The same week we went to Guinea Bissau, we also went to the Casamance region of Senegal. Casamance is in the far southern part of the country, between the Gambia and Guinea Bissau. It is, without a doubt, my favorite part of Senegal. It is by far the greenest region, and the people are more relaxed, less uptight, and more genuine than the people in Dakar (sorry if I have offended any Dakarois — this is just a generalization). You have the feeling in the Casamance that people are without ulterior motives, that they genuinely want to be friendly to you.
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The first thing that hits you when you arrive in Casamance is how green it is. Dakar, and most of Senegal, are located in a transition area between tropical vegetation and the Sahara desert called the Sahel. The Casamance is at the northern edge of the tropical zone.

We calculated the cost of travel, and realized that it would not cost us much more to fly into the Casamance. We did so, and the 50 minute flight was much shorter — and infinitely more comfortable — than the 12-15 hour ride in the back of a dusty, hot sept-place would have been!
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We spent our last couple days in the Casamance on the Ile de Carabane. Looking at these pictures, you can pretty much gather what our experience was like. Quiet and relaxing. There is not a lot to do there, which was just fine with us. We wandererd around the island (it’s located in the Casamance River a few miles before it reaches the Atlantic Ocean), made a sand castle on the beach, made conversation, ate good food.
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