Pufferfish are squishy!

Maybe I should call this blog entry “playing tourist” since that’s exactly what I have done for the past few days. I went to celebrate a friend’s birthday in Dakar this weekend. We made chili, hamburgers and even chocolate cake! Then on Sunday, I was minding my own business, eating breakfast when I over heard a friend mention he was going scuba diving. I obviously had to invite myself along! I had heard good things about it before and had to check it out! That afternoon we went 12 and a half meters down to swim around a shipwreck! They gave us all the equipment and a nice warm full body wet suit that I really didn’t think was necessary until we were about 10 meters down. It was great! We saw quite a few fish and lots of blow fish that our guide agitated and passed around for us to touch. We saw lots of starfish and even though the water wasn’t incredibly clear, it was lots of fun, and not all that outrageously priced… unless you are looking at it from a volunteer’s point of view! Very fun, spontaneous afternoon!

From Dakar, I got to meet 2 friends visiting a friend here and we went a few hours south along the shore. Palmarin is actually quite difficult to get to and there is not much in between it and the closest city. We stayed at a campement there and walked to a village near by for dinner. The next day we went kayaking through the mangroves with a very cool guide. He took us all around the mangroves, pointed out the lizards sleeping in the trees and let us walk around to get a closer look at the flamingos. We even had coffee inside a baobab tree! After lunch in another village, we went back to Joal, the next closest city to spend the night. Previous volunteers in Joal started quite a profitable compost facility that was very interesting to check out after hearing so much about it.

Overall, these last few days were great! Check out my pictures when I get the chance to post them. Senegal is very pretty and rather fun as a tourist! I invite you all to come! Now I am back to reality in Bambey and hope to stick around a while to save some money! I’ve got lots of plans and plenty of people to meet up with! Should be a good next few weeks!