Fear and Loathing in Guinea Bissau

I am at Internet cafe in Dakar, Senegal where the power is certain to go out at any minute so I will only write a few scattered memories of Guinea Bissau...

The sept-place ride from Ziguinchor Senegal to Guinea Bissau consists of a series of walk through check points and rifles, children selling cashews, warning signs about active land mines, lush green palm and banana trees. Bissau the capital, is a sleepy abandoned ghost town. The former bombed presidential palace in the town square omniously highlights former glory and tragically how this tiny country has not been able to recover from various civil wars, coups, and economic turmoil.

I do not think I can possibly explain the series of ill-fated boat rides we went on travelling between the Bijago Islands. The least miserable was the first from Bissau to the main island Bubaque. The Swiss hotel owner had told us before leaving it would take 4 hours, 6 if we were very unlucky. It took 6, setting a course for the rest of boat trips. After nearly tipping on a sandbar we climbed out of the boat in the dark (neither the boat or the port had any lights) cutting our feet on rocks. We walked through broken seashells and mud to a hotel. Disoriented and hungry we sat at a table in black light with pictures of painted women in bikinis on the wall while the man from Benin who owns the place told us about his life. Chez Raoul was awful, everything was covered in mold.

We travelled to Orango island on another tiny splintered fishermens boats with a crew of Guinea Bissuans, Conarkians, and Nigerians. The fishermen wanted us to get special permission for them to fish in a national park because we are rich Americans. When they found out they still could not we had to buy them dinner to convince them to stay overnight so we could go see the only population of saltwater hippos in the world on Orango Island...although the financial and mental costs of getting there were huge...

On the way back from Orango to Bubaque Island we were caught in the water during a tropical storm with ligthening right beside us in the water. We had to stop our journey, hike in the pouring rain thick humid jungle with giant biting ants, through a semi abandoned island, to find an elderly womans hut where we paid 10 USD to stay the night. Then our fishermen decided it would be better to leave Orango at 2am and arrive back on Bubaque at 5am.

Leaving Bubaque to return to mainland Bissau we were caught in another storm. We had planned to leave the day before but Alfonso refused stating bad weather but in reality he wanted to make more money by waiting until the next day and transporting fish with us. During the height of the storm our faithful captian Alfonso put on a lifejacket as the motor puttered and our boat filled with water and we huddled together in the cold rain. The motor gave out several times and as we finally reached the port it died completely, which really solidified how scary the journey had been: with no lights, no GPS, no Coast Guard, no radio...

Scattered other memories...biollumnsicent shrimp in the ocean, Julio our tour guide even though he made boat negoiations worse, fermented alcoholic caju juice, not being able to find any open restaurants besides the spaghetti bar, my "good-bye" to Alfonso and his boat...

The entire time in Bissau people were trying to take advantage of us. It was quite a shock considering we speak Cape Verdean Creole which is really similar to GB Creole. The Bijagos Islands are the main tourist destination in GB, we spent hardly any time on the main land...somewhat because of our fear of land mines. The islands can only be enjoyed if you have a lot of money, time, and patience. Transport between islands is slow and expensive.

Back in Dakar with real coffee in my system I can attempt to rationalize and be less negative (it was the rainy season, we didnt go on the public ferry, etc). Tonight we take a 30 to 40 hour bus ride to Mali where we will spend the next 10 days or so. I am really looking forward to it and hope it is more relaxing than Bissau was.