In Mauritania. We have booze!

Mauritania is one of the poorest countries in the world, there’s actually nothing but desert. The biggest note, the 2000 ouguiya tells a lot. It worth 1500 Ft (4 GBP). They became independent from France out of compulsion. They even gave up the southern part of Western Sahara, when Polisario (the feared injection organization) started to kill their camels. 2 years after this move oil was found in Western Sahara, so they put landmines on the border just out of revenge.

We’re heading towards Nouabhibou (Neumarkt an der See) in the sand. Although Mauritania is sparsely populated, the side of the road is full of trash. We reach our destination in an hour, a bay before Nouabhibou. Nouabhibou is a harbour town, the nearby bay is one of the best fishing area in the world. There is some kind of a fishing industry, but the main business and income derives from cocaine smuggling, the underground powder business as Abdulay says.

Neumarkt an der See

We go into town for spare tyres with Aravind. We find a guy who wants to sell us a completely smooth Michelin tyre for a ridiculously high price, 55.000 ouguiya. The Mauritanian bargaining is very strange. I think at first that he’s threatening us or aggressively having a go at us. In the end we leave him and we buy a local SIM card at another cousin of Abdulay. This guy’s face and the colour of his skin is completely different from Abdulay’s, not if it would count, everyone in town is Abdulay’s cousin. In the roundabout there was another dude sitting, waving at us, he was a cousin as well.

Another great problem to solve: 3500 a SIM card, 1000 a top up, the guy says 2 SIM cards and 2 top ups are 12000. 37% of the Mauritanians are illiterate, and maths is apparently not a compulsory subject. Although another funny thing is that shopkeepers always count on their behalf whether they can read and write or not. The shopkeeper tried everything, to change a 2000 note to 1000s, make a phone call, talk. In the end he accepts the truth. We go around town a bit then we go back to the camp. The Alfa bus arrives, it turns out that they buried their alcohol in Morocco out of ‘respect for the Muslim religion and culture’. Yes, sure…The friendship is getting closer and closer with them, and I guess the amount of alcohol we have plays a significant role in this.