Travelogue day 5: Banjul, The Gambia

Yes, the locals call it "The Gambia", not "Gambia."  (By way of contrast, it's just "Ukraine", not "The Ukraine."  I think the only other country with a "The" in front of its name is The Netherlands.)

The Gambia seemed a lot more ready to receive tourists than Senegal had been.  There was a welcoming committee singing and dancing at the dock.

Still, the local transportation was still pretty rustic.

We rode in that vehicle for a good hour and a half (each way).  You see a lot of things that you don't see much of in California.  It's a little hard to see, but this guy is carrying a very large tuna on his bicycle:

All over the place we saw shops selling overstuffed armchairs on the street.

Some of the natives were camera shy.

Others not so much.

Eventually we arrived at our destination, a wildlife refuge in the rain forest outside of town, where they fed us lunch and took us on a nice canoe ride.

There were a lot of baboons.  They were accustomed enough to humans that you could get pretty close to them and get some really amazing shots.  It's a shame that the light wasn't better.  It was overcast all day, so the light was really flat.

Did I mention there were a lot of baboons, and they were used to having humans around?

Got some nice bird shots too.  I don't remember what this one is called.  

All in all, just a pleasant and mostly uneventful day.  Which turned out to be pretty remarkable in this part of the world.