TRAVEL FEATURE - S E N E G A L
CHRISTIAN RIZZI
FOLLOWING
D A K A R
Arriving in Senegal from the north you pass through the rice fields and sugar cane plantations of the region of the river bordering with Mauritania . It is customary to stock up on rice and sugar to be distributed among the villages to be visited for lunch or for the night . There are consortium stores along the road , spotted because of the parked vehicles .
Prices are not that different from those in other cities , but it is the original bag of Riz du Senegal and the sugar of Richard Toll 1 that makes the difference , due to a media defamation campaign on certain rice imports .
It ’ s always a shrewd move to show the villagers the distant provenance and freshness of the products by saying : " two days ago I got it from the Rosso Senegal rice paddy ” which is the most northerly point in the country , and from where all sugar and rice came during the foundation of Senegal . In a nutshell , these are the things that strike the people of the villages , who move on foot and have never seen the city , as much as it struck us two or three centuries ago .
At night it is better to take advantage of the welcoming city of Saint Louis ( Ndar ), located between the mouth of the river Senegal and the sea ; hotels , pensions and rooms abound . Ndar Guet , a 200-metre strip of white sand between the ocean and the river is certainly the highlight where you can sleep in accommodation on the edge of the beach , some suggest it feels like Venice .
A characteristic of this city , which may perhaps be similar to others , are the alleys of the old area that lead to houses , creating an immense global village where space is limited , and everything is confined . It ’ s clear everybody knows each other within the community , it feels safe and
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