The ferry pulls away from the Embarcadère de Dakar and the city noise just falls off the edge of the deck. One moment you are surrounded by the rumble of buses and the call of vendors, the next it is just the diesel thrum of the boat and gulls arguing over the wake. I found a spot at the rail, and I am watching the Plateau shrink into a white smear of buildings against the haze. It is August 3rd, a Monday, and Dakar is still catching its breath after the Grand Magal.
You have probably heard me say by now that everything in this city runs on its own clock. But the Magal is something else. It is the biggest religious pilgrimage in Senegal, hundreds of thousands of Mouride disciples making their way to Touba, and for a few days the capital just... empties. I am told the Tata buses were scarce for a week, and the university campus was a ghost town. Even my normally bustling Médina felt like it was holding its breath. So instead of fighting the quiet, I decided to lean into it. Today, I am going to Gorée.
Now, Gorée is one of those names you hear before you ever touch Senegal. It is a UNESCO-listed island, a fifteen-minute ferry ride from the capital, and it stands as a memorial to the Atlantic slave trade. I have been hearing about the House of Slaves since I landed, and I knew I had to see it. But I also knew that going on a normal day would mean jostling with tour groups and the heat of the crowds. With the city still hushed, I hoped for something more contemplative. I was not wrong.
The ferry itself is a working boat, not a tourist cruiser. It costs about 5,200 CFA francs for a round trip, which is a little over eight dollars, and it is the same fare whether you are a pilgrim, a vendor, or a traveller. We pulled out past the port, past the container cranes and the fishing pirogues heading out for the morning catch, and the salt air started to do its work on me. A woman next to me was carrying a bag of onions and a live chicken under her arm, and she was chatting with a man in a crisp business suit. That is Dakar for you. The formal and the everyday share the same bench.
The island appears quickly. You round the southern tip of the peninsula and there it is, low and pinkish in the morning light, with the old fort and the red rooftops of the colonial houses climbing up the hill. The ferry horn blows, and I feel that little lift in my chest that always comes with arriving somewhere by water. The dock is a simple stone quay, and the moment you step off, the absence of cars is almost disorienting. Gorée has no roads for vehicles. Just narrow lanes, stone staircases, and the sound of your shoes on old cobbles.
I had a plan, sort of. I wanted to see the House of Slaves, of course, but I also wanted to wander without a map, to let the island speak on its own terms. The museum officially opened a few minutes after I arrived, and I paid the small entry fee, a few hundred CFA francs, and stepped into the courtyard. The building is a restoration, but the weight of it is real. The cells downstairs are small, dark, and the air is thick in a way that has nothing to do with the weather. I walked through slowly, reading the plaques, trying to hold the history without letting it crush me.
His name was El Hadji, and he was the guardian of the House of Slaves, a title that has passed through his family for generations. He was an older man, with a quiet voice and eyes that had seen too many visitors come and go. He told me about the Door of No Return, the small opening that faces the Atlantic, and how for so many it was the last piece of Africa they ever saw. He spoke in French, slowly, and I found myself understanding more than I expected. He did not raise his voice, did not gesture. He simply stood there and let the place speak for him.
After an hour inside, I needed air. I walked up the main lane, past the art galleries and the craft stalls, though most of them were still shuttered. A few vendors had set up their tables, and one woman called out to me in Wolof. Nanga def, she said, and I smiled and answered back, maa ngi fi, I am fine. It is a small thing, but every exchange like that makes the city feel a little more like home. I bought a small wooden okir, the traditional sabar drum, about 5,000 CFA francs, not as a souvenir, but because I promised myself I would learn a few rhythms before I leave.
I found a bench near the top of the island, overlooking the water, and I just sat there for a while, watching the ferries come and go, listening to the gulls, feeling the sweat dry on my skin in the breeze. It was one of those rare travel moments where you are not doing anything, and yet everything feels exactly right. I thought about the week ahead, about the visa paperwork I had already started, about the CIE application that is still sitting in a drawer somewhere, a récépissé in my passport that tells the world I am legally here for the next six months.
Let me talk practical for a moment, because this is the stuff that actually matters when you move somewhere, not the postcards. I opened a bank account at Ecobank on my first full day here, and that was easier than I expected. Passport, proof of address, an initial deposit, I had that done in about an hour. The SIM card was even simpler. I walked into an Orange Sénégal store at the airport, showed my passport, and walked out with a local number and 7 gigabytes of data for about 5,000 CFA francs. That is less than ten dollars, and it means I can navigate, book, and stay in touch without burning through my international roaming.
The CIE, the residence card, is the boring but essential part. You have to apply within 90 days of arriving, and I did that with the help of a fiscal stamp and a trip to the police headquarters. The stamp cost 15,000 CFA francs, and I had to pay a repatriation deposit at the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, around 130,000 CFA francs for US citizens. It is a lot of money and a lot of queuing, but the récépissé they gave me is renewable, and it is what keeps you legal while the actual card takes its sweet time to be produced. Six to twelve months, I was told, and I believe it.
I took the ferry back in the early afternoon, the boat fuller now with day-trippers and workers returning from the island. A young man was selling café Touba from a thermos, that spicy, sweet coffee that is the lifeblood of this country, and I bought a small cup for 200 CFA francs. The caffeine hit me just as the sky opened up. It is the rainy season, and the afternoon showers arrive like clockwork, short and violent. The ferry deck suddenly became a chaos of umbrellas and laughter, and I huddled under a tarp with a group of women who were clearly amused by the toubab getting soaked for no good reason.
Back in Dakar, the city was stirring again, but still not at full volume. I wandered into the Médina, past the Grande Mosquée, and found a spot at a small canteen that I had heard about from a friend. The menu was simple, and I ordered thieboudienne, the national dish, a plate of rice and fish with vegetables that cost me about 1,500 CFA francs. It is a dish that is declining in quality in the tourist spots, but here, in this canteen, it was perfect. The fish was flaky, the rice was soaked in the tomato sauce, and there were carrots and cabbage and cassava all cooked together. I ate slowly, watching the street life pick up, the car rapides honking their worn-out horns, the vendors setting up their evening stalls.
After lunch, I walked over to KOTAO Coffee, a place that has become my unofficial office in the city. It is one of those cafés that could exist anywhere in the world, with exposed brick and a serious espresso machine, but the staff greet you in Wolof and the terrace looks out onto a street that is unmistakably Dakar. I ordered a cappuccino, about 1,500 CFA francs, and pulled out my notebook. I had a list of things to figure out for the podcast, but sitting there, with the rain tapping on the awning and the smell of roasted beans in the air, I realised that the most important thing I could do was simply be here, not rushing from one sight to the next.
I have been thinking a lot about teranga, the Wolof word for hospitality. It is not just a word here, it is a social contract, a way of moving through the world that assumes generosity before suspicion. Everyone told me about it before I came, but I did not really understand it until I got lost in the Médina on my first day, and a woman, seeing me confused, walked me all the way to my guesthouse, refusing the money I tried to give her. That is teranga. It is the reason why, even in the chaos of the city, you never feel alone.
So this is where I am, at the end of my third day. The CIE application is moving, the Wolof is slowly taking root, and I have a drum that I cannot yet play. Tomorrow, I will start looking at longer-term accommodation, maybe in Grand Yoff or Parcelles Assainies, where a modest one-bedroom flat runs anywhere from 150,000 to 300,000 CFA francs a month. That is roughly 370 dollars, and it is a fraction of what you would pay in Almadies. But that is a story for another episode. For now, the rain has passed, the city is lighting up, and I have a date with a sabar class at the Maison de la Culture Douta Seck. I will tell you how that goes. Jàmm ak jàmm, as they say, peace and peace.
I have been sitting in this café for over an hour now, and the light outside has shifted from grey to gold. The rain left everything glistening, and the streets are filled with that post-storm smell of wet earth and exhaust. I think this is the version of Dakar I came for, not the one in the travel guides, but the one that exists between the moments, in the quiet after the Magal, in the warmth of a canteen kitchen, in the sound of a ferry horn fading across the water. I will be back tomorrow, with more stories and more of this city that refuses to be hurried. Thanks for walking with me.
I closed my notebook, paid the bill, and stepped out into the cool, damp evening. The car rapides were in full voice again, and I let myself be absorbed into the rhythm, heading home with the smell of salt and coffee still clinging to my shirt. This is Fatou, signing off from Dakar, where every day teaches me to listen a little more.