Mauritania

Mauritania isn’t a country that attracts many tourists. Culturally, it felt like it sat somewhere between North Africa and West Africa, blending Arab and African influences into something uniquely its own. During my visit, I wandered through the bustling fish and camel markets in the capital, Nouakchott, and took a day trip to Banc d’Arguin National Park, where vast sand dunes met the Atlantic Ocean and Mauritanian families enjoyed a few relaxing days away from the city.

The highlight of my visit, though, was reuniting with my new friends, Costanza and Rubén, whom I’d met a couple of days earlier at the airport in Senegal. They had just moved to Mauritania after Costanza accepted a position with the United Nations there. They invited me to dinner with several of their friends and colleagues, and we spent the evening sharing travel stories and talking about the very different paths that had brought all of us to one of the world’s least-visited countries. My time in Mauritania was just one example, but some of the most fascinating people I’ve met on my journey have been those living and working in places few others ever think to visit.