The Gluten Free Travel Blog

We landed in Djibouti.  Djibouti is strange.  Because of prayers, everything is closed on Fridays.  The entire city is empty. 

The vibe of Djibouti is a little different.  It definitely has an edge to it.  Addis was lush and green, Djibouti is hot and desert like.  The price of everything is also 4 to 5 times higher.  We walked about 45 minutes to the Gulf of Aden.  I was really shocked to find out that the water was hotter than most people enjoy their baths.  The sand was also black. 

We got to sit and talk with a few locals chewing khat in the afternoon.  These were the guys running the local shop.  They were nice, but they definitely had an interesting sales pitch.  We watched them yell at all the would-be customers until they got uncomfortable and left. 

Djibouti is still adapting to the very large American military base that was built very soon after September 11th.  The base employs a lot of the population, and the feelings are definitely mixed about it.  The little bit of Arabic I’ve learned has definitely come in handy.

For those curious about the gluten content of the local cuisine, there are very few options here.  There are the fast food type foods that are safe enough.  Eat your heart out:

This entry was posted on March 12, 2010 at 06:30 and is filed under Djibouti. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.