Tour of Dakar with both families!

Our 2nd full day in Dakar was a busy one to say the least!  At about 9:30am both families met at our home base Le Phare Esperance and loaded up in a 15 passenger air-conditioned van (thank goodness for the AC!) and took a tour of Dakar.  But before we left Claude's uncle Luc gave all of us gifts from Cameroon and asked that we wear them for our tour of the city.  Matt & I both got Cameroon soccer jerseys and Luc told Michelle got a hat and bracelet (check out the pics to see them!)  We saw pretty much all the sights of Dakar including the " Millenium Door" statue, the national assembly, the presidential palace, a few mosques, a bunch of markets and just the general hustle and bustle of the city.  It's never boring to be in the car because there is so much to look at from the endless market stalls to the women carrying baskets of mango on their head to the horsecarts loaded with goods.

After the morning tour of the city we all came back to the Phare and enjoyed a delicious Senegalese meal of a spicy couscous with veggies and sauce.  Then we all loaded up in the van again and went for our VIP tour of Senegal's version of the statue of liberty.   This trip was a wedding gift to Kate and Claude because one of their friends is the project manager and it is not yet open to the public.  The statue is called the Renaissance of Africa and is a man, woman and child looking out to the ocean.  It is taller than the statue of liberty and has a lookout point at the top of the man's head.  According to the police man who took us up we were the first group to ever go to the top.  It's a very impressive statue and we took a bunch of pics. 

After the statue we went on quite a journey to the "suburbs" of Dakar to see du lac rose (the pink lake).  The lake has a very high salt content and the water looks pink.  It was quite a long ride (maybe 1.5hrs) and over VERY bumpy roads; I'd say that maybe 30% of the roads to the pink lake were paved.  As soon as we pulled up to the pink lake 5-10 women came running over with their baskets on their heads (I have NO idea how they can walk nevermind run with these big baskets on their heads!) trying to sell us their jewelry and take pictures with us.  We eventually got away and on our way out we got to see camels!!  Fortunately the driver took a different way home that was a little longer but paved and not so bumpy!  We were very tired by this time but already had dinner pre-arranged at the place Kate and my mom stayed last summer; dinner was Yassa Poulet which is a traditional Senegalese chicken with onions.

Finally we got to go home to the Phare and we both slept like rocks, mosquito netting and all!  I think that was it for day 2...I'll let Michelle tell you about day 3!  Hopefully we can figure out how to post pics soon!!

-mari