Traveling to nearly 100 countries, to developed countries, to developing countries, and then to poor countries, everything here is unimaginable to me. If there are many countries that are very poor in Africa, Mauritania is the country that is decently poor.
After so many years of sailing, I can't remember the number of times I went to Mauritania, and the port of Nouakchott and Nouadhibou in Mauritania are frequented ports. These two ports are two cities, one is the capital city and the other is the second largest city. Two cities belong to the same country, but they are very different.
In the previous article, I wrote about the experience of Nouakchott Port, and experienced a woman's life of plump and fat beauty, which in my opinion is not a manifestation of poverty, but when I came to Nouadhibou, seeing everything here, it made me really experience the life of poor people. Or the blackmail life of officials, or the life of the people.
Without going abroad, it is really difficult for you to experience what others really look like in reality. There is too much local knowledge and too little information online, even just the tip of the iceberg.
When I learned that our ship was going to Mauritania again, my feelings were mixed. Since visiting Nouakchott once before, I have lost my mind to the environment, except for the local people.
Learning from my last visit to Mauritania, this time I have two masks in particular. We all know that West Africa, Western Sahara and Algeria in the north, Senegal in the south, the Atlantic Ocean in the west and Mali in the east. The entire country is only 1,030,700 square kilometers, and about 700,000 square kilometers are desert. As soon as the wind blew, the sky was full of sand, and it was impossible to breathe.
The further north the country goes, the more desertification becomes, and the port of Nouakchott is already a very arid and deserted place. Nouadhibou is also to the north, and the whole city is located on the Levriyu Bay peninsula in the northwest.
The desertification here is almost like the Sahara Desert, and when you look at it from the boat, everything except the blue sky is blue. It looks like there's no life, but it's still home to 96,000 people.
It's hard to imagine the life of the locals, in order to be able to explore their lives here, I braved many small towns alone and met many local people, and everything I experienced was an accident within an accident, especially the first encounter and the final harvest here, which I will never forget.
For the crew, the poorer the country, the less they can go, otherwise people will not be able to eat and go. THE FIRST TIME WE CAME TO THE PORT OF NUADHIBOU IN MAURITANIA, THE PORT NAME IS PORT ETIENNE, IT TURNED OUT TO BE ON A PENINSULA, AND THE WEATHER WAS PARTICULARLY GOOD ON THE DAY WE CAME.
After pulling up the dock early in the morning, the crew thought about going fishing. Because we saw local fishing boats fishing in the sea outside the port that day, and there were many seabirds nearby, so based on my experience of running boats, I think that places with many seabirds must be very rich in marine fish, which will attract the gathering of seabirds.
Before we could get to the dock, our chef jumped to go fishing. After docking, the first thing to do is to wait for the arrival of officials, customs for us, quarantine for us to check the kitchen, living areas and other hygiene.
It stands to reason that these jobs are a matter of minutes in Europe and the United States, but in this country and this city, it is extremely troublesome.
That day, after the customs, guards and other officials came to the ship, they deliberately used tricks to make things difficult for us everywhere, saying that our documents were incomplete, and saying that the information on the documents was false. I think they did it on purpose, our documents are all issued by international maritime agencies, there can be no problems. This is the case with customs, as well as with health inspections, who come to our kitchen and say that the smell of oil smoke is heavy, the food warehouse is messy, and in their eyes it does not meet the requirements.
This is probably the style of Africans, as well as the style of Mauritanian officials. The captain is experienced and knows that this is the case in all these countries in Africa, which is nothing more than asking for money.
The captain had a showdown, and he was not in the mood to entangle with them, and directly asked them how much money they wanted to give. Seeing that the captain took such an initiative, the customs were happy with a little irony, and felt that the captain was a soft persimmon.
At that time, customs asked the captain for $500 and the guard for $300. The captain gave them without a word and signed the corresponding documents to let them leave.
Their departure means that our ship has officially obtained permission, cargo can start loading and unloading, and the crew can move freely. We were allowed to stay in the local country for five days, and in this hot environment, the captain wanted to leave early. In fact, the rest of the crew and I were looking forward to staying longer.
Although the sand is flying here and the heat makes it difficult to breathe, the exploration experience here is very rare in my opinion, and the crew seems to have gained experience and learned lessons.
After docking that day, the head chef was a particularly positive one, and before I returned to my room, he went fishing at the bow of the boat. I arrived at the bow of the boat in a happy mood, took out the hook, hung up the bait, and threw the fishing line into the sea.
Fish hooks that have just entered the sea will be hooked by fish bites, snappers, moray eels, and groupers in minutes. Let the chef grin.
But no one expected that when the head chef was fishing, the port officials saw this phenomenon at the dockside, and I don't know if it was red eyes or there were indeed port regulations that did not allow our crew to fish.
The head chef was arrested, and the port officials came to the ship and approached the captain and asked for money, saying that our crew was fishing in their waters without permission and needed to be fined.
The captain was completely unaware and had to broadcast to the fishing crew to look for him in the office. Originally, the head chef thought that it would be okay to hide, but he did not expect that the captain summoned fishing like this, and the head chef had to go to the office.
When the captain confirmed that this was indeed the case, he also regretted that there were really many fishing in poor countries. When we go fishing in other countries, as long as the agent does not emphasize that we cannot fish, we can fish for free.
In fact, Africa can also fish, but it completely depends on luck, luck did not encounter extortion, you can also fish very happy, if you meet someone pretending to be an official, they also have a first-hand document, catch one quasi-one, the document is released, is to ask you to give money.
You don't need to explain at all, you don't need to argue, Africans don't listen to you. You just take your passport and tell the other person, I am Chinese, do you think people will treat you warmly when they see it? You are wrong, they only have money in their eyes, but they think that only Chinese is the richest.
No way, this matter is not negotiable, and the fine bill directly says a fine of $800. The captain also tried to explain to him, but people only told you that this was a regulation given by their country, and he had no right to change the ticket.
In desperation, the chef's fishing trip ended with an $800 fine.
It's a pity that when you meet these bandit-like officials, you have no choice, you can only learn a lesson.
The chef's experience was sad, but mine was unforgettable. Another trip to Mauritania, not only brought me a wonderful experience, but also made up for the chef's slight disappointment.
That day, I came to the harbor pond and first went to the inner city of the peninsula. With the experience of the last time, this time instead of riding in a donkey cart, I rode in the desert on a camel.
This desert trip is very different, the last time I came here, I didn't find the desert here, but this time, I found that the desert here is not golden, but white.
I've seen yellow sand, black sand, and the first time I met the whole desert was white. Although it looks yellow, in reality, the sand is indeed white.
There is a difference between the experience in Nouadhibou and the experience in the capital Nouakchott. Nouadhibou is deserter than Nouakchott, similar to the Sahara.
There are occasionally some small houses under the desert, desert grass can be faintly seen, and even fewer people appear on the road.
In Nouakchott, you can also see people walking on the streets and roads. When I came to Nouadhibou, I could see very few people deep into the hinterland, which was probably the reason for the poor internal environment, I came across a castle, I didn't dare to go in, and the eldest brother with the camel didn't understand what I meant.
The scene seen outside the castle is like an abandoned castle, and there are no people entering or leaving, like a ghost town, so quiet that you dare not approach.
I walked a lot that day, and there were people who specialized in camel breeding, and there were also people who specialized in donkey breeding.
I thought at first that these people were breeding them to sell meat, but in fact they weren't, they were used to pull goods. Mauritania is actually a country with very rich mines, but in such a country, there is only one railway, and it is often closed.
In order to be able to export inland mineral resources abroad, it can only be transported by a large number of animal rally vehicles. Animals are suffering, and people are even more suffering. They can only get an income of 1-5 yuan at a time, and they can only get about 15 yuan a day, which is a long way, the environment is difficult, and the people's life is too difficult.
This may be a way for locals to make a living and support the economic development of the local country. More than 40 per cent of Mauritania's economic income is derived from trade in mineral resources.
There is almost no agriculture, and the whole country has only a little wetlands in the southwest, and most of the rest is desert. In harsh conditions, fishery resources have become a source of income for another group of people.
The country is backward, and the life of the people is not developed. There is no place to have money and no money to buy things here. It is difficult for rich people to buy a decent fishing boat, and it is particularly tight for poor people to buy a wooden boat.
In Mauritania, if a family can have a painted wooden boat, then it can feed several generations and pass it on from generation to generation, but people who have no money and no income, all this is a luxury.
Here, the income of ordinary people is 100-300 yuan a month, which is lower than that of ordinary people in the Nouakchott region.
Except, of course, fishermen, because I know some clever Chinese businessmen here who specialize in hiring locals as workers to fish for them, earning 30 yuan a day and 1,000 yuan a month.
What is the concept of 1,000 yuan income in the local area?
Just like our Chinese monthly income of 50,000 yuan, and here is to make money, they don't even want to buy things, this is that there is money and there is no place to spend.
In this way, the people who live here, they have no desire for life, but just live to pass the time.
Coming out of the interior of Nouadhibou and coming to the fish market near the port area is another big income for me to come to the country.
The previous harvest in Nouakchott was cistanche, which can be seen everywhere in the desert, and the feeling of fighting for gold is experienced there.
Cistanche is expensive in the country, but it is cheap locally and is one of the main sources of income for locals.
But when it comes to Nouadhibou, there are almost no cistanches in the desert. This may be the reason why there are many camels and donkeys, and cistanche in the desert, green grass is the main food of camels and donkeys.
It's really hard to drink water and eat in the desert. In Nouakchott, a glass of water costs about 5-10 yuan, while when eating, half sand, half rice.
When you chew, you can't bite hard, otherwise you will have a feeling of eating sand. A serving of rice is about 50 RMB. It is estimated that only the village chief can eat the rice that can eat it, and the rest are basically unhappy.
Rice cannot be eaten casually, but the fish here is not exhausted, and many people dry the fish as the main reserve food for consumption all year round.
We eat rice all year round, and they eat dried fish all year round. What they eat is very simple, that is, directly tear off the dried fish meat and dip it in fish oil, fish oil helps digestion, and the fish meat is white meat, so they eat this for a living.
Don't say, the locals told me that eating fish all year round, the skin will be very delicate, people here diabetes almost did not appear, even the local everyone's eye vision is very good, in the village, the town 5.3 vision people are common, and even some people's vision beyond imagination, several kilometers away can see tiny things, if there is still the limit of the eye chart, then their eyes are the representative of the limit.
Eating fish is indeed very good, and the fish here are all sea fish.
After wandering around the interior, I returned to the coastal edge. He paid 500 Mauritanian Uguiya to the camel master and he was very happy. In his eyes, no one had ever given him so much money so extravagantly, and he had never met a guest like me.
Say goodbye to him and come to the beach, where there are really many crabs crawling by the beach.
The phenomenon of crabs flooding here is like the phenomenon of Australian lobsters, there are too many crabs on the beach with the tide, if you are not afraid of being caught, you can catch at least dozens of pounds in half an hour.
Seeing this, how can the life of the locals be poor? There are too many gifts from nature, just eat crabs to live a life can feed themselves, but in fact, people here do not look at crabs at all, their eyes are big fish, tuna, lobster, cuttlefish, grouper, a variety of top seafood.
Mauritania is one of the world's top seafood producers, of course, not farmed, with its advantageous geographical location, it gathers rich marine fish and shellfish.
As far as we know, gooseneck barnacles are sold for thousands of yuan a pound in some large hotels, here, on the stones by the sea, on artificial piers, everywhere.
If it weren't for the chef's risk, we would have eaten seafood here until we vomited. Unfortunately, the people here are barbaric, deliberately embarrassing foreigners, and take advantage of various opportunities to extort money, which limits our activities.
Walking from the beach, I was at the fish market in Nouadhibou when I encountered a lively scene of locals selling fish, and the locals told me that what I saw was the end, and if I had come here earlier, the seafood would be even more dazzling.
Every day, around 4 o'clock, many fishermen come back from fishing, and there are more local fishermen selling fish than buying them.
You can bargain with them, as long as you feel that you want, you can directly negotiate a half-discount, or even a lower price.
If he doesn't sell it, there will be others selling it, the seafood here is extremely rich, and the precious fish is too cheap that you can imagine.
A kilogram of fresh tuna, only 280 Mauritanian Ouguija, large crabs are not sold by the pound, 10 are sold, each about half a kilogram to two catties, can be bought early, one is about 500 Mauritanian Ouguia, about 10 yuan.
There is so much seafood here that you can't imagine what the local seafood market looks like.
For our crew, if we go to a country and can buy cheap seafood, then we can save a lot of food costs on board, so that we can share a lot of food costs.
Buying seafood in European and American countries is very expensive, and each time it is eaten is tens of thousands of dollars, and seafood is bought very little.
What I saw in the local area that day was the end of the fish market, and I learned that I could buy more seafood by arriving early in the morning.
I told the captain what I had seen and what I had learned when I returned to the ship, and the captain learned that there was such a good thing, and came to my room at four o'clock the next day and knocked on my door.
After pulling me out of bed, we drove directly to the market in the boat's tool cart.
When we came to the market, there were already many people selling seafood, and the locals looked at us as if we looked like big money, and they all told us to buy seafood.
That scene, looking at the people here, was very enthusiastic, in fact, I was asked to buy their seafood.
That day, the captain and I bought too much, everyone bid with each other, as soon as we bargained, someone would come to grab the price, and finally 1000 Mauritanian Ouguiya things, after bargaining, only 300 Mauritanian Ouguiya.
This transaction was so cool that the captain did not stop at all, and the amount of one ton was only spent 500 yuan in total. The locals were so happy that they didn't expect to meet such ordinary customers. They were very friendly and offered to transport us to the side of the boat.
However, these people were not too friendly, and they bought things, they did not come to the ship for free, the driver asked us for a tip, the captain gave dollars and did not want it, gave the local currency 200 Mauritanian Ouguia, and chased the captain for 300 Mauritanian Ouguia.
It seems that the people here are too unfriendly, in fact, it is not easy for them to meet foreigners here, it is not easy to meet ships that come to this country, and it is not easy to meet big customers like us.
In the captain's opinion, a ton of seafood we buy is worth at least 100,000 yuan or more, many of which are unspeakable top seafood, which is almost difficult to buy in other countries, even if it can be bought at a high price, it is still frozen.
It can be said that the environment here is really special, the local poor are too poor to eat and spend. There are resources but no technology, there are resources without trade, and the people live so poor that they can only eat fish. In this harsh environment, being able to live poor and happy is also a realm.
The world is wonderful, and only by deeply exploring every corner of each country can we truly understand how different and wonderful the real world outside is. The rich here are bad, the poor are kind, the rich are lazy, and the poor are lazy.
Different cities in the same country bring me a very different experience, which is probably the style of the African continent. The geographical environment is special, the cultural landscape is special, interesting but challenging, and I look forward to exploring more anectuaries and unheard of experiences in sailing work.