Mauritanian Kidnappings, Sickness and Seville
I'm sick. The last few days have been pretty wild in Seville. We stayed in a good hostel with plenty of young people all geared for drinking. Plus there was a bar in the hostel, so I drank alot. That made me sick on our last day in Seville and now I have a full blown lung infection.
Hopefully my health improves before we head for Africa, and in an attempt to speed my recovery I've been holed up in a quiet Hostel in Granada, eating good food and resting.
Also we found out two Italians were kidnapped yesterday in Mauritania by a group linked to al Qaeda. This is on top of three Spaniards who were also kidnapped at the beginning of December. We were hoping the situation in the region would stabilise over time, but this latest kidnapping confirms it's only getting worse.
I was still keen to go the Mauritania, even after hearing about the Spanish victims. But after this most recent news the risk is too great. 
We're now trying to organise a ship to take us from Morocco into Senegal and onto Mali from there. Mali is still risky, but so long as the north of the country is avoided there shouldn't be any problems.
A run-down of kidnappings in the region over the past five years can be found here: www.reliefweb.int
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