Djibouti is a wonderful surprise

I walk the streets without hassle. The high prices are not even worrisome because they are not ripoff ferenghi prices. And everything works. And the money is clean. And there are clean, well-stocked supermarches. And the Internet works. And I'm not having to step around guys peeing on the sidewalk. And there's a gelateria where someone is cleaning a speck of dirt off the linoleum. I recover in two days. I meet a man from the Organization of African States who tells me illegal immigration from Ethiopia is a big problem in Djibouti. He commends the state of Arizona. A woman from Kenya who works for the UN is here to train people about the immigration problem. And this is Africa.

The center of Djibouti city is vaguely cosmopolitan--if you stretch it--with pastel-painted Moorish architecture. And against this backdrop, you've got tribesmen and brilliantly dressed women as amazing touches of exotica. Everything shuts down in the afternoon when the men fall into a qat-chewing stupor.

Unfortunately, it's July, and the heat and humidity are crippling. But I always believe you need to leave something to come back to, and for Djibouti, it's Lac Abbe, a plain where 100s of giant limestone chimneys blow out steam (a great backdrop for the movie Planet of the Apes). And then there's Lac Asal where volcanoes surround a crater lake, which is the lowest point on the African continent. I would love to see these places, which take a few days I'm told. I like it here.

Pictures coming when the Internet permits...