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Dakar has a hard reputation for crime. People say muggings are common, even in daylight. We don't see anything ominous, but we sense it. Maybe it's just that we're strangers in a land that's strange to us. This is a modern city, paved roads, concrete highways, run-down French-style villas. We enjoy walking around but our ethnicity makes it impossible to be inconspicous and pass as locals, so we're constantly accosted by hustlers intent to sell us junk. Despite unwanted company we explore Dakar's crowded, shop-lined streets. We watch the local people, they watch us. We smile, they smile. We wave, they wave. Anyone for a game of 'Simon says?'
Senegal is famous for its beaches. A good place for a cool swim is the Ile de Goree, an island off Dakar's coast that is an Unesco World Heritage site.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, the Ile de Goree acted as a busy slave port. This doorway was a slave's last look at Africa before being shipped overseas, never to return.
A quiet, relaxed street on the Ile de Goree.