Taxis

Traveling anywhere in the city of Dakar is quite an experience! Buses are quite common, but there is no published map of the routes. That makes riding the buses impossible for visitors, especially non-French speaking ones! Taxis are the only logical way to travel.
There are several interesting problems with taxis, however. First of all, very few taxi drivers speak English. Many are recently from village areas, and they can't even read French. That makes it very difficult to even have written directions or addresses to show the taxi drivers. We try to pronounce the French names of where we want to go, but they have a hard time understanding our poor French! Our best way to explain the location of the church building is to show them the logo of a nearby take-out Chinese restaurant!
Many of the taxi drivers are new to driving, especially if they have recently come from villages, where no one owns a car. Bribery to obtain drivers' licenses is common.
Also, negotiation of price is the norm, especially when the taxi drivers see Americans! They start off telling us a very high price. Then, if they refuse to come down to the price we have been told is reasonable, we must look for another taxi and start all over again with the negotiation process. Fortunately, there are many taxis! As we are walking down the street, if a taxi driver sees us, he will honk his horn, hoping to get our business.
Another problem with taxis is the poor condition of the cars. One could find better cars in the U.S. junkyards! (Notice the photo at the top of today's blog!) One evening our taxi stalled, and Ron had to get out and help push the taxi to get it going again. Another time we had a flat tire. Flat tires are common, as tires have little tread left!
Following are some photos. First is a picture of a lady and her children getting into a taxi.

Next is Ron trying to give directions to the driver. A nice man came over to help when he realized that Ron was having a difficult time. We did not notice until we looked at the photograph later what the man's shirt said! (You can click on the photo to enlarge it to see the print on the shirt.)

Next you can see the inside of one of the taxis. First is the picture of the front seat covers, and the next one shows the view behind the back seat.

This is a traffic scene. Wouldn't you like to ride here with a new driver?

Taxi drivers like to keep their taxis clean.

Many taxis have "things" hanging from the back bumpers. We saw a number with cow tails on the back!





***Just a note: If you are new to reading this blog, I still have a lot of catching up to do about our trip to Dakar. Computer use was very difficult while there, so I am predating all of the blog material. Keep reading!