Where in the world?

Some friends and I are planning a trip in the spring. Two other Fogarty fellows (Craig in Mali, Paul in Tanzania, and perhaps Blake in Kentcucky?) and I have been discussing via email where we might like to travel. Most likely someplace within Africa, but not opposed to some place a little more remote (excluding Europe, of course). Here are our choices so far. There is not much I can say about each one, because I specifically selected countries I have not been to and know very little about.

• Senegal: very safe, chill place from what I hear. My only glimpses of Senegal come from Dave Eggars book You Shall KnowOur Velocity and from a documentary where Trey Anastasio and Dave Matthews cruise around the country looking for people to beat up. No, wait, I meant people to play music with, those two guys couldnt fight their way out of a paper sack. But anyway, YSKOV was a good book, a Dave and Trey made good documentary (or rockumentary, if you will) so, I imagine Senegal has to be a cool place, right?
• The Gambia: A tiny sliver inside Senegal that follows the Gambia river. This place sounds and seems fascinating. Its literally a country whose borders are based along a river. They must like totally LOVE that river so much that they mapped and named their country after it. I would love to go see what that is all about. I wonder if I would contract schistosomiasis if I were to float this river in an innertube. Entirely likely, but perhaps worth it.
• Ethiopia: I think most people my age hear Ethiopia and imagine starving children. At least that was the first thing that came to my mind for most of my life. But I am old enough now to know that there is much more to this country. They are the only African nation that was not colonized (except for a little spat with Italy in WWII). I know very little about what there is to do in Ethiopia, but I bet there arent very many tourists, and that is a plus for me.
• Djibouti: This small country borders Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia. I know very little about this place as well, except that it has a cool name. If we go, I hope to make t-shirts that say "Spring Break Djibouti 2006!!!"
• Mauritius: This is a beautiful French island off the coast of, well, nothing. Its kind of out in the Indian Ocean all by itself. Its still considered Africa, but it is really influenced more by France and India. Would be more of a beach type destination than a real cultural experience, not that there is anything wrong with that. I bet the surfing would be excellent.
• Jan Meyen: I cant belive this place is even a country. Are there even people there?

God bless the CIA World Factbook. I am so glad we have spies all over the globe gathering information on these countries. They must work so hard. How else would we know that the highest point in Azerbaijan is Bazarduzu Dagi at a whopping 4,485 m if we didnt have CIA operatives stationed there, constantly updating us on the latest developments. Curse Rove and Bush for compormising the identities of CIA agents when they bring us things as wonderful as the factbook. Oh, and curse them for being narrow minded fools as well.

Ok, I am getting off track here.

I will now ask for input from the audience. Between 20 and 100 people vist this site a day, but very few comments are left. I would like to ask for people's inupt on this. Am open to other nearbye countries and arctic research stations beyond those listed here. Would like to hear your input. Leave comments below!