Sunday, June 19, 2011
Friday, June 17, 2011
Going to Saly for father's day
I decided that a weekend away would be a perfect father's day gift. Yes we were just in the Mayan Riviera but it has been a lot of travel and we were burnt out. I thought that maybe a weekend away close by might get us all back to ourselves.
So we ventured out to go to Saly. Only 65km away and we had been before so no big deal. I told Ross about it so he could double check directions and I couldn't be blamed for getting us lost or anything like that. So presumable Ross looked it up. Whats that? You know where I'm headed with this? Well read on anyway because it gets so much better than you think!
So of course Ross "knows" where he is going and we hop on the highway the wrong way and you have to understand that highway here does not always look like highway. Sometimes there are patches of nothing but sand and you think you must be lost but then again maybe not because that happens here. In this case we ended up in a small suburb (again, not what you are thinking. Think sand, lots of it). One one side of us is ocean and on the other brick structures and sand everywhere. If it weren't for tire treads on the "road" we would not have known it was a road. Finally I get the GPS in my phone going and tell Ross we should turn around because we are going in exactly the opposite direction we want to be going in. So Ross turns the car around...only...we are stuck.
You see I may have underplayed just how much sand there was. We were essentially trying to turn around on a sand dune. Our SUV...though fantastic and I love it, NOT 4 wheel drive! So we are stuck, really stuck. Think winter in the Laurentians when the plow just went by stuck. Get the cat litter, the grip carpets a shovel and a snowblower stuck. Only none of the things that would help in the snow can help in the sand. We are stuck and for some reason there is no one around...must be prayer time!
So Ross and I switch seats and he gets out to push. I offered, I swear, but I think it just made him angry. So I get into the driver's seat and Ross goes around the back to push and I put it in gear and give it some gas and nothing. I mean nothing. Ross is yelling at me to giv'er so I do and still nothing and I'm burning the clutch a bit too. Ross is getting really ticked at this point and I'm almost in hysterics (hey if you can't laugh about it what are you going to do? Life is too short).
After a good ten minutes of digging ourselves deeper and deeper and yes, we tried rocking back and forth, pushing from the front and the back and it was useless. So after a good ten minutes a truck full of Senegalese guys stopped and started walking towards us. At this point Ross is embarrassed and that only makes him angrier! The men all get behind the truck except one who asks me to move so he can get in and drive. After the requisite glance at Ross to make sure he's ok with it I move over but stay in the car because though I think everything will be fine I am not leaving Declan in there alone! So we now have three guys plus Ross pushing and some guy driving and still nothing! So the guys go around the car and start taking air out of the tires and then try pushing again and still nothing. Another guy shows up and they are all yelling in Wolof and he starts taking even more air out of the tires and then they try again and it works! We get out of the dune and back onto the "road" but now of course we have next to no air left in the tires. Luckily the last guy that showed up is a mechanic down the road and even closer is his cousin's garage so he drives the car there (like 200m) and puts air back into the tires while Ross tries to compensate the guys for their help. they refuse but one of them asks where we are going and then asks if he can get a ride to the other side of town. OF course we say yes. We pay for the air and then we are on our way. We follow the other vehicle of guys back to the highway though the back roads and through the tiny little suburb we were in. Not somewhere I imagine they see a lot of white people. We finally get back to the highway, drop off our passenger and then head out of town the right way. We make it in good time and don't hit any traffic thereby getting there at precisely the time we had expected to under normal circumstances and had a fantastic weekend! Pictures to follow!
On the plus side of all of this...it was an adventure, I had a good laugh and we found the most incredible beaches I have seen in Dakar and now that we know how to get there we may go next weekend and bring a picnic lunch!
So we ventured out to go to Saly. Only 65km away and we had been before so no big deal. I told Ross about it so he could double check directions and I couldn't be blamed for getting us lost or anything like that. So presumable Ross looked it up. Whats that? You know where I'm headed with this? Well read on anyway because it gets so much better than you think!
So of course Ross "knows" where he is going and we hop on the highway the wrong way and you have to understand that highway here does not always look like highway. Sometimes there are patches of nothing but sand and you think you must be lost but then again maybe not because that happens here. In this case we ended up in a small suburb (again, not what you are thinking. Think sand, lots of it). One one side of us is ocean and on the other brick structures and sand everywhere. If it weren't for tire treads on the "road" we would not have known it was a road. Finally I get the GPS in my phone going and tell Ross we should turn around because we are going in exactly the opposite direction we want to be going in. So Ross turns the car around...only...we are stuck.
You see I may have underplayed just how much sand there was. We were essentially trying to turn around on a sand dune. Our SUV...though fantastic and I love it, NOT 4 wheel drive! So we are stuck, really stuck. Think winter in the Laurentians when the plow just went by stuck. Get the cat litter, the grip carpets a shovel and a snowblower stuck. Only none of the things that would help in the snow can help in the sand. We are stuck and for some reason there is no one around...must be prayer time!
So Ross and I switch seats and he gets out to push. I offered, I swear, but I think it just made him angry. So I get into the driver's seat and Ross goes around the back to push and I put it in gear and give it some gas and nothing. I mean nothing. Ross is yelling at me to giv'er so I do and still nothing and I'm burning the clutch a bit too. Ross is getting really ticked at this point and I'm almost in hysterics (hey if you can't laugh about it what are you going to do? Life is too short).
After a good ten minutes of digging ourselves deeper and deeper and yes, we tried rocking back and forth, pushing from the front and the back and it was useless. So after a good ten minutes a truck full of Senegalese guys stopped and started walking towards us. At this point Ross is embarrassed and that only makes him angrier! The men all get behind the truck except one who asks me to move so he can get in and drive. After the requisite glance at Ross to make sure he's ok with it I move over but stay in the car because though I think everything will be fine I am not leaving Declan in there alone! So we now have three guys plus Ross pushing and some guy driving and still nothing! So the guys go around the car and start taking air out of the tires and then try pushing again and still nothing. Another guy shows up and they are all yelling in Wolof and he starts taking even more air out of the tires and then they try again and it works! We get out of the dune and back onto the "road" but now of course we have next to no air left in the tires. Luckily the last guy that showed up is a mechanic down the road and even closer is his cousin's garage so he drives the car there (like 200m) and puts air back into the tires while Ross tries to compensate the guys for their help. they refuse but one of them asks where we are going and then asks if he can get a ride to the other side of town. OF course we say yes. We pay for the air and then we are on our way. We follow the other vehicle of guys back to the highway though the back roads and through the tiny little suburb we were in. Not somewhere I imagine they see a lot of white people. We finally get back to the highway, drop off our passenger and then head out of town the right way. We make it in good time and don't hit any traffic thereby getting there at precisely the time we had expected to under normal circumstances and had a fantastic weekend! Pictures to follow!
On the plus side of all of this...it was an adventure, I had a good laugh and we found the most incredible beaches I have seen in Dakar and now that we know how to get there we may go next weekend and bring a picnic lunch!
Thursday, June 9, 2011
The hammam
Posting season is upon us and some of the friends I have made here over the past year are leaving :( There are a few of us who go out for lunch on a monthly or so basis and since some are leaving and it was a friend's birthday we decided to do something different this time. We had lunch as usual but before that we all went for a hammam.
A hammam is a Moroccan spa treatment. It is like a wrap, cleanse, massage and exfoliation all in one!
It started with all of us getting down to our bikini bottoms only and going into a common room with high ceilings, cream marble benches and so much wonderful eucalyptus smelling steam! They have us sit on little wooden stools as they pour hot eucalyptus water over us with old wooden buckets. After a thorough saturation they have us lie on the marble benches where they cover us top to bottom and front to back in a black soap intended to soften the dead skin on your body. They let us sit in it for about 5 minutes or so and then rinse it all off with the hot eucalyptus water again with the wooden buckets. After that they put on their hammam gloves (a scratchy mitt that they wear very similar to the Renaissace glove that can be found at spa's in Canada) and proceed to slough the dead skin off your body. Top to bottom, front and back. Let me tell you they got it all!!!
After the scrubbing they rinse you off again and soap up your body with the most wonderful smelling soap, they wash your hair and take a pumice stone to your feet. Once you are all squeaky clean they get you a toasty robe and you go have Moroccan tea and cookies smelling and feeling wonderful.
After all that we went for massages and then out for our lunch, smelling like grapefruit oil in my case. It was a great day and the best part of it? My skin has never been this soft and I don't feel the heat nearly as much as before. I will be going back!
A hammam is a Moroccan spa treatment. It is like a wrap, cleanse, massage and exfoliation all in one!
It started with all of us getting down to our bikini bottoms only and going into a common room with high ceilings, cream marble benches and so much wonderful eucalyptus smelling steam! They have us sit on little wooden stools as they pour hot eucalyptus water over us with old wooden buckets. After a thorough saturation they have us lie on the marble benches where they cover us top to bottom and front to back in a black soap intended to soften the dead skin on your body. They let us sit in it for about 5 minutes or so and then rinse it all off with the hot eucalyptus water again with the wooden buckets. After that they put on their hammam gloves (a scratchy mitt that they wear very similar to the Renaissace glove that can be found at spa's in Canada) and proceed to slough the dead skin off your body. Top to bottom, front and back. Let me tell you they got it all!!!
After the scrubbing they rinse you off again and soap up your body with the most wonderful smelling soap, they wash your hair and take a pumice stone to your feet. Once you are all squeaky clean they get you a toasty robe and you go have Moroccan tea and cookies smelling and feeling wonderful.
After all that we went for massages and then out for our lunch, smelling like grapefruit oil in my case. It was a great day and the best part of it? My skin has never been this soft and I don't feel the heat nearly as much as before. I will be going back!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)