And a new year begins and we forget to push publish

Over the New Year weekend, we travelled to Banjul, The Gambia. The Gambia is south of us by about 5 hours, give or take a few potholes, overloaded vehicles and wild bands of monkeys (these 5 hours do not, however, include the 4 hour wait for the scary ferry or the lack of road signs on the other side of the river, which led us to being very, very lost in the dark in yet another foreign country - ah yes, adventure). My not so secret mission in Senegal (and now The Gambia) will be to label the roads, you know, like highways and streets, each and every one of them. While I'm at it, I'd like to build some restrooms.

The Gambia is a former British colony, situated at the mouth of the Gambia river, bordered by Senegal and the Atlantic Ocean - the British needed a port in Western Africa and The Gambia was formed. The fact that it is an English speaking country was a bit of a relief and was greatly appreciated.

We stayed at the Kairaba Hotel which was very nice and full of Europeans on holiday. The beaches were clean and the weather was delightful, although a little breezy and cool. We managed some fishing on the Gambia River and Matt caught a frogfish and a red snapper. Sadly for Matt, we had no way to freeze or cook the snapper, so we gave it to the boat captain, Amoro. The frogfish was happily released back into the river. That was one homely fish.

Upon our return to Dakar, we found that the public transportation system was on strike over the high cost of fuel. The strike lasted for two days. In a city of 4 million, the public transport system is very important as the great majority of workers do not have vehicles. Needless to say, the city streets were quiet even with the undertone of unrest. With elections approaching at the end of February, I believe we'll see more public protests.