Senegal - Day 121 - Sunday

What do you do in Senegal on Sunday? You take your smelly goats and wash them by the ocean. We visited the Gorée Island to explore the Gorée Island and learn about its dark history in the slave trade. We bussed over to the local ferry (decorated with mistletoe, Harlan and snowflakes) to get to the island. It was founded by the Portuguese in the mid-15th century. There are no cars or bicycles allowed on the Gorée Island, which was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978. We walked along its narrow tree-lined streets and sand and stone pathways to the colonial-era houses with bougainvillea draped over their wrought-iron balconies and visited the Maison des Esclaves ("Slave House"), a former market for the purchasing of African slaves which housed them in deplorable conditions before they were led through the infamous "Door of No Return" and shipped overseas. Sadly - Approximately 20 million Africans were shipped across the Atlantic between the 16th and mid-19th centuries, with an estimated several thousand passing through Gorée Island. Today, the house is a museum and memorial to the slave trade, with somber exhibits chronicling this dark period of human history. We stopped in a local cafe for a drink and listened to a kora (a calabash gourd) player before boarding the ferry and returning the Neptune. Senegal’s population is 40,000 million but 3 million are in Dakar, and there are 90 % Muslim 10% Catholic who all live in peace together. See picture of Senegal in preceding sea days.Read more