Feb 072014
 

See, there’s a reason I didn’t give much more info in the title of this entry.

Initially, I had a placeholder booked, hoping that closer to the date of return, I could improve on my routing. The initial (admittedly terrible) plan was:

Praia, Cape Verde (RAI) to Lisbon, Portugal (LIS) in TAP Business
Lisbon, Portugal to Geneva, Switzerland (GVA) in TAP Business
Geneva, Switzerland to Montreal, Canada (YUL) in Air Canada Business
Montreal, Canada to Toronto, Canada (YYZ) in Air Canada Business
Toronto, Canada to Newark, New Jersey (EWR) in United Express First
Newark, New Jersey to Washington, National (DCA) in United Express First

Yeah, I’m serious. I was mentally preparing myself to fly that just in case it came down to it. Fortunately, about a week before, award space opened up, and I switched to:

Praia, Cape Verde (RAI) to Lisbon, Portugal (LIS) in TAP Business
Lisbon, Portugal to Brussels, Belgium (BRU) in TAP Business
Brussels, Belgium to Washington, Dulles (IAD) in United First

Yes, I was using miles for United First, but it got me home nearly 8 hours earlier. Plus, my connection in Lisbon would only be an hour, and about 1:20 in Brussels, so much better connection times. Life was looking up!

Little did I know, my favourite furry friend was about to pay me a visit.

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But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Got to Praia Airport approximately two hours before my flight, because TAP wouldn’t let me check in online and I wanted to try and get a decent seat for the 4 hour middle of the night redeye in economy seats. Blech. There were two check-in lines, one for business and one for economy. However, with no business passengers, all the economy people were filling up both lines. I walked to the front, told the check-in agent business class, and she said she’d help me next. Yeah, that went over really well with the others in line…they were on the verge of rioting. No way was the white guy going to pull the “I deserve service before you card.” Fortunately, the agent had my back, as did the rather rotund Lebanese gentleman who arrived for the business class line a minute later. Soon I was checked in, and ready to head to the lounge.

Only, there is no lounge. Just an immigration queue that was nearly 20 minutes long, and somewhere around 30C plus with no breeze in the room. And only two agents working, both of who were preoccupied with mothers with small children who lacked proof that daddy was ok with them taking the children out of the country. 20 minutes became 30 minutes, became 40 minutes, and finally we were through.

Security was next, which took 5 minutes. Well, it WOULD have taken five minutes if one of those small children hadn’t decided they would go for a stroll…right through the metal detectors…and mom ran after them. The entire terminal was emptied….nah, just kidding. Only TSA would pull that. These guys just shrugged and kept on processing people. Mom finally appeared over five minutes later, and they just waved her through. Uh, you know you never checked her…right? Ah, Africa…how I’ll miss you.

So now, we’d wait. The plane had left Lisbon 20 minutes late, meaning best case my connection would be down to 40 minutes.

Thus, I went to the lounge to wait.  Ooops, no lounge, just one large room filled with TAP and TACV passengers.  Nearly 500 people on delayed flights who were getting anxious.  So, I did the only thing I could do, I visited the snack shop, aka “Nice Burger.”    I used google translate to say “can I pay US dollars for a beer”  yes, I could.  It was time for a beer.  10 minutes later, it was time for another.  When the crowds started getting rowdy, I opted for a third…only there were no more.  This explained why people were getting increasingly agitated, and there was lots more yelling and pushing going on.

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Finally, our plane arrived, and if they could turn it around in 30 minutes, we’d only be 20 minutes late.  20 minutes came and went, and we still hadn’t boarded.  Then, they announced boarding would begin…but they didn’t announce if it was for the delayed TAP flight or the 3+ hour delayed TACV flight to Paris.  So naturally, all 500 people swarmed the agents at once.  Eventually, it was sorted.  BOTH flights were boarding, from two doors less than 5 feet apart.  The agents were having a hell of a time trying to sort out the passengers, but somehow…it happened.  I breathed a sigh of relief when I finally got on board.

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Feb 062014
 

We met up with the small group of Travelers Century Club folks in the morning, and turned out there would be just six of us total. Nothing had been mentioned about price the night before, and when the driver showed up…yes, he had room, but had to check with his boss how much to charge us. The price was fair for what amounted to an 8-9 hour tour, and we packed in the van, and were off!

Sunrise over the Pestana Hotel pool:

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Our first stop after maybe 30 minutes or so was pretty much due north of Praia, a bit into the interior.  We were going to check out a craft shop (aka sell you things and get commission for bringing you there) but when we arrive…it seems it no longer existed!  It had completely packed up and moved since their last tour two months ago.  Oops!  He called his head office to verify, and they were just as shocked as he was.  So, on we went to the Botanical Gardens:

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There wasn’t much to see, so we continued on.  Some views from the interior of the island:

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Feb 052014
 

Got to the hotel, no problem with check-in, but the only oddity was that the only rooms with queen or king beds were the suites…and “they are all taken by the Royal Air Maroc crew.” Uh, ok. So two twin beds pushed together would have to do. Kind of strange for a resort hotel, no?  Since the TAAG crew had ate all the nomz, I was starving…and yes, dinner was still available…for 5 more minutes.  Ran to the hotel bar, ordered a sandwich and some wine to my room, then went to crash.

Got up in time the next morning to check out the breakfast, which was included in the room.  It was slightly below average, but there were some meats and cheeses, plenty of breads and pastries, along with a selection of juices.  I think there might have been eggs made to order too, but there were some hard boiled ones and that did the trick for me.

Jordan’s hotel was supposedly about a 15 minute walk away, so I set out to meet him and explore the city a bit.  View on the walk to his hotel:

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Mural on a building next to his hotel:

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Some buildings in the centre of town:

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Feb 042014
 

The front desk of the hotel said they’d called me a cab. Ten minutes later, there was no cab, I kept asking, it’s on the way. Still no cab. Ten minutes later…no cab…finally one shows up. Are you noticing a trend in Lusophone Africa? Cabs are a novelty, that take a long time to show up, even if you’re willing to pay for them. Regardless, finally it showed up, was cheap, I picked up Jordan, and we were on the way to the airport. We knew it was a small airport from our arrivals experience so planned to get there 90 minutes in advance.

Got there in plenty of time, and tried to enter the terminal, only to be told there was a tax to be paid that wasn’t included in the ticket.  Seriously?  That’s still a thing these days?  I can count on one hand how many of my 154 countries visited do that….so congratulations Sao Tome, you’re in the company of Cameroon and others 😉

Paid my $21, and was allowed into the terminal, only to be met with this very sophisticated check-in area.  For a minute I wondered how I took a picture of myself checking in, and then I realised I’d never wear cargo shorts 😉

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Check-in was a manual process, no computers anywhere.  There was a list with 12 names, and they crossed us off as we showed up and gave us handwritten boarding cards….without seat numbers.  Basically, take any available seat!  Wow, it was like flying back in time to the 1970s or something!

Security?  Um, yes, it was one bored person (no metal detectors, nude-a-scopes, or similar technology here) and after 15 seconds of going through my carryons they gave up.  Just couldn’t be bothered.  Then, passport control was similarly lax…and literally 5 minutes from check-in to gate took 5 minutes.  We really didn’t have to show up 90 minutes early.  “Duty Free,” however, offered lots of treats including the suspicious Dom:

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There were only four or five people in the gate area at this point, and it was not exactly interesting.  This group of Chinese was soon led into the waiting area, and it appeared to be a tour of “look at how fantastic the airport you upgraded for us is!”

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Complete with a Christmas Tree that makes the one in the Charley Brown Christmas special look special:

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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!