Budget

Although both Jonathan were assuming that we would be going all the way to the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, we didn’t find out until we were at the Mauritanian that this would be basically impossible not if we wanted to make it there before midnight. Therefore we had no other choice but to spend a night in Nouadhibou, the biggest town in the border area. Our driver was trying to convince us to stay at some expensive hotel (it was hard to make these calculations, quick how much is 8,000 ouguiya?) and we had to keep insisting that we really didn’t have that kind of money. It’s like people can’t distinguish between kind of travelers. They see all foreigners as rich—which we are—but there is a still difference between a millionaire and a billionaire; even if it might seem trivial to us the billions of non-millionaires out there. I am not a business travelers, clearly if I were I wouldn’t be in your van with the clanking shells and instead would have flown into Nouadhibou or Nouakchott if I really had business there. He kept stating that he didn’t know the city and was tired and we asked him if he could help us find a hostel that was recommended by Lonely Planet. It was on the main street and from we could tell from the map Nouadhibou just isn’t that big. As he argued that he didn’t know where it was, Jonathan yelled out that we drove past it. Our driver didn’t believe it and when we drove back around I saw it and he insisted that he still didn’t see us. Finally we just got out of the van, realizing that he wasn’t going to be staying there so that the only thing that matters is that Jonathan and I saw it. The spot certainly was budget, 2,500 ouguiya or about $10. For this I got the barest accommodations of my life, our “room” consisted of a prison cell sized box (about 6’ by 12’) with two foam mattresses laid on the floor, and a table. There was no window, and the bathrooms were outside obviously. Again playing the “minimum acceptable” game with hostels and winning I guess.