Cille i Senegal: Christmas trip in Senegal: Dakar part 1

After a day of impatient waiting for me, and hours of tedious transport and queuing for my family, they finally arrived in Dakar.

In the lounge of our hotel in Dakar

But they were not allowed much time to recover. Their local guide (me) had already packed the next days with activities in the great capital of Senegal. A good friend of my Senegalese family, who also happens to be a taxi driver, was our private chauffeur during the stay in Dakar.

Diop and his bright yellow car

It facilitated our trips around the city considerably, as we did not have to negotiate the price EVERY SINGLE TIME we had to go anywhere. An advantage my family came to understand when we later came in a situation where it actually became necessary to get a local cap to take us home. While I was playing the game of negotiation (first looking shocked over their initial price, then dividing it by three and suggesting that, followed by the taxi driver being completely outraged and refusing, resulting in me walking away while making ‘I-am-offended-noises’, ending out with him running after us surrendering) my dad was about to wet himself laughing. Yeah, it’s funny a few times, but we enjoyed the luxury of having a fixed price with Diop.

As a bigger group of Toubabs it is impossible walking the streets of Dakar without constantly being hassled. However, our hotel was situated right next to my office where most the people in the streets know me, so we decided to go for a stroll to get an impression of what Dakar is all about. We visited my fruit-guy and my office and ended up at the French institute where we had a look at their organic, handcraft Christmas market.