World Cruise--Dakar, Senegal

Dakar, Senegal. It would be our first visit and with some of the warnings for travelers that were out, we chose to do a ship excursion. We wanted to get out of the city so we picked an excursion that went to the Abbaye de Keur Mousa. All things considered, it was a good choice.

The morning began with a sunrise service way before the sun was to rise in order to get an Easter worship service in before all the day’s excursions would begin. A protestant service was held in one of the venues on the ship. Actually it had been quite a holy week leading up to Easter for us starting with attending the Seder dinner organized by the Jewish group onboard. Bob loves attending their Friday Sabbath service and learning more about the Jewish religion and heritage and he had been invited to attend. A pastor had come onboard and organized a Maundy Thursday service as well as Good Friday and two Easter services. He did a wonderful job.

As we sailed into the harbor and the sky lightened, we could see small fishing boats just on the other side of the break wall. They were casting their nets for an early morning catch.

 Our excursion was an hour late in getting started. There was some poor organization (a Dakar problem) going on down on the pier where buses were trying to get in and line up. When we were finally on our way, we boarded a bus that was clean enough on the inside. Earlier we had looked down upon lots of vehicles on the pier that were heavily covered in a fine reddish dust we would learn later came from the Sahara as well as the dry reddish soil of Dakar. The windows however were dirty for the most part.

Bob and I have learned that sitting in the back of the bus is not bad if the seats are raised a bit. You can not only see out your window but you can see over the heads of others and out the front window. We headed for the back and found, once we looked around, that our window was one of the few clean enough to see out of.

As we traveled through the city, we were amazed at the dichotomy. We saw some nice apartment buildings but they were often surrounded by others that were only half built. Rebar was poking out where the construction had stopped in walls that were half done but there were still people obviously living in the half finished dwellings. Laundry hung out to dry and tarps or boards closed the window spaces that had no window glass.

Senegal is 90% Muslim

There were some very modern office buildings when we got farther away from the city. With all of the poor areas we’d seen this was again quite a contrast. True to this part of the world, Europe and Africa, the soccer stadium was quite nice looking, at least from the outside.

It took nearly an hour to get to the Abbey. We were expecting that there would be a mass but we also expected that we would be able to see some of the instruments the monks were famous for making and using in their services.

The mass was already started by the time we got there and participants were under a temporary covering set up outside. Chairs were made available for us and we settled in to listen to the service. Of course the only thing we understood was alleluia and amen as the whole mass was in French, the official language of Senegal.

I could hear some instruments in some of the chanting songs but there was no way to see over all the heads and into the sanctuary to know exactly what they were playing—except for the drums. You could tell they were drums. So while the Catholic mass was perhaps familiar in many ways, the music had an African flair.

We participated in standing and sitting with those around us but in not understanding the rest of it, there was opportunity to take in the beauty of those surrounding us. The colors of African art were present in the Easter dress of the worshippers. My eyes drank in the deep blues, radiant purples, brilliant yellows and oranges. The patterns and designs of the fabric were bold and striking—except for the little girl in front of us.

The young girl in front of us had a pretty pink dress on that had a satin sash and a light pink organza overskirt with a fanciful design of sequins that glittered and reflected the deep blue of her mother’s lovely dress. It was the kind of Easter dress my mom would have dressed me in for Easter. Brought back memories.

Once the mass was over, we had a short span of time to step into the sanctuary where the monks were clearing all of the things involved in the service. We took some quick pictures and then were ushered out and the doors were closed. We looked for our guide thinking that now he would take us to see the instruments. When we found him, he pointed us to the gift shop.

The gift shop included all sorts of jams, bottled juices, fresh bread, packages of different candies, nuts and nougats and of course religious objects of faith. There were several drums for sale that we estimated cost around $100 USD. And way back in the corner, I found a stringed instrument that was displayed in a glass case. It would be the closest I would get to seeing one of their stringed instruments that they make.

Our excursion group began gathering back at the bus since there was nothing else that was going to happen. Many had bought some of the snacks available and a few shared some nougat and a piece of bread. The bread was a bit like a rye.

There would be another hour ride to return to the ship. Most of the ride was on a freeway that was surprisingly well maintained. Once off the highway however, there were many speed bumps that jostled us and kept us awake. We’d been up since 5:30 and it was beginning to show.

We scurried up to the buffet for a quick lunch when we returned and watched those who had set up “stalls” to sell their goods along the pier.

“Want to go back down and shop?” Bob asked.

It took me two seconds, “Ahhh, Nope!”

As we finished lunch, we checked Facebook and found that others on the Facebook page we belong to for the world cruise had some recent posts. One was that a woman was accosted when someone tried to snatch her purse as she got off the shuttle that was provided into the city square. Another report, unsubstantiated of course, that another woman was “mugged” and she was on one of the excursions.

On the other hand, there were a few posts of how wonderful a little restaurant was in a hotel and another who found a taxi driver who took them to a real local restaurant for authentic African  food. Many however, found too many aggressive beggars and uncomfortable situations where they didn’t feel safe.

Dakar will not be a place we look forward to returning to.

World Cruise--Walvis Bay, Namibia

One of the ports in our world cruise itinerary that was new to us was Walvis Bay, Namibia, on the west coast of Africa. We were a little nervous about trying to do anything on our own there so we booked an excursion through Cunard. The one we chose got us out of the port area and to a smaller town called Swapokmund.

We had almost canceled the excursion when we went to apply for an e-visa to enter the country. This is the first cruise where we have had to fill out so many applications for visas. I’m not sure if that’s because Cunard allocates that responsibility to its passengers where other cruise lines may take care of that for their passengers. It created quite a lot of confusion for many, especially those who were not tech savvy and those who had not bought the internet package. They had to rely on a guest pass for the WiFi just to fill out the forms online. That was fine for some of the countries but Namibia seemed to have some problems with their site.

Added to difficulty in using the visa site, was the fact that when we were first told we needed the visa and went online to purchase it, the cost was $90/each just for the day’s visit. Add that to the rather pricey excursion and we decided to make it a ship’s pool day. As time went on, Namibia relented and lowered their visa price to $16 for a day visit from a cruise ship. With that price, we proceeded to fill out the information. Paying for it was a bit difficult. Again, the site seemed to get hung up at that point but eventually we received the necessary confirmation.

The day of our arrival, immigration officers came onboard and we did what’s called a face-to-face immigration, presenting passports and e-visas. A lot of confusion arouse when some had received information that you could get a visa upon arrival. There was no office for that at the port so there was no time to get to an immigration office to get a visa and get back to the ship for a scheduled excursion. There were a few very unhappy passengers.

The time of our excursion was not until the afternoon so we decided to take the cruise ship shuttle that was provided to get a look at the area near us. The immediate area was a large container port and it looked as though there was really no good way to walk out of the port and once out of the port there really wasn’t much close by.

The shuttle took us to a huge shopping mall called Dunes. When you saw where it was situated you understood the name. The area is a desert with huge sand dunes, one of which is said to be the largest in the world at a height of over 1200 feet.

On our way to Swapokmund, we drove through a landscape of sand and sand dunes. There were squatty palm trees planted along the road and either side to cut down on the amount of sand that would accumulate on the road—kind of like our snow fences at home.

A beautiful shallow bay was surrounded by very nice vacation homes and boutique hotels. Our guide told us that many Europeans have homes there for the winter months. The bay was also home to hundreds of flamingoes, usually. I’m not I understood the reason but this day there were none to be seen.

In about a half hour, we entered Swapokmund. The town was established by German colonists in 1892. I expected to see a bit more of a German influence in architecture but it didn’t seem that way to me. Don’t get me wrong, the architecture was interesting just not what I imagined.

The most famous building in the town was the old train station that had now been turned into a resort hotel and casino. It was a very nice building and the grounds were lovely. Originally, the station was built in 1901 for the railway that connected Swapokmund to Windhoek. The railway eventually closed down and later the narrow gauge rail line that replaced it. The building was declared a national monument in 1972 and eventually turned into the hotel.

From the hotel, we drove around the corner to the Karakulia Weavers. The business has been around since 1979 and has a team of 15 who take the wool from the farmers, clean it, card it, spin it, dye it and then weave it into amazing rugs. It took me back to my college days when I spent a whole year taking a fabric arts series for my art education degree and did all those things. Our weaving was a bit different though. Not nearly as detailed as the artwork being made there.

Our next stop was at a craft market which was interesting. For something advertised as being handmade items, each stall seemed to have pretty much the same thing and the quantities were amazing. I suspect the things were mostly factory made. 

There was some interesting costuming of some of the women and they kept inviting us to take pictures. I know that ploy—take a picture and pay later. The women did have strange hats that were flat topped almost like a graduation mortar board but out of fabric. Two of the women were bare breasted, one quite a bit older and larger than the other.

A museum was included in our tour and we wandered through it albeit a bit quickly. We aren’t too fond of museums especially when the day is so nice outside.

Outside, we strolled down the area called the Mole which is a sea wall that was built back in 1899 to help protect the harbor and allow a place to tie up boats. The beach area was very inviting and we watched lots of youngsters enjoying the water and the sandy beach.

There was an hour for us to spend on our own so we found a restaurant on the Mole and had an afternoon drink with a small California sushi roll as we watched all the activity on the beach.

The excursion had turned out to be very interesting and relaxing and left us saying that Walvis Bay (Whale Bay) might be a nice port to visit again sometime. By the way, we found out the reason the excursions for this port were expensive was because the buses and vans had to be brought in from some place that was three hours away. Or so they said.