West Africa Cruise: Banjul, Gambia (11.25.24)

We docked at Banjul, Gambia, on November 25, 2024.  Dave and I had already explored the city of Banjul on our last trip to West Africa, so we chose a jungle hike at the Makasutu Culture Forest, an hour's drive from Banjul.  

As with most of West Africa, the tourist infrastructure in Gambia is rudimentary.  We docked at the industrial port in Banjul, rather than a fancy pier for cruise ships.  Gambia's main industry is peanut processing.  Peanuts are the most significant export through the Banjul port, along with fish, cotton, palm oil, beeswax, and hides and skins.  I remember visiting the huge cattle and goat market in Banjul on our last trip, with the abbatoir nearby where animals were slaughtered.  Piles of stiff cow skins lay drying in the sun, waiting to be trucked away.  I suppose those were the "hides and skins" exported through Banjul's port.

As usual at a West African port, we were greeted with African dancers, accompanied by drums.

Our tour bus made a rest stop in a local village, and, as always, some of my favorite photos were of the little boys, posing for my camera.  They reminded me of Michael and Jonny, when they were that age, insisting on us taking "funny" pictures, in addition to serious ones.

 

Big trucks lumbered past.  This one had an American flag inside its windshield.

I am always interested in the collision between poverty and wealth, tradition and modernity.  This simple, even ramshackle house had a motorcycle parked out front.  One evidence of an emerging middle class, the economists say, is motorbikes and motor cycles.

Even owning a bike is a major step away from poverty.  This man was hauling something big (furniture?) on his bike.

I am also impressed with how rapidly and completely new electronics devices spread through the developing world.  Note the boy's headphones.

This young woman wore traditional, modest Muslim dress, yet was scrolling through her cell phone.

At Makasutu Cultural Forest, we walked, with our guide, through the jungle, as he identified trees and vines and told us how they were used in the traditional Gambian culture.  For instance, he tore a leaf and a sticky white substance seeped out.  "This is our glue," he said.  He pointed to another tree and said that it had uses for all sorts of diseases, including cancer.

We paused, in the jungle, to watch local residents display traditional talents.  This man scaled a coconut tree barefoot, but with the help of a circular rope.

As we walked through the jungle, a family of baboons strolled past us on the path, absolutely unafraid.  Our guide explained that they knew that lunch would soon be served at the neighboring resort and they wanted to get some of the scraps.

One of the baboons climbed a coconut tree near us and began loosening the coconuts and letting them fall to the ground.

Before lunch, we took a dugout canoe ride through the neighboring mangroves.  The dugout was shallow-bottomed, and, as our overweight fellow tourists overloaded it, it tipped dangerously.  

We floated near the mangrove roots, at water level.  Oysters clung to the roots of the mangroves and were bathed with seawater as the tides went up and down.  I had never seen oysters growing before.

When we arrived at the resort for lunch, there was an unexpected (or expected?) guest--one of the baboons relaxing on the wall.

There was also lunch music, of the type we had grown to love!