The Maimouna bar and pizzeria on Saint Louis Island, Senegal

The manager Karim invited me into his bar, the Maimouna on Saint Louis Island, with plastic chairs and bare tables, announcing that the Gazelle beer was only 1000CFA for 0.6l, which indeed it was. I sat opposite a nice fellow who said nothing except bonsoir, not even trying to sell me a tour, after suggesting that the manager was bothering me. A fellow after my own heart, I thought. The locals otherwise were neither very friendly nor hostile. The experience, generally, not unlike that one finds in the midparts of the United States. The gentleman in military fatigues at the door said he was indeed from the military and offering security, on a break from the army. I asked him if such security was really necessary, as it seemed quiet area, and he avowed that indeed that was why he was there, so the area would remain safe and quiet. And thus it was, for my stay.

La Detente Hotel, Saly, Senegal

I stayed a few days at the Detente, which is a dozen rooms by the pool in the fishing quarter of Saly, a few dozen metres from a rocky part of the beach and a walk to the sandy parts in front of the resort hotels. It was 17kCFA per night with beer at 1kCFA/50cl can in the bar; no food but only two hundred metres from the main drag, where a 3-course meal is about 5kCFA, though with a big supermarket also available. Although the locals and hawkers in the streets are mainly calm, the area is marred by a couple of persistent pests.  But here is a safe little place where no-one will bother you, managed by a charming French couple with several helpful waitresses, and Karla the dog. There were sometimes interruptions to wifi, power and water. Some may like to lie on the loungers and enjoy the chanting from the Koranic girls school next door. They arranged for me a taxi from here to the new airport, taking under an hour and 15,000CFA.