A trip to the southwest

Not much had happened since my last post - went to all beaches in Bata several times, ate various reptiles, found out my return date, etc.

Last Sunday I decided to visit Cogo, a place in the mouth of a river into the ocean, near the border with Gabon. One friend and I got up at 6am and headed to Bata to pick up Spaniards. Around 9am we were there, looked at some map on the wall of their office  and decided to visit Cabo San Juan as well (I heard it was nice).

To cut the story short, we ended up nowhere. The road to Cogo was cut by a river (the bridge is still in the faze of construction); Cabo San Juan is a village, with crappy beach, in the middle of nothing (100km of dirt-road); if it weren't for hotel in Mbini and cold beers and rum, we would spent our whole day in the car. 

Summary, 600km covered - nothing to see. Good thing is that the gas is free. 

But no remorse, I laughed and made fun with all of them the whole time. It was a friendship-building journey :D 

Another food tasting

As my friend and I have agreed, every second Saturday, when we work till noon, is the day when we're gonna eat something new.


This week's menu item was marmot. I was surprised to hear that not a lot of people know what marmot is, how it looks like and so on - like they've never watched Milka chocolate commercials ;)
Just like the other dishes here, this one is not eye-pleasing at all. But the meat is tasty, the texture resembles beef and is much stronger, given it's a wild animal. The smell is very strong - the most discouraging part of the dish. We ate it, drowned it in a couple of Guinness beers and survived African cuisine once again.

Just like the one in the commercial :) 

Funny story on our way back: We met a friend from other company in the bar were we were eating and went together to buy some pants at a nearby market. There we've bumped into a guy who's a bit crazy, demented, not completely well. He started talking nonsense, like he's a Tyson's teacher, he's Bruce Lee, he wants to go to California with us and so on. We went to our cars, with the intention on going back to camp, but he'd climbed at the back of our car and didn't want to climb down. We've tried speaking to him nicely, persuading him with arguments and kind words - it didn't work. Than we started shouting and yelling - didn't work. People were passing-by and were laughing at us cos they probably knew the guy and saw that he was giving us his usual "treatment". If we'd tried to physically remove him out of our car, he could have said that we molested him, beat him or something similar. We decided to drive one circle around the town in the other car, hoping he'd leave when we're not around - didn't work. Finally, we got in our car and went back to our camp. On a military road-block we've asked those persons to help us out and they forced the looney out of our car.  

All in all, an unusual day.

A dam

In the current week we haven't worked much - Tuesday was a president's birthday and Thursday's some religious holiday. We've used these days-off to relax, cook and drive around the country.


On Tuesday we cooked - a beef under the bell (govedina ispod sača). Improvised the whole thing to perfection. Spent the whole day outside, on the terrace, enjoying the sun and a music. Afterwards a movie and my battery was full. 

Colorful

I wanted to to do something different on Thursday, wanted to see something else. That day was my friend's birthday and he wanted to celebrate it on a field in a nearby village. He wanted to go out of the camp, to escape all those unwanted guests, so he invited just a few of us for a beer, a bbq and a cooked beans. I announced my arrival in the afternoon. 

For the morning I organized a little trip to a nearby river and a dam. It's about 70km from our camp so my Spanish friend and I had breakfast (specialty from El Salvador - fried platana and frijoles, his wife made it) and left the camp around 9am. We didn't have a map, only a story of a friend who was there 6 months ago - and six months here is a long period of time keeping in mind that the whole country in constantly building and the roads are changing all the time, so an adventure was ahead of us. 

After an hour drive we've reached a river. On the left-hand side was a wooden bridge and the mountains from which the river was coming. The river was so fast and the rocks looked sharp that if you fell in, you'd hardly survive. We've walked across the bridge, took a few photos and returned to our car from the other side of the bridge. 

Wooden bridge

On the right-hand side, some 500m from the spot where we parked the car, was a kind of a hydroelectric power plant. There were signs in Chinese and a workshop in that area. When we asked a guy who was exiting from there is that the dam, he said no. Given that not all Guineanos speak Spanish, and this guy looked like one of them, we decided to drive around and see for ourselves. And it was a small dam, really small. What a contrast it was - a still stream vs a wild river.

We've decided to take a stroll and see where the two connects. Oh, what a sight it was - on the left a raging cascades, a small waterfall, water splashing wildly and creating a mist and a foam, and on the right a steady stream of water coming from the dam.

It was spectacular. The power of nature always amaze me. We've enjoyed the view for a while but the hunger forced us to head back to the birthday celebration. An unpleasant surprise awaited - a battery of the car was dead, we couldn't start a car. But we were lucky, some Chinese workers were just returning from their job and one of them, who speaks Spanish, helped us get the cables and start our car. 


The rest of the day we've spent on one field, catching frisbee, preparing food and relaxing. 

Food tasting

This Saturday I went to Mongomo with my Spanish-Salvador friends. (These guys are a fantastic couple that work for a supervising company at our camp. They are my age and we spend a lot of time together - watching movies, jogging, preparing food. My Spanish benefits a lot from this friendship.) We wanted to visit a local markets.


The first one was oriented mostly on food. There's a variety of vegetables and fruits available at reasonable prices. You can also buy different types of dresses and other garments and jewelry for women. The atmosphere at the market is typical for this part of the world - loud African music, strong odors, people talking loud, bargaining...I love it.


On the other market is a wider selection of clothes, shoes, CD's. This one is not as live as the first one.


After finishing our market tour, we've decided to try some of the Guinean cuisine. Finally I've found a person crazy enough to do this with me. My Serbian friends here don't like to experiment with food - they stick with a traditional Serbian/USA food. We've found a restaurant ran by our friend's mom - couldn't just eat at a random place, cos we had to be sure we won't end up with a food poisoning. The menu was, hm, lets say interesting. We could choose from a mountain cat, a turtle, a pangolin (scaly anteater) and one type of fish. The first item on the menu seemed a bit too much for the first time and the fish was to "mainstream", so the two of us (the female part of a couple didn't want to participate in our feast) decided to share a portion of a turtle and a pangolin. 

  


The first dish was the pangolin. It looks strange, maybe frightening as you can still see dents where the scales were. You only live once - I took a first bite and it tasted good. It reassembles a rooster meat but more gamy. The meat was in a spicy, hot sauce, typical for Guinea as they love their food very spicy. The only past of the pangolin that I didn't like was it's skin - it's just too gummy. The story here is that the meat of pangolin is some sort of aphrodisiac, but I didn't notice the effect :)

Pangolin

The second course of the day, the turtle, was surprisingly good. The look of the plate was, of course, discouraging (feet still had claws on them and all that), but the taste surprised me in a positive way. It was more or less like a chicken - tender and dry, but good. In both dishes meat consists only of muscles and bones, no fat, so it's healthy.

Turtle

In the end, we've agreed that the turtle wins and that we'll return here some other day to try something else, maybe a crocodile or a snake.


A part of me feels like Bear Grylls.

Bata, Rio Campo and beaches

After more than a month, I've spent a weekend outside the camp. Even though the trip was exhausting,  it was a "mental relief" seeing other people and places, doing something different.


A journey started on Saturday morning. I had to drive three workers to Bata, as they were going on a vacation. It was my first time driving to Bata, a bit of a challenge given I'm not an experienced driver and driving here is especially dangerous as other drive fast, do not follow the rules and have crappy cars. You have to be 100% concentrated all the time and always expect some foolish maneuver out of them. Fortunately, the trip went well, even the weather was on our side - didn't rain till Bata. 


I left my stuff at a friends flat and we decided to go to a beach after lunch. Then the weather changed in a matter of minutes - a shower that lasted half an hour. We decided to take a bit of rest and played a video game. 


Later that day we persuaded a friend to take us to his construction site and to see some buildings that are being build in a new residential part of town. Then he remembered that one of his workers told him there's a football game that afternoon at a nearby stadium. We've decided to give it a go. The stadium is newly-built, with one stand that can take up to 500 spectators. We arrived at the halftime and were told that the first half was scoreless. The game was between team San Pablo from Bata and others (few people we asked who the other team was didn't give us the answer). It would be a waste of words talking about the quality of football seen - two players were a bit better than the rest who were just punching a ball in the air. The interesting thing was that a first referee was a woman (female football is more popular here and the national team is current African champion). There were maybe one hundred spectators (we were, of course, the only ones not Africans).

After the game we went to a Spanish cultural center - there was a concert of young R&B singers. It was nice being in a place of culture, for a change, but the concert sucked so we haven't stayed long. Instead, we've grabbed a beer and watched some kids dancing on a boardwalk. Then we took a stroll down it, sat at one hotel for a refill (drank a draft beer after more than seven months - that day was exactly seven months since my arrival) and in the end, just after the midnight, we were to tired to go in one of the clubs, so headed back home.


The next day started early, around 6:30am. I had to pick up some spare parts from a warehouse and to wait a phone call from a friend so we can organize a trip to some secluded beaches.


We got together at his Argentino friend's house (I was the only one out of eight of us who's first language is not Spanish :D) and headed to Rio Campo. It's a small village lying on a mouth of a river into the Atlantic ocean. On the other riverbank is Cameroon. There's no beaches there, so we've returned a few kilometers back. The first beach that we've visited was more or less acceptable - the water was clear, it had a few easy chairs and sunbeds around and a table so we could even eat around it, but there was a lot of garbage around so we've decided to take a look at the other one.

Along the way, we've encountered a plane crashed by the road - who knows why and when it landed there. 

                


The other beach was much cleaner, so we've changed to our swim suits and enjoyed the water. But that didn't lasted very long, maybe half an hour. The waves were getting bigger and bigger and we could see a storm approaching from the sea. In a matter of ten minutes the storm started. We've found a shelter under a tent and stayed there until the rain stopped, more than an hour. 

  


When the shower was finally over, we've changed our clothes and decided it's time to go back to our camp. On our way back, we've visited an abandoned lighthouse dating from the period of Spanish colonization (I reckon it hadn't been used ever since). Couldn't climb up cos the grass around it was very high and who knows what's in it. 

   


The journey back was exhausting - I was alone it the car, that day we've covered more than 350km and it was pouring rain till we reached the camp.


All in all, I'm glad I've discovered another part of the country. 


The next time it's northeast and the boarder of Gabon, EG and Cameroon. 

Dark thoughts

Last month I haven't been anywhere on a weekends. We've celebrated two Easters, 1st of May and drank some more without a special cause. 


Nobody wanted to go out, visit something. I find the amusement in talking and hanging out with a Spanish-Salvador couple. They are my age, so we can relate pretty good (and hanging out with them benefits my Spanish greatly).


This lack of mobility affects my thoughts. They're all mixed up, a great confusion. When the Sundays over and working days start, I feel a kind of emptiness that I've never felt before. I've tried to fill my free time with certain activities (film, Spanish,   running and I even started learning to play a guitar), but nothing seems to satisfy me anymore. I'm constantly counting days till my vacation. People told me that this kind of crisis would struck me in 7-8th month, and it sure did. The good thing in all this is that my health is still serving me well.


Just wanna fast forward the time...

Mbini

When I "grow up", I wanna own a house on an island, or at least close to a seaside. I just wanna spent my days soaking up the sun, listening to the waves, not worrying about a single problem. Whoever lived on an island knows what kind of lifestyle I'm talking about.


.
.
.
.




The previous weekend I went to Mbini, a little ocean-side place 80km south of Bata. It's a long journey from the camp - 250km/4h drive (parts of a road are under construction, thus it takes a long time). Once you get there you realize it was worth the effort. I love the smell of an ocean and to breathe that air. Everything is much more relaxed close to the sea. Oh, how much would I love to live there just so I can take a dip in the ocean after work. And their kitchen/mess is located on the seaside...




Spend the night at the discotheque and the next day by/in the pool.


It's hard to return to the jungle...