Adventures with Angela: Saint Louis

We left the desert after lunch and headed up to Saint Louis. I don’t know why I thought it would be a good idea to do that trip at the hottest time of the day, but it wasn’t the best idea. I also didn’t plan this particular leg of the trip ahead of time, thinking the people at the lodge in the desert would be used to making those kinds of arrangements. When I asked one of the guys at the lodge if they had a contact for someone who could take us up to Saint Louis, he said he did and arranged it for us. Little did we know that it would be a beat up, windshield broken, no inside door handles, air-conditionless taxi. It was over 100 degrees out for pretty much the entire trip, but we had the windows partly down and enough water, so it wasn’t a big deal. The only thing I was a little worried about was breaking down in the middle of nowhere when it was so hot out, but that didn’t happen!

There wasn’t much to see along the way, since we didn’t go through any major towns, just a few small villages. We saw a lot of baobabs, huts, horses, donkeys, cows, and goats. When we got out of the villages and were on pretty desolate stretches of road I saw a good amount of animal carcasses, finally just ended up paying a bit more attention to see if we’d pass at least one carcass of every farm animal (we did). It was something to do to pass the time.

When we got to Saint Louis the temperature dropped significantly because we were on the coast in the northernmost part of the country. We were dropped off at our hotel, which ended up being at the very far end of the Langue de Barbarie (a 600km stretch of sand that separates the Senegal River from the Atlantic Ocean) that makes up a part of Saint Louis… That’s the problem with booking a hotel room without knowing the town! Oh well, it was a very nice resort, and very quiet because it was so far out! The first thing I did when I got to our room was take a hot shower. It’s one of the things I dearly miss since my apartment has no hot running water. Then we grabbed a cab to go into downtown and take a tour of the historical part of town in a horse drawn cart.

Our guide, Élage, was a younger man who told us all about Saint Louis as he deftly drove MC Solaar (the horse named after the famous French hip hop/rap artist) through the crowded streets. Saint Louis was the original capital of French West Africa, and the major urban center for sub-Saharan Africa by the late 18^th century. The original town (and where we were touring) is actually a small island (only 2 kilometers long and 400 meters wide) in the Senegal River (but only 25 meters from where it hits the Atlantic), with the Langue de Barbarie to the West, shielding it from the Atlantic Ocean. It was uninhabited when some French traders decided to establish the first permanent French settlement there in 1659, calling it Saint-Louis-du-Fort after the French king Louis IX (who had recently been canonized) and their current king, Louis XIV. The capital of the French West African Federation was moved from Saint Louis to Dakar in 1902, but Saint Louis was still officially the capital of the Colony of Senegal (and neighboring Colony of Mauritania). When Senegal gained its independence in 1960, Saint Louis lost that status as well since Dakar was kept as the capital.  When it was no longer the capital, nor the main trading hub, it declined rapidly.

Now the historic center is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and tourism is a big part of their economy. Fishing also plays a big role, so even though it was almost dark, Élage drove us over the bridge that connects the island of Saint Louis with the Lange de Barbarie where the fisherman’s village is located. It was a bit crazy, with a ton of people, cars, horses, and sheep/goats everywhere. Élage told us that the Fisherman’s Village had some of the wealthiest homes in Saint Louis. Since it didn’t outwardly look like it, he had to explain to us how he knew that: First of all, many of the building had multiple TV antennas on them, which meant that family had multiple TVs. He also told us that meant there were multiple wives in that house. Why does that mean there are multiple wives? Élage says its because each of the wives are too jealous to even share a TV… He was a bit of a jokester, especially on the subject of women/wives, so am not entirely sure if that’s reality or not. Secondly, there were a ton of goats and sheep. Élage explained to us that since people did not have the most confidence in banks, they kept their fortune in sheep. If something happened and they needed to “withdraw” a large sum of money, they would sell a sheep or goat. Interesting banking system… and I’m not sure it’s any less reliable than our system, and their money can birth more money!

Another interesting aspect of the old colonial part of the town is the separation of the Catholic and Muslim parts of the island. Like I said, the island was uninhabited when the French settled there, so it was predominantly Catholic until the mid-19^th century. With the rise of the Muslim population came the attempt to separate the two populations in order to keep the peace. There was actually a wall that cut across the width of the island separating the two communities.

The Catholics lived in the southern half of the island while the Muslims lived in the northern half. The cathedral was started in 1827 and finished in 1830, while the large mosque was started the same year, but finished a year earlier. The cathedral in Saint Louis is the oldest Catholic Church in West Africa, which makes sense since it was the capital of the French West African Federation.   

By the end of our tour it was about 8pm and quite dark out, and since we had had a snack before we left the hotel, we weren’t looking for a large meal. I’d heard that there was an awesome crêperie in the area, so we sought it out and shared one amazing dinner crêpe, but ordered separate dessert crêpes (priorities!!). Once we finished, we grabbed a taxi to get back to our hotel, but the taxi driver lied and said he knew where our hotel was and then drove us the wrong direction. That meant that, despite my objections, he took the one and only bridge off of the island of Saint Louis onto the mainland, which was the opposite direction he needed to go because our hotel was out on the island that separates the river from the Atlantic. Once he got over the bridge I told him to turn around and go back, but instead of turning around, he just turned and started to go down a not so well lit side road that was a little creepy. At that point I had a tinge of apprehension thinking he had other plans than to take us back to our hotel, so I got angry and told him if he didn’t turn around and go back we were going to get out and get another taxi. He turned around and went back the way we came (phew!) and I was able to direct him to our hotel, where we crashed quickly in our anticipation of a 6:30am alarm. We had arranged with a guide to pick us up at 7:30am for a tour of the famous bird park, which is the subject of my next blog!