday, we met up with Courtney again near the Palace du President for a day of tourist romps.  On our way to breakfast, we waved to octogenarian President Abdoulaye Wade and his motorcade, which apparently was co-sponsored by VW and Jeep.  Wade has been a frequent topic of conservations. The unilateral constitutional changes, a half-French son for a potential running mate and typical developing world cronyism to make for interesting election year pontificating with every person we meet. More on Wade in future blog entries, but we're sticking to just the happy haps for the weekend.

Sunday brunch at Patisserie Eric Kayser included pastries that were gleaming with sugar.  Courtney had pain du chocolate, Sara had a croissant aux abricots, and Julienne had a sesame roll with balsamic vinegar (?!?!?!)

After brunch, we commenced a short trip to Ile de Goree, a small island about 20 minutes by ferry from downtown Dakar.  When we arrived at the ferry terminal, the neon temperature display registered a miraculous 51 degrees C in the sun.  We were all stunned, as it didn't feel any hotter than 49.5.  The island is one of the few places in Dakar sans da cars, so it was a welcome respite.  The water was warm, the island was beautiful and the cat to person ratio was a low 1:1.  I can't believe it took us two weeks to swim, but it was well worth the wait.

Ile de Goree has some important historical significance, too.  One of the reasons that we were interested in traveling in West Africa was to deepen our understanding of the history of the Atlantic slave trade here.  The visit to Goree's Maison des Esclaves was our first glimpse of what a "point of no return" looked like, and we can just begin to imagine the larger slave 'castles' across the West Coast of Africa.

Merci, weekend, see you again in five.