Even a Boring Country Deserves 10 days

I wrote that Senegal is boring, and one reader commented, more or less saying, then why are you still there? I think it is best to stay one month in all countries if you want to have me listen to your opinion when you say you have visited a country, so I do not leave quickly.

Paraguay
I often think about the country of Paraguay and feel guilty, I was in a Hostel visiting the Iguazu Falls in Brazil for a few days. I then crossed over into Ciudad del Este, Paraguay for one night. I have counted this country on list of "Countries Visited" for years and is still counted because I slept one night in the country.

Two things happened; the city of "Ciudad del Este" is sort of creepy in Arabic way. Then while in the Hostel, many Israel people told me many bad things about the people in the city. Upon sleeping in the Paraguay Hotel, I realized the Paraguay people did not speak Spanish well, they spoke some local something, and it was difficult to communicate.

(I fixed my television in my room and have been watching 24 with Kiefer Sutherland.)

I would have stayed longer in Paraguay, but my first day was bad, so I just returned to Brazil and went north to Maceo to meet up with for a pre-arrange travel trip with an Argentina girl.

I did the same thing for Honduras and rectified the situation last year by living in Tela, Honduras for a month, I wanted to relieve my counting country guilt.

First impressions can be wrong, and in many ways not important, if you are not enjoying a place than leave. However, I have unlimited time, why not give countries a fair chance? I truly despise Europe in many ways, I cannot even give a country a fair chance, I must make reservations in most cities, I must decide that I like a city, or do not like before I visit, not a good way to travel, nothing to do with wandering around in a country, a horrible way to travel the world is by having reservations.
Counting Countries
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iguazu_Falls
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iguazu_Falls

10 Year Old Page Problems
I took a good photo of Iguacu Falls, it was a good memory and thought I would find it and put on this post. The photos on this page are destroyed; when they were transferred from one server to another, I believe they were damage. Another problem is the CD ROMS, at one time I thought this worked, and it does not, a very bad way to store photos.

I do not like to lose photos; presently I store photos in three to four locations. I know one thing, 95 percent of the advice I have received from techs over the years on storing photos was wrong. Bottom line, only store on a hard-drive, and make four copies on four separate hard-drives, and yes you can count your server
http://www.hobotraveler.com/alg_iguacu05.shtml

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Dakar / Yoff / Senegal, West-West Africa --- Friday, March 11, 2011
by Andy Graham of HoboTraveler.com | Read Gadget Profile
Photos
Videos

| Senegal Hotels
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24 with Kiefer Sutherland
I said the other day; I always have a library or bookstore in my room. I also always have a Television in my room. I carry mass amounts of books, movies and TV shows on my computer, so there is no reason to get a Hotel room with these benefits; I save 1000’s of dollars.

I am having a moment, I have been watching all of season 8 of the show 24 with Kiefer Sutherland. I also have all of season 4 of House to watch, and working on Burn Notice.

Andy on Daily Radio Show - or Podcasting Problems
I am going to do a daily "Podcast," nothing more ambiguous than saying this word. OK, I am going to record a daily radio show, a question and answer session. Readers will be able to download it and listen, or watch, both options will be available There are two major technical problems to solve.

Goal: Readers ask questions, I answer them and publish for people to watch or listen too.

1. Record questions from reader:
I want to allow readers to call a USA telephone number, and ask questions. The message will be recorded; somehow, I will download this audio file, maybe it will be e-mailed to me. I may have a page that has a way to record on the page a video and the voice.

2. Lighting in the room for the Camera.
There is only one sure place to record this video and voice, which is inside my Hotel Room. I need to have great lighting and a tri-pod to hold the camera. I am trying to figure out a way to have 2-3 lights in my room that are good for video.

When I figure out these two problems, I will start a daily radio show, called a Podcast.

Warning about Scammers Wanting to buy Sites
There are many swindles by people wanting to buy my site, they are fishing, and they want to buy something worth a lot for 10 cents on the dollars. There is also a swindle where people want to know my advertising rates, but they are just fishing.

If you own a site that earns money, be careful, this is a warning.

Dakar is city on Sand
It appears to me, that Dakar and Yoff are cities built on a big pile of sand. The buildings here are all built on top of sand, an interesting city. This is much better than Lome, Togo which has a lot of the city built on sand, they do not use as much charcoal here in Dakar for cooking and the sand is white and cleaner.

Although this city is dirty, and a few videos I have taken will show that soon, when I publish. There is not much difference between Ivory Coast and Senegal, the quality of life for the locals is about the same. There is more stuff to buy here for people, they have better access
to world products. The cost of living is higher, and maybe the people earn the same as Ivory Coast, Ghana or Togo, this is not good math.

Dakar is an Earthquake Disaster waiting to happen, I have no idea if this city is on or near an Earthquake fault. But if it is, then watch out, this city is full of 3-4 story buildings, this is the standard size, and then they build the building with dodgy or unwashed sand, the blocks are crumbling before they even put them in the walls. I truly hope this place never has an Earthquake.

Video of Breakfast Included in Normal Backpacker Hotel
- Note, I am paying 30 Dollars a night and that is not a normal price, so a push to say there is a Backpacker Hotel in Dakar, Senegal.

Even a Boring Country Deserves 10 days

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Gadget from has written 1,020 comments

My Addictive behavior

I just finished writing this, it is 5:40 AM in the morning. Note, that time has no meaning to me, it means nothing, I have an extreme over-abundance of extra time.

What is the first co-dependent thought of the day.
"I can watch 24."

Watching more of the show 24 at 5:41 AM in the morning is nuts, but fun, only four more episodes to watch before this addictive behavior runs its course until season 9 is available.

Traveled 86 Countries | Visited 45 Cities | 24 Photos

As a hobo myself, i've had good luck with google voice. You get a free US phone number and it will email you when you have a message and send a transcript too. Very easy.

Gadget from has written 1,020 comments

What is a transcript?

Is this writing or an audio file?

I need a file, a .wav. mp3 mp 4, a recorded message that is given to me to use.

I will try to sign up for Google Voice, it is a USA only thing, and blocks me outside the USA. It does not help I am 55, i forget or lose track of information and cannot find notes.

Thanks
Andy

Traveled 86 Countries | Visited 45 Cities | 24 Photos

tropicalguide from has written 132 comments

http://luterano.blogspot.com/2011/03/el-salvador-under-tsunami-alert.html Pacific Coast of El Salvador and rest of Central America and north to Alaska under Tsunami alert, 8.9 Richter scale quake in Japan, nothing we can do about natural disasters when traveling but ride them out. Civil unrest you can get out of Dodge, like you did in Cote D' Ivoire, most of the time though, living or traveling it is fairly the same daily routine, it is just a lot cheaper, with far less rules and regulations, than living home in USA.
I pray for the victims in Japan and hope there will be no Tsunami damages anywhere!!! 1020 am local time San Salvador, El Salvador 11/03/2011.

Visited 4 Cities | 1 Photos

Hi Andy:

There is a free phone service called http://k7.net/ that will give you what you need.

- The phone number is based in Seattle.
- You can record an outgoing message.
- All messages are emailed to you (or you can download them).
- Audio files are available in low and high quality (.wav).
- Messages can be 5 minutes long.
- You can receive faxes.
- You can only store 20 messages on the website, but that shouldn't matter. Newest messages will replace oldest. But you'll have audio files of all messages mailed to you.
- Cost is FREE!!! All you have to do is make sure there is one message left every month. I schedule a "keep alive" call in my calendar to remind me to call that number (via skype) once per month.

I've used it for years and it works like a charm. You can try leaving me a message at (EDITED NUMBER OUT).

Cheers!

Doug
Lake Atitlan

Gadget from has written 1,020 comments

Hello Doug,

I called the number, so far this looks great. I am excited.All projects start out a little confusing and work their way into clarity.

Thanks, Andy Graham in Dakar, Senegal

Traveled 86 Countries | Visited 45 Cities | 24 Photos

Here's a cheap and simple lighting set up for you. Assuming what you want it to record yourself speaking to camera, or at most you sitting next to someone having a conversation, what I would do is go buy 2 cheap worklights (see picture http://bit.ly/dThogh). They weigh almost nothing and are durable enough to stand up to abuse while traveling.

Get regular compact florescent (CFL) bulbs for them, but try to get the higher wattage bulbs. CFL bulbs are great because they produce almost no heat. Plus the colour of the light they produce is close to daylight, so it will match with any light coming in from a window or door (otherwise you might look orange). The light from CFL bulbs is naturally soft so you won't have major shadows to deal with.

You can clamp the lights onto a desk, or chair, and swivel the lights until they are directed at you. For best results try to put the lights about 30-45 degrees off axis on either side of your face. You can experiment with distances and angles to get the lighting to look the way you want. You might find keeping one light further away or more off-axis will result in an image with more depth. Set up your camera somewhere in between the two lights.

You can also light yourself with only one light, and use the second light to light up the background if the room is too dark. In this case the light on you should be about 15-20 degrees off axis.

cheers!
Brent

Distance From Senegal, Yoff to:
Miles
Kilometers

Accra Ghana
1,333
2,145

Bangkok, Thailand
7,772
12,508

Cairo Egypt
3,259
5,244

Chicago
4,529
7,288

Frankfurt Germany
2,881
4,636

Istanbul, Turkey
3,311
5,328

Johannesburg South Africa
4,078
6,563

Kathmandu, Nepal
6,504
10,466

London
2,716
4,371

Los Angeles
6,248
10,055

Manila, Philippines
9,425
15,169

Mumbai, India
5,908
9,507

New York
3,817
6,143

Orland, Indiana
4,401
7,083

Paris France
2,523
4,061

San Francisco
6,260
10,074

Singapore
8,276
13,318

Tel Aviv Israel
3,483
5,605

Tokyo, Japan
8,646
13,914

Even a Boring Country Deserves 10 days

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