Zebrabar Days and Moving on to Mali

Joe and I spent five chilled out days at a Swiss-run campement (a tourist hotel), called Zebrabar in northern Senegal, very close to Saint-Louis, before heading back to Dakar for a couple nights and flying out to Bamako, Mali this morning. Zebrabar was such a welcome retreat from the hot, cities and tourist beaches of Senegal where people so frequently wanted to sell us things or guide us around, etc. The owners of Zebrabar bought the land 12 years ago when they decided to relocate to Senegal permanently from Switzerland. The couple now has two children, but just the dad and the 6 year old son were there when we stayed there (the wife and daughtere were in Switzerland). The land abuts a lagoon and the Senegalese National Park of Langue de Barbarie, which is a series of barrier islands and lagoons separated from an unpopulated part of the Atlantic by a thin strip of land (the Langue de Barbarie). When the owners bought the land, there was nothing there. Now, there are bungalows for rent, a campground, a main building with a restaurant and a large house for themselves. They run off of solar energy, which is an anomaly (but shouldn't be as Senegal is prime real estate for solar power) there, for sure. There were kayaks and a windsurfer for our use and a variety of travelers who passed through while we were there. We had communal dinners outside at night (the food was so good, it was a treat! the owners had taught their Senegalese cooks to make incredible European food, including salad with sterilized vegetables that we could eat!), with a changing group of Belgians, French, Germans, Senegalese, and Americans. The common language was French, of course, but people would humor me and speak English from time to time. We met several Europeans who are ex-pats in Senegal and it was incredible to have a glimpse into their lives. Many of them drive home to Europe in the summer and drive back with supplies, taking a ferry from Spain to Morrocco and making the trip in anywhere from 3 days to a few weeks to Senegal. Each day we kayaked to the ocean, across the lagoon. We didn't do much else, aside from read, walk into the village (where the kids would follow us around and ask us questions and call us "toubabs", of course) for lunch or bread or soda and drink beers on the roof (great view!) at sunset. While there, we didn't check email or have news of the outside world for 5 days, which was strange, but good.
We traveled back to Dakar with the owners of Zebrabar and a new friend, Alexis, from Albany who was at Zebrabar with us (and who will be travelling to Mali in a couple of weeks, so we might run into her again!). Dakar is just kind of crazy. Lots of traffic and energy and attention on us. We stayed in a wealthy beach neighborhood this time and it seems a stretch to call it wealthy- there is extreme poverty next to $500 a night hotels.
This morning, we flew from Dakar to Bamako, the capital of Mali. We had met several aid workers in Senegal who were working Mali and everyone told us how much less developed and poorer Mali is than Senegal. This is apparent as soon as you leave the airport. But we like it here so far. Everything is brown (from the buildings and houses to the river and streets) and green and wet, as the rainy season just started here. The Niger River (one of the longest and widest in Africa) runs through Bamako and most of Mali and it is beautiful - with green islands dotting it. We are staying in the neighborhood that is frequented by ex-pats (there are a ton of development/aid workers from a wide variety of nationalities in Mali as it is one of the 4 poorest countries in the world according to the UN development index), and there are several live music venues nearby. We plan to hit up a few of those in the next couple of nights (this is one of the reasons why we came to West Africa- to see live music in Bamako!) before hitting the road to head further south and east into Mali. We are planning on going hiking in the famed Dogon Country that we have been hearing about from every tourist we've met in the region.
- Erica, Bamako, Mali