Spring Break: Day #1

     Our day started off with the driver arriving an hour and a half early to pick us up.  No problem, he just sat out front and waited until we got ready.  We made good time on the road to Dakar and arrived at Amanda and Lindy's apartment around noon.  They arrived shortly thereafter.  Jourdan and I had planned to go downtown to eat at Times Cafe (great food) for lunch.  Amanda came with us while Lindy snoozed the afternoon away.  After eating lunch, we walked around downtown looking for the fruit/vegetable market.  When we ended up at Orca (a department store), we knew we had missed the market.  So we got a taxi to take us to the market.  It was fantastic!  There were fruits and vegetables galore!  Wish we had a place like that in Fatick.  We made our way back to the apartment for a little nap.  Around 6:00 we took a taxi to the lighthouse.  We should have had a clue what kind of ride this was going to be when the driver had to get out and work on something before we could ever drive off.  We had not gone very far before Amanda was telling the driver to pull over and stop to let us out.  He would not stop!  There were several scary moments in the ride but we finally got to the round point just below the lighthouse.  Instead of stopping, he kept going.  Amanda tried to get him to stop without any success.  He did slow up a little so I proceeded to open my door thinking that would make him stop.  Didn't work.  I punched the back of his seat and told him to stop.  A man on the side of the road noticed my car door open so he came over to help out.  We managed to get out of the taxi while the man was giving the driver a good lecture.  Finally, we were on our way up to the lighthouse.  There is a winding, steep road so it was quite a workout for me.  I managed to get a little over half-way before I had to stop and take a short rest.  I took a few pictures while at that point.

Westernmost point of Africa

The road we hiked up to the lighthouse

Looking down on the winding road that we walked

     
     We finally made it to the top and were rewarded by beautiful views of the ocean, lighthouse, and city of Dakar.

Dakar airport and city

Jourdan and I at the lighthouse

Jourdan and I on top of a lookout

Sun setting through a baobab tree

Beautiful sunset

 
    The trip back down was much easier.  We managed to get a better taxi to take us to a nearby restaurant for dinner.  This was a great start to our spring break.  Tomorrow:  camel ride and Pink Lake!