St. Louis lies between the mainland of Senegal and a narrow peninsula that connects to the country of Mauritania just north of the fishing village of N'gar. The bridge to St. Louis is being refurbished and by this, I mean, the old bridge is being torn down and sent to France as scrap and a new bridge is being built right next to where the old one was. The original bridge was designed by Gustave Eiffel, the same guy that design the Eiffel Tower (hence the name).
The bridge to St. Louis, designed by Gustav Eiffel
The Sindone Hotel is a quaint hotel near the south end of the the island. Arnie had stayed there once before and knew that they had bed nets. I knew I was going to like the place already.
We decided to have lunch at the hotel's restaurant since we couldn't check in right away. We chose to sit outside near the water. Except for the occasional fly to shew away, it was a wonderful place to eat. The food at the restaurant was delicious! I had the t-bone steak with french fries and a salad. It was brought to me, not on a plate, but on a cutting board! At dinner, I had the chicken dish (the only chicken dish on the menu). The chicken was in a coconut-ginger sauce! Amazing!
The Sindone Hotel is a quaint hotel near the south end of the the island. Arnie had stayed there once before and knew that they had bed nets. I knew I was going to like the place already.After lunch and checking in, we headed over to the African equivalent of a tourist center and paid for a guide that took us on a carriage ride around the island and over the bridge to the fishing village as well. I was very grateful that Arnie got a guide that spoke English this time. It was so great to be able to understand more than a few words per sentence and to ask my own questions and not just sit there nodding and smiling like a fool and laughing a fraction of a second after Arnie did at whatever joke was said.
Our guide was from the fishing village, which was a short bridge ride toward the ocean from the island of St. Louis. I was amazed at the difference of atmosphere between the two places. St. Louis is a very peaceful, place with old colonial buildings in various stages of refurbishing. There wasn't a whole lot of traffic, cars or otherwise to deal with and I noticed that there seemed to be less street vendors begging for stuff. There were many shops and restaurants and there were even places where you could look in and see clothes or furniture being made.
The fishing village was a mess. With approximately 30,000 people within a 1-2km sq area, it was swarming with people so dense it was hard for the carriage to make forward progress at times. Our guide said that the number of people is only a guess because it is forbidden in their culture to count people. The fishermen have up to two or more wives and the wife with the most children gets the inheritance so there are children everywhere in this village. According to our guide, the fishermen are relatively wealthy but they don't spend their wealth to improve the infrastructure of their homes, making them more sanitary or comfortable. They buy modern technology like flat screen tvs for each of their wives and cell phones and designer clothes for their children. They still cook on the streets on charcoal fires and defecate in the ocean and rivers. Some things are just incomprehensible.
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