Welcome to Senegal and its capital city, Dakar. Dakar is a largest city in Senegal with over a million people and the Dakar metropolitan area has almost four million people. The area around Dakar was colonized by the Portuguese in the 15th century. They established a presence on Goree' Island, just off the coast, which became a base for the transatlantic slave trade. Dakar, as a city, was established by the French in 1857 when they established a fort here. The purpose of the French fort was to protect the interests of the French merchants that had established a presence here over the prior two decades. The French also took over Goree' Island in 1677. Under France, Dakar grew into a major regional port and a major city of the French colonial empire.

For our part, the high temperature the day we arrived in Dakar was 72 degrees and very mild humidity and that was at least twenty degrees less than our previous stops. The low humidity was also very welcoming to us.

Dakar was much more like a major city than Accra or Cotonou. It still has, of course, a substantial colonial presence. Below is Independence Square. Our hotel was across the street, right behind the large tree on the left in this photo. Our guide said that this square is in the heart of Dakar and is the beating heart of the city.

The next two photos are on either side of the photo above, and across the street. They demonstrate the colonial presence in this part of Dakar.

The first building is (I believe) the Ministry of Finance building. The next is the Chamber of Commerce building.

Next will be two photos to demonstrate that Dakar is a genuinely important city with more infrastructure than our previous stops.

First is the Train Station which was not that large but at least they have trains here. The lack of vehicle traffic in the train station photo is because it was a Sunday.

Next is a photo of the port. The Dakar port is indeed a major shipping port. We saw lots of ships, shipping containers, and workers there.

Lastly, I'm including a photo of Vicky where we were eating our breakfast out on the veranda at the Pullman Hotel. We were having watermelon juice, crepes, omelets, and watermelon slices with coffee being delivered to us.

Behind Vicky is the lap pool. There was another pool farther down the hillside, in the trees. We also had ocean access down there which we utilized.

Behind Vicky on the hill is the Presidential Palace, so we were in the high-rent neighborhood.