Six Months of Life in Mauritania

Day 10 in Mauritania Even though Mauritania offers a visa on arrival, you still need to apply for an e-visa beforehand. My journey started in Beijing with a 14-hour flight to Morocco, a 1-hour layover (which turned longer due to delays 😩), then another 2-hour flight to Nouakchott. After landing, I had to go through the visa process again at the airport, plus customs—total chaos for over an hour! 🛃 By the time I got out, it was 4 AM local time. Exhausting schedule! Since I was headed to Nouadhibou, I crashed at a hotel in Nouakchott before taking a 5-hour ride to my final destination. 🚗💨 Nouakchott has mosquitoes, but Nouadhibou is better—though flies are everywhere, and the cockroaches? Not just "little roaches"—these are MONSTER-sized 🪳💀. Thankfully, I haven’t seen them fly (yet)—when they show up at home, they’re already belly-up. Weather check: ☀️ Mornings before sunrise? Cool & pleasant. 🌡️ Once the sun’s up? Scorching hot! 💨 The wind? Full of sand—my throat was wrecked on Day 1. 😷 👕 My daily armor: T-shirt + overshirt + long pants + hat + mask + sunglasses (sunburn is no joke here). Shopping & Food: 🛒 Surprisingly convenient! But fruits & veggies are crazy expensive (mostly imported). 🇨🇳 There’s a Chinese supermarket and a European one (mostly Spanish imports). 🦞 LOBSTER here is HUGE—one for tasting, two for a full meal! 🍽️ 🐪 Tried fresh camel milk—richer & creamier than cow’s milk, but not bad! Local Life: 🏠 Houses are built right on the desert sand—only main roads are paved, the rest? Dusty trails. 🏗️ Half-built "ghost houses" everywhere—locals build when they have money, pause when they don’t. 🕌 Prayer time is STRICT: 5 AM, 2 PM, 5 PM, 7 PM, 9 PM—face east, drop everything, and pray. 🙏 Language Struggles: 🗣️ Locals speak French, but it’s a local dialect—Google Translate is useless. 🤷 Also mixes of Arabic & Spanish, making communication… interesting. Bonus: 🏖️ Coming from landlocked Northeast China, I was SO excited to collect seashells… but locals don’t eat shellfish and don’t like outsiders taking them. So… low-key shell hunting only. 🐚😅 #Africa #Mauritania #Nouakchott #Nouadhibou #ExpatLife 🌵✈️