Jan 172014
 

CAUTION:  This post contains nearly 40 pictures, many of which are of extreme poverty and a few are of monkeys…well, being monkeys.  You’ve been warned!  

Yeah, I know it had only been two days since the coup attempt where over 100 people were killed trying to overthrow the government, but I’d spent so much effort planning this trip, and so much money getting close, I was determined to try and at least make it to DRC for a daytrip…in daylight. Fortunately, Jordan was just as insane and was game for it. We started by grabbing a taxi over to the boat docks, and after fending off several touts, we finally found the place to buy tickets on the “fast” boat and clear immigration. It involved about 10 different stops for different papers, taxes, stamps, etc etc etc, most of which seemed above ground, but I’m sure a few of the “fees” went straight into the pockets of corrupt officials. No matter…we avoided as much as we could, and even the fees we paid were no more than $3-4 each. Eventually we were crammed onto the boat with 15 of our new best friends for the 15 minute trek across the river:

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On the other side, things got a little uglier.  Lots of people doing the “wait here” and “this fee” and “that fee.”  We argued several of them, paid a few, and eventually got out the other side about $20 poorer in total.  It took about 20-30 minutes, which wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but once they have your passport they kind of have you by the balls.  Plus, we were in a bit of a hurry without much time, so we were kind of stuck. We’d hired a driver in advance for the day, and finally found him outside immigration.  Turns out we’d thought he was another tout trying to get money from us on the inside and brushed him off, lol.  Would have helped if he had a sign!  He drove us first to the travel agency he worked for, where we paid the agreed upon $250 for a day’s rental of car and driver.  The agency’s building:

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After that, it was time to go.  We were driving about 30 miles outside the city first, to the Lola Ya Bonobo sanctuary for Bonobos monkeys.  On the way, we passed the stadium:

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Continuing the drive, we went through some quite poor parts of Kinshasa:

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Jan 102014
 

I already posted about the Le Meridien I stayed at in Libreville.  I arrived there a bit after midnight after a long delay, and was supposed to have one full day in Libreville, plus the next day until around mid-afternoon.  Unfortunately, not really enough time to get out of the city, so I focused on seeing as much of the city as possible.  As it turned out, I had three full days there due to some unfortunate circumstances, so I definitely would have had time to get out had I known.  Oh well!

December 29:  This was to be my one full day in Libreville, so decided to walk as much as possible before melting in the heat.  The centre of the city was only about 1.5 miles from the hotel, so I figured it would be a decent walk to see some stuff.  After all, it was 85F but cloudy so how bad could it be?

A view of the Le Meridien from the road:

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About halfway to the city, I found oil!  Big oil!

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A little further down the beach, an interesting statue:

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Park bench on the beach:

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After absolutely melting, I arrived at the cafe I’d been looking for a hot sweaty mess.  Oh well, I was rewarded with pain au chocolate, pain au raisin, and espresso.  Life was grand!

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After refueling, I continued the hot hot hot walk.  Next up was the Cathedral of St Marie:

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…the first of many places I was to see on the trip where Pope John Paul II had visited.

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Walking another 15 minutes or so, I came upon the restaurant where I was considering dinner that night, a place that did local food called L’Odika.  They had reservations, and the menu looked good, so I reserved for later that night.  Lovely outdoor setting in the gardens:

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I’d been told by colleagues that the Port was one of the most interesting things to see, but unfortunately it’s completely under construction, part of a huge hotel / mall / marina / port complex scheduled to be finished in a few years.  So, unfortunately, it was a bit of a mess at the moment:

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I was roasting at this point, so decided to seek refuge in what I think is one of the most fascinating parts of any city:  the local markets and supermarkets.  They really tell a lot about the place, and Libreville was home to the largest Casino supermarket I’ve ever seen!

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Walked all the way back to the hotel through some back streets, but was too hot to take any pics along the way.  Eventually got back and cooled off for a while before grabbing a taxi to L’Odika for dinner.  Only took a pic of the first course, a delicious carpaccio of capitain fish.  Yum!

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December 30:  little bit more than a half day, so I took another route through the city, and along the beach, to grab pastries and coffee at the same cafe.  A view out onto the ocean:

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Was reading my e-mail on my phone at breakfast, when a friend texted me:  “Is what’s going on in Kinshasa going to affect you?”  Now, keep in mind, I had an afternoon flight to Kinshasa.  I quickly started googling, and the news wasn’t good.  Armed “terrorists” (the government’s words) had tried to take control of the state tv station and airport, and dozens were killed.  Kinshasa airport was closed, and it appeared flights were being diverted.  My flight, however, showed on time still.   The funny thing is, my first thought wasn’t “shit, it’s not safe to go there now,” it was “how am I going to salvage my trip.”  I swear, if ASKY was going to operate my flight, I was going to go!

I hightailed it back to the hotel to call my travel agent, who had the semi-reassuring words:  “it looks like your ticket has been changed.  Your flight is not going to Brazenville.”  Um, do you mean Brazzaville?  “Yes, that place.”  Ok, so they were going to still operate the flight, just to Brazzaville instead.  Hmmm, I would be missing my stop in Kinshasa, but at least it wouldn’t throw off my entire trip.  Decided to quickly check out, get to the airport early, and pray.

Took the airport shuttle to the airport, but checkin for ASKY airlines was nowhere to be found.  Asked several dozen official-looking people, and they all heard the flight had been canceled.  Hmmm.  Kept asking around, and eventually one very helpful lady told me she knew where the ASKY office was, so let’s go ask them what’s going on.  Upstairs, bang on their door, no answer.  So, she just walked right in…where we found ASKY’s airport manager hiding from the public.  Yes, the flight is canceled.  No, we don’t have any others for three days, yes, you’re out of luck, GO AWAY.

Just as we walked out, the manager of “Trans Congo Airlines” walked by, and he had a flight at midnight to Brazzaville.  Um, yeah, I don’t think I want to fly something called Trans-Congo at midnight and hope I get where I really wasn’t planning to go in the first place.  Back to the hotel to plan options, and fortunately when I told them earlier my flight was uncertain they’d held the room for me.  Great!

Planned and planned, and everyone was right.  There was just nothing at all I was finding.  Nothing today for sure, and nothing to either city on tomorrow the 31st either.  I was stuck in Libreville another two nights it looked like.  Rebooked myself to Brazzaville on January 1 instead, turning two nights in Gabon into four.  Called it a night, and got some sleep.

Woke up early on the 31st, and went back to the grocery store to stock up on supplies, including the champagne from the previous picture.  I was going to have a decent New Years Eve even if it was just me!  Hung around by the pool much of the day, which was nice and relaxing.  An amazing final sunset of the year from the pool:

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To bed a little after midnight, since I’d have to be up around 7am to hopefully catch my flight to Brazzaville, and get my trip back on track as much as possible!

Dec 312013
 

“Since I had peeped over the edge myself, I understand better the meaning of his stare, that could not see the flame of the candle, but was wide enough to embrace the whole universe, piercing enough to penetrate all the hearts that beat in the darkness. He had summed up — he had judged. ‘The horror!’ He was a remarkable man. After all, this was the expression of some sort of belief; it had candor, it had conviction, it had a vibrating note of revolt in its whisper, it had the appalling face of a glimpsed truth — the strange commingling of desire and hate.” – Joseph Conrad, the Heart of Darkness

Africa. The more I go, the more I learn about myself. But as Conrad noted, it’s just a peep. Enough to know these people are tougher than me, they endure way more that I could. I come into their world for a brief couple of days, usually via some Lufthansa first class flight, and only glimpse at the reality that is Africa. But it’s enough to know that given enough time…Africa would win most likely 😉

This trip came just 7 days after returning from three weeks in Tajikistan, Moscow, Montenegro, and Serbia. I left exhausted, to take on probably the most difficult group of countries I’d set out to do to date. For some foolish reasons, I combined many of them into one trip. The visas themselves, well, they were a mix:

Cameroon: easy, but sketchy. Made me wait around there embassy for two hours, but then $140 in cash later I had it on the spot.

Gabon: drop it off, two days later it was ready. Piece of cake.

DRC: ugh, letter of invitation, notarized with three different stamps in the DRC, etc. Once I had that, however, it was a piece of cake.

Congo: well, there’s a story here. I’ll tell that when we get to it.

Angola: eight trips to the embassy. Lots of confusion, forms, cash, stamps, emails, angry people. But I got it. I still can’t believe I got it.

The rest were no visa, or visa on arrival. I’ll detail more when I get to the individual posts.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to keep up not TOO delayed. The flight routing is:

Trip Map

…first post coming soon. First thought on parts:

Part I: Minneapolis to Malabo, Equatorial Guinea on US Airways and Lufthansa
Part II: Malabo, Equatorial Guinea
Part III: Malabo to Douala, Cameroon on Ethiopian
Part IV: Douala, Cameroon
Part V: Douala to Libreville, Gabon on South African
Part VI: Libreville, Gabon
Part VII: Libreville to Kinshasa, DRC on ASKY
Part VIII: Kinshasa, DRC
Part IX: Kinshasa to Brazzaville, Congo by boat
Part X: Brazzaville, Congo
Part XI: Brazzaville to Pointe-Noire, Congo by train
Part XII: Pointe-Noire, Congo
Part XIII: Pointe-Noire to Cabinda, Angola by taxi
Part XIV: Cabinda, Angola
Part XV: Cabinda to Luanda, Angola on TAAG
Part XVI: Luanda, Angola
Part XVII: Luanda to Sao Tome, Sao Tome e Principe on TAGG
Part XVIII: Sao Tome e Principe
Part XIX: Sao Tome e Principe to Praia, Cape Verde on TAGG
Part XX: Praia, Cape Verde
Part XXI: Getting home – TBD!

I already know this isn’t how it will happen. It’s Africa. Things change, and break, and don’t happen, or go places they don’t expect to. It’s gonna be an adventure!

Mar 092012
 

Count stands at 109, and in May, I have a trip to get five more countries already booked.  Nepal, Bhutan, Seychelles, Sudan, and Bulgaria (strange combo, for sure) are already done.  That marks 114.

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Mar 082012
 

I like to think I’ve been some pretty out of the way places – Somalia, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.

However, anyone who checks out the VICE Guide travel website – especially their guide to the Democratic Republic of Congo – will realise there’s a whole different world out there that’s even more off the beaten path. This isn’t your mother’s Starbucks – even if she lives in Fairfax VA and openly totes her firearms at Starbucks. Just watch their video – it’s some pretty amazing stuff!

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