Four of my friends and I decided to use our ten day spring break to visit La Petite Cote, a beachy touristy area. Here’s my review of the area and some tales of adventures:
The first two days and nights we spent in La Soumone, a sleepy beach town three hours south of Dakar. There, we made friends with locals and became famous at the only discotheque. We had a delicious meal of yassa poulet from the communal bowl (for a price of $2 each) at a rasta restaurant located on the lagoon of the rare bird reserve we visited. Sex tourism is prominent on the Petite Cote, and I was surprised and disgusted to see old, fat French men with their young, beautiful, purchased Senegalese girlfriends. In a society where sex is so closeted, seeing these relationships out in the open was, frankly, appaling. We also dined at a hole-in-the-wall French bistro, where we had an incredible gourmet dinner of sole–complete with head and tail–with fries and mayonaisse, wine, espresso, and ice cream for about $8 each.
The next town we visited was Saly, known for its “racuous, heaving beast of a nightlife.” We ate dinner at a fabulous Morroccan restaurant and shared some hookah and tea as the night progressed. We were in a tourist complex, so we figured we could walk out into a nightclub. Alas, there was NO ONE on the streets of Saly. We couldn’t even find a taxi! Instead, everyone–including our resort director, where we were the only guests–regarded us with hungry eyes. The economic downturn has been hard on tourism here in Senegal, and the season doesn’t really start until May. Still, none of us slept much that night because we felt so conspicicuous and someone could have taken too much interest in us. Though we had planned to stay for at least two nights, we left Saly to go farther south–past the tourist haunts.
We next visited Warang, a tiny fishing village just South of the small town of Mbour. In Warang, we participated in eco-tourism by staying at a resort which donates its profits to female advancement initiatives. We bronzed on the beach and played with the local kids, spinning them around and kicking a soccer ball.
Finally, we returned to La Soumone to visit the reserve of Bandia, a small safari park. Through a fortuitous family connection, we were hosted by the founder and owner of Bandia–a German ex-patriot who rooted in Senegal thirty-five years ago. Driving through the park in the SUV, we saw rare tree and bird species, a huge variety of buffalo and antelope, and warthogs with tusks larger than Pumbaa’s in The Lion King. Perhaps most excitingly, the owner called a rhino over to our car and I was able to reach out and stroke its horn! We took photos frolicking in a herd of four giraffes, and left with the owner to dine at his house–where we had spaghetti with fresh antelope sauce (from an injured animal at the reserve), French wine, German beer, and Italian parmesan cheese. As anyone who has visited Africa can tell you, eating any cheese here is a true luxury–and dining and conversing at his amazing beach house was the perfect end to a relaxing, adventurous week.
My next post will feature details of my return to Dakar, eating, speaking Wolof, and general funny facets of life here in Senegal. Also, my readers can look forward to a detailed review of my visits to Senegal’s two major confreric centers.
Ba baneen yoon!
