Part 2 - Mauritania

Our drive down to Nouahdibou was what you could call cramped. We were all five piled into a little Mercedes car with one person up front and 4 in the back! All of our stuff piled in the car and the trunk tied down!!

The border was interesting. It took us 4 hours to get across! Lots of waiting but luckily we didn't have to pay any bribes. We did have one gendarmerie power tripping and make us take out all of our bags and open them...even after the border police told us and the gendarmerie that they did not want to search our bags!!! It took so long mostly because the border officials move really slowly and have a lot to process....so that day was spent mostly standing around. Oh and driving through no mans land....hard core off roading in a Mercedes :) Does it get any better?

It was a little scary because our driver, upon entering no man's land, told us how dangerous it was because neither Morocco nor Mauritania has jurisdiction, so we had to keep our eye out for people on the road and drive fast!! That was not reassuring!!

We made it across though and on to Nouhadibou...
It was really cool driving in to Nouahdibou because there was a really clear sense of being in a totally different country. The architecture was different with smaller more makeshift houses, the people looked different – more African less Arab, the streets were dustier and smaller! It was neat seeing the change.

The hostel was called Chez Abba and one of four ‘campings’ in Nouahdibou. That just means you can camp there or you can have a room. We went there because we met a guy at the border who worked there. It was quite nice and secluded…which after a long drawn out border process was really nice to have some peace.

We met some great people there. Unfortunately, we met one guy who tried to be really nice but ended up causing us a lot of confusion.
He was the guy who ended up organizing our transport to Nouakchott since we couldn’t really find it on our own because we arrived late and couldn’t walk around and look for transport on our own .

Transport in Mauritania is super regulated. All the taxis that leave have to get papers before they go and they all leave from a central garage. This means that they all chill at the garage and have their name on a list and you take the next one on the list. The taxis also carry 6 people…so if you are 5 people you can either pay for the 6th spot or you can wait at the garage for a 6th person. Yes, this means that a car normally designed for 5 people actually carries 7 (including the driver). Two people sit all cozy like up front and four people in the back.

We were hoping to leave early in the morning and make it all the way to Rosso at the border in the same day. Unfortunately our plan to leave at 7 am was pushed to 9 am (because the guy at the hostel organizing our ride thought 7 was to early)….and then it was pushed to 9:20 by the time the car showed up and then it was pushed to 11:00 by the time we were done at the garage getting our papers done.

Given that it takes 5 hours from Nouahdibou to Nouakchott and 2 to Rosso from there were certainly were not going to make it to the border and across before it closed! That was okay though…the original plan was to stay in Nouakchott one night anyway.

Our only problem was that upon entering Mauritania we discovered that the banks close at 1:00 and the ATMs don’t work unless you have a Mauritanian bank card. So all we had in terms of money was whatever dirhams we brought across the border. Luckily a really nice guy we met at the hostel took our money and got it changed for us out on the street. Which is really the only way to change money in Mauritania.

We spent the evening at the hostel drinking tea with a guy named Moussa Raphael and Dahid. Dahid is a guide who takes people desert camping so hopefully at some point we can make a weekend trip in to Mauritania and he will take us desert camping on camels! He was really nice and really funny! So many people along our travels have been so open and friendly. It has been so refreshing! Everyone always wants to invite you to tea!

Moussa even took us out to eat dinner in a little restaurant. Some of the girls had camel meat but I stuck to chicken. I did taste the camel and it was quite delicious and chewy!

So – in the morning our driver came to pick us up and we realized that our organizer had some communication problems between us and the driver. The driver didn’t realize we had so much luggage and we didn’t realize that when Sidi Muhammed quoted us a price the night before he didn’t include the baggage price or the price for the 6th person. He told us the night before that we would pay 4,500 ougiyas each. Then in the morning we had to add on another 500 ougiyas each for baggage. Plus 4,500 for the 6th seat.

It was mostly just really frustrating because up until that point we had only had good experiences with paying for things and transport and now in one go the driver showed up late and unexpected costs were thrown at us!!

The driver also didn’t realize that we didn’t have money to pay him on us. After changing our Dirhams we paid for the hostel for night and were about 10,000 short for the trip down. That was okay though because the original plan was to stop in Noukachott at noon and take out money either from the one ATM in all of Mauritania that accepts foreign bank cards or go into a bank and have them do it.

But given our delays we ended up not being in Noukachott until 5:30 – well after closing time for banks.

(Moussa explained to us that the reason ATMs in Mauritania don’t accept foreign cards is that it forces tourists to go into the bank to take out money and then the bank can charge a fee. Given that not many tourists go to Mauritania, as we distinctly could feel, this is an easy way to force tho ones that do come to contribute to the economy…that was his explanation!)

Along the way on our drive we stopped for lunch in the desert. We hadn’t really had time to plan out a lunch because we thought we would be in Noukachott for lunch but when we got out of the car the driver asked us if we want to have some tea. So we said yes and walked over to these open sided tents were some men were sitting and preparing tea and drinking something from a big bowl. We sat on the mat under the tent and one of the older men offered Raff the bowl with a white milky fluid. It was a little suspicious because we didn’t know what it was or how it was prepared (and we all had Lenny’s night of running to the washroom fresh in our minds) but it was an older man offering it and we really did not want to be rude, so Raff took a tiny sip and passed it on. It was actually quite tasty. It was made with goats’ milk and was very very sweet. There were little chunks floating in it that were a bit sketchy but otherwise it was not bad! Shortly after a big plate of rice with a big side of meat sitting on it was brought out and we were told very forcefully that were were to eat! It was really a cool experience sitting under this tent in the desert eating mouton (sheep) and rice with our right hands with these guys. Every time we stopped eating the guys would yell “MANGEZ MANGEZ” (eat eat)! After lunch we had some tea and then headed on our way again. We weren’t asked to pay anything or give anything….you just don’t eat in Mauritania without offering to those around you!!

When we got to Noukachott (finally) For some reason (maybe we were tired) we forgot about the ATM issue and thought we could use any ATM so we tried to at a bank and were told that there was no money until 6:30 and at that point we could use it again. So in the mean time we had our driver drive us to the hostel so we could snag a room and then go out and try the banks again. At this point the driver tried to insist on an additional cost for driving us to the hostel but our little Raff with her big voice firmly told him that no way would we pay for that because in our original deal he was supposed to drive us to the garage after the bank and going to the hostel was simply replacing that part of the journey! I think the driver may actually have been scared that such a little person could have such a big voice! We were all so impressed at the way she stood up to him!!

Oh, while we were trying the first ATM our driver took a prayer break just beside the car. While he was praying another car hit ours (not too badly but there was definitely a crunch sound) and it was so interesting because our driver (who clearly had seen the hit) calmly just kept going with his prayers while the men in the other car waited patiently for him to be done! It was a really a neat little moment to witness..

So – the money saga continued after we went to the hostel. We tried another ATM at 6:30 and it didn’t work so we went back to the first one which obviously still didn’t work. Lenny had some US dollars on her that we could try to change on the market but the exchange rate the men on the street were giving was terrible! Then we remember that there was one French bank that took international cards. We were told it was near the french embassy on the same street. So we drove there and asked a guard where it was. He gave us directions saying it was just up the street. Turns out it was definitely not near the french embassy and I think it was even a stretch to call it the same street!!

Regardless, we found the ATM and although Raff’s and Lenny’s BMO cards didn’t work (BMO cards barely work anywhere!!!) my RBC card did. We were able to get money to pay the driver and he was nice enough to drive us back to the hostel….although he was still quite unimpressed with us.

We ended up paying him 30,000 ougiya in total which was a bit more than we should but we figured we owed him for the hassle.

At this point Lenny, Raff and I who had been doing the running around searching for the bank were totally exhausted and hungry.

So that evening we had a relaxed night…went out to dinner with a french guy we met at the hostel who was biking down to Dakar and another guy who worked at the hostel. And then we called it an early night.

Noukachott seemed like an interesting city if only because it seemed totally void of tourists. There was no focus (like there is in many cities) of making things easier for visitors simply because there are not many visitors. I would love to go back and spend some time and get a better sense of what it is like. Mauritania is one of those places that no one seems to know much about. Even the political situation…we never once were told that things were unsafe or we should be careful while we were in the country but if you were to look in our media at home you would think that the streets were crawling with armed men!!

At the hostel we met a woman named Zahra who was also traveling to Saint Louis the next day. As we needed a 6th person for our cab we asked if she wanted to travel with us. She was a bit of a mystery. She was very direct and forceful but she wore these beautiful wraps and seemed quite a devout Muslim. I suppose those things don’t have to be contradictions but it certainly seemed a little odd on her!

It was fantastic that we were with her because she was able to bargain cheaper prices than we could. We payed 500 ougiyas each from the hostel to the garage (about 10 km outside the city) and then we payed 1000 ougiya from the garage to Rosso-Mauritania. We were told by everyone that the price was 2000 ougiya so that discount was a pretty good deal! We were even more crammed then before though. There was the driver and two women up front, four people in the middle, and three at the back – for a grand total of 10 people in a little station wagon car. The back was crammed with bags and a couple were tied on the roof….

We arrived in Rosso at about 1:30. We were delayed leaving in the morning because Zahra forgot to wake up early! We had wanted to leave at 7 am and we actually left around 9:30. Unfortunately the border closes from 1 to 3 and no one was allowed through to catch the ferry across the Senegal River.

It was blazing hot in the sun! And there was no shade in sight. Luckily Zahra knew a place were we could go so we spent the few hours in the back room of a restaurant in what I assume was the owners house. We siesta’d and ate CheubUJeun…which is Wolof for fish and rice (the Senegalese national dish). It was ridiculously hot even in the little room in the shade with a fan!

Finally it was time to cross the border and just before walking through the gate we had a gendarmerie guy approach us and ask us for our passports. We had been told to be very careful at Rosso because lots of people would offer to take us through the border and deal with all the formalities for us and so we were prepared to be a little tough! When the gendarmerie guy handed back our passports he asked really nicely what we were prepared to pay for his services of taking us across the border and organizing all the formalities for us! We said we were prepared to pay nothing and he smiled nicely, said okay, and walked away! It was so bizarre how quickly he gave up.

But at the same time, a few times in Mauritania we had been told by men that they would give us a good deal because we were women and therefore did not have very much money. So maybe the gendarmerie guy figured it wouldn’t be worth trying to get a group of women to pay because clearly we didn’t have much money! We also looked really sweaty, dirty, and unpleasant…so maybe he just didn’t want to stand to near us J

Once across the boat we paid 100 dirhams each for our bags on the Bac (the ferry to cross the river). You can also take a pirogues which would be faster because it can leave whenever but it costs a bit more (500). While we were waiting on the Bac we realized that we needed exit stamps from Mauritania so we had to quickly run up to the police booth and get our stamps! They were nice and we did not have to pay anything…

The ferry ride itself take about 4 minutes and then you are in SENEGAL!!

On the ferry with us there was a really nice 4x4 with only two guys in it. So Zahra knocked on their window and asked them if they could give us a ride! This woman was wonderful!! The two men said they could take three of us in to Saint Louis and the others would have to find alternative transport. Raff, Genet, and Annie got to go in the car and Lenny and I stayed behind with Zahra to grab a taxi.

In terms of procedures on the Rosso-Senegal side a man took our passports as we left the boat (he was also taking id cards from the Mauritanians) and then we just had to wait a few minutes for them to copy down our info. Raff, Lenny, and I had our Senegal visas in our passports (I switched from my Danish passport to my Canadian without any problems or questions about why I didn’t have entry or exit stamps for Mauritania in my Canadian passport). Annie did not have a visa because her passport was temporary and Genet has a German passport. That wasn’t a problem though…we got our entry stamps, no problem, no fee!!

Actually not once did we have to pay a bribe along the way. We paid for our visas in to Mauritania from Morocco. That cost 20 euros or 300 dirhams (which is more expensive in Dirhams) but that was all we had to pay at borders! I did get a few funny looks when the police or the gendarmerie asked for my passport and saw it was Danish or when I said I was Danish. I thought at first it was in my head (because I was worried there might be problems given Danmark's low popularity amongst Muslims) but then all the girls confirmed that the guards definitely took a second look at me or smirked at me when they found out!! But I didn’t really have any concrete problems or comments…

So – finally we had made it to Rosso-Senegal! The three girls were off in their nice fancy air conditioned car and Lenny, Zahra, another guy, and I were left behind to find transport. Zahra and I first changed some money from this guy in a little room. There were lots of people offering to change money for us. We went with one guy who seemed nice and it was fine. But I would be careful doing it on my own…I just felt comfortable because Zahra was there. The rate was also much better in Rosso-Senegal then in Saint Louis. 1000 ougiyas to 2000 CFAS in Rosso….1000 ougiyas to 1800 in Saint Louis.

We then grabbed a cab to the garage which is just outside of town were all the taxis and buses left.

The one thing about traveling around with local people is that they really seem to not grasp the concept of informing those with them about what is going on! So before we knew it we had paid for a seat in a bus and our bags were being thrown up on the roof and tied down. Which would have been fine but the bus was essentially empty and those buses don’t leave until all the seats are full! So Lenny and I sat there for probably 3 hours as the sun started to set and it got dark! We were tired, hungry, and sleepy and desperately wished we had payed the extra money to take a cab with 7 people instead of a bus with 25!!

It was cheap though. We paid 1500 CFA for the ride each. The worst part was that just before the bus pulled out it kept pulling up a little, then stopping, then pulling up a little, then stopping! It was a huge tease!!!! Finally the bus got going and we were on the last last stretch of the journey.

The one thing that made it bearable was that there was a really sweet little girl sitting across from us with her older sister. We bought some bananas and some cookies and at first the sister wouldn’t let the little girl have any when we offered but finally we persisted enough and she said yes! The little girl dug her whole fist in to our bag of cookies and then sat and munched on them for the whole ride!! We also offered the cookies to the other people in the back of the bus with us and one older guy sitting across from us was so grateful and I guess thought it was an invitation to keep eating the cookies because he also just get munching on them from our bag!! Which was totally okay…just really funny!!

About 2 hours later we arrived in Saint Louis and a friend of Zahra’s met us to take us to the youth hostel. He was a little sketchy and kept asking Zahra for money for gas but in a really sort ‘oh, I just forgot to bring my money do you think you could just lend me some’ kind of way! We even lent him some and when we got to the auberge and Zahra and Lenny went inside to find the others he asked me for more. I later got the money back because Zahra found out that he was scamming her and me and she got a police guy to get the money back!

Anyway! We MADE IT to Saint Louis! The girls had been soooo worried because we didn’t show up until 9:30-10:00 (they thought we were kidnapped by Zahra)….and although we had called the hotel we were supposed to meet at (not the auberge but a fancy hotel) they message they were given was that we were on a pirogue touring the city and that we would meet them at the hostel!! How the hell that message got passed through I have no idea!!

But we were all safe and sound. Lenny and I were just a bit hot, dusty and tired but that is all a part of the experience!!!

In the end we stayed two nights at the hostel. The guy who runs it even goes to UGB so we made a friend already!

I love the city already! It is small and bustling! I can’t wait to discover it more and really get to know every corner!

The trip was really wonderful! Although I was skeptical about traveling in to Senegal in this way because I thought it would just exhaust us and make our settling in stressful, it has been totally contrary. I am so happy to get to stay in once spot for a bit that it makes it so much more enjoyable! And we are already used to the ins and outs of living and traveling in this kind of a culture from our trek down that culture shock will at least be delayed until something more major comes up!