Bissau-y Bee

Say what you want about Portuguese colonisation, but they really had a knack for picking out stunning coastlines. Varela was a tiny village with not very much to do, but the beach was beautiful, very clean and completely empty of people. The Harmattan haze still haunted me slightly so I stayed for two nights, and then had to get up at 4 AM to catch the only minibus out of town. This took me over some dirt roads in terrible condition to Sao Domingos, close to the Senegalese border, so I decided to get a motorcycle to the immigration police and explain my issue. It was surprisingly easy to resolve, my short time as a fugitive was over and I could travel at ease to the capital of Bissau. I found a really crappy hotel in the old town, and wandered around the charming, crumbling colonial quarters that evening.

When I found out there was a boat leaving the following morning I decided to make my stay short and got up bright and early to secure my spot. I was told to be there at 8 AM to make the 9 o clock departure, but this kept being postponed and at 11:30 I was told that the trip was cancelled, another captain approached me and said he would have a boat leaving at 2 PM, so I changed my ticket and sat in the sun for another couple of hours. At half past two, this captain told me his boat wouldn’t be leaving either, there just weren’t enough passengers. They say the most important thing to bring when travelling in Africa is your patience, and although it’s a cliché, I couldn’t help but think how true this was, nobody else seemed angry that they had wasted their whole day in the scorching heat, so I decided to take it for what it was and enjoy the fact that I would have one more evening and night to explore Bissau.

The morning after, a massive group of people were waiting at the docks, all wanting to go to the island of Bubaque. Even if only ten percent of the population is Christian, Easter is still a big holiday here and for the whole weekend there would be a big festival on the island. I had opted for the local canoa seeing as the price of the ferry was more than quadruple the price for foreigners. These large wooden motorised canoes crammed in hundreds of people, all of their luggage plus the entire cast of Old MacDonald’s farm. It was a very uncomfortable ride, but the scenery of the Bijagos archipelago and calm waters made it all worth it. Bubaque town was very small and cute but I was concerned how I would find accommodation with the hordes of local tourists flooding to the island. I had no reason to be worried as within minutes I had been offered several options and at a very affordable price I chose a guesthouse close to the port. Later I bumped into Stefan and Albert, two German guys I had met in Varela, and for the next three days we enjoyed the Easter celebrations with the local crowd and a few other foreign tourists. There was a lot of drinking but the island also had some amazing beaches and we all had a great time.

On Easter Monday we knew that a lot of people would be leaving, and not wanting to get stuck on the island, we decided to get up before sunrise and get a ticket returning to Bissau. Once more our patience was put to the test, and after we saw the two large ferries leave, our canoa was still not moving. We were told that it wouldn’t leave until the next day, but now people were not as content and patient, as they had jobs to go back to and after a lot of loud arguing and protests we were moved to a smaller boat and could get back to the capital before sunset. We found a nice guesthouse, had some food and a couple of beers and got some sleep as we were heading in different directions early the next morning.


In footwear related news:
No trip is complete without a flip-flop incident and sadly I have to let you all know that my trusty companions were stolen one day in Bubaque whilst we were playing football on the beach. They have served me well since I had them custom made and designed in the Havainas shop in Bali more than two years and though it was heartbreaking to part with them, I can only hope they will serve someone in more need. However all is not lost, having learnt from my previous trips, I asked my brother to buy me a pair when he was in Thailand, so I had backup and now we will see how they hold up.