Another Day In Labé

I had opened my window to help my laundry dry and at about 3am I was awakened by mosquitos. I turned on my rechargeable Freeplay Indigo lantern (one of my smartest purchases in Canada) and I realized that there are holders for curtain rods on the wall opposite the windows. That meant there was something to hook onto on both sides of the bed in the plane of the headboard and footboard. In other words, this was the ideal situation for rigging up my mosquito net. Twenty minutes later, I had a mosquito net over my entire bed at the perfect height and size. Yay!!! The mosquitos didn't bother me for the rest of the night. :-)

It's Monday and I'm watching my bankroll of Guinea Francs disappear like Hurstwood's bankroll in Sister Carrie. Lonely Planet said the Banque of Commerce and Industrie de Guinea does cash advances on a Visa, so I decided I would do that before the checkout time so I could stay here one more night. That particular bank is not specifically shown on the Labé map in the Lonely Planet but there is an unlabeled $ in the downtown region. I headed toward that. It was the bank. And lo and behold, they have an ATM. I thought I'd give it a try. There was a sign saying for tout securité to take out your money in GF200000 tranches. I slightly misinterpreted that and tried to take out 400000. I heard the cash being distributed but nothing came out. So I tried again, this time 200000. This time it worked, I took out another 200000. Guinea Francs are thick and the largest denomination bill I've seen is GF10000 which is worth US$2. So Guinea money tends to be thick stacks. Mom & Dad, please check my visa account to make sure that they didn't charge me with the first 400000 transaction. There should be 2 transactions for about $40 each (plus ATM charges) from the BICIGUI in Labé.

Having the money in hand, I explored the other part of the Labé downtown. I like Labé. It's a bit artistic and the people are active. Guinea is actually a pretty nice place once you get out of the uncivilized part. I'm not sure I'd want to live here, but Labé is good enough to linger in for a while. I went back to the hotel and paid for tonight. Then I asked about the big bus as stated in the Lonely Planet. They said there is no big bus--just minibuses and sept-places to Conakry. I guess I'll take one of those tomorrow.

That done, it was time to head off to the internet cafe. I should have done it yesterday, but I didn't. People are probably worried. The connection was spotty but I managed to get most of what I needed done. My parents got freaked out by a comment on my "Heading To Guinea-Bissau" post from someone named Anne. I'd like to thank Anne. She made it sound dangerous, risky and exciting. Should impress the girls. ;-) It's like the original trailer to Casablanca that you find in the DVD. "The world's most dangerous man in the world's most dangerous city." LOL That's not Casablanca, but the makers of the trailer thought it was just another throw-away movie and didn't know it was destined to be the classic it became so they distorted the plot to fill the theater. In fact, I hope my truth is also more impressive to girls than the distortion. ;-) I'm not denying that Guinea-Bissau has the problems she mentioned, but so does Miami and I wouldn't be afraid to go there. And she is right that Guinea-Bissau is not a place for tourists--when you define "tourist" as the type of person who wants sip piña coladas by the poolside. But I'm not that "tourist". The fact is that if you don't mind a lack of running water/electricity and you stock up enough CFA before you enter, Guinea-Bissau isn't such a bad place, especially once you get out of Bissau. Gabú was nice. I liked it and it liked me. Tourists are definitely an oddity there and that gives us cachet. When you pass people with 12 others in the sept-place, their eyes are usually one mine--the sole blanc in the sept-place. I don't mind being an oddity. I'm even an oddity in the United States. It's one of the reasons I like Capitol Hill--everyone is an oddity there. The Guinea-Bissauians aren't out to rip me off, either. That's refreshing after Senegal and Gambia which aim to be tourist destinations. The vendors of woodcarvings outside the Pensão Centrale didn't even try to engage me. In Senegal, the same vendors would have hounded me for blocks. The biggest problem by far is that the colonial language is Portuguese. But between Spanish, French, and English, something sticks and you can get your point across.

Anyway, now I was hungry. I returned to Le Calebasse where I had the shawarma the previous day. This time I had a hamburger for GF10000 (US$2). It was interesting. The bun was really thick and chewy. There was a meat patty, fried egg, french fries--not on the side but between the buns with the patty and egg, ketchup and a pinkish sauce--maybe thousand Island dressing. It was pretty tasty. I got 3 more beers and watched the satellite TV showing a Cameroonian network with Spanish soap opera dubbed into French, the Escale Marine report telling what ships were at the port and when other ships were expected, and other stuff. A white couple and 2 Africans came in and ate and left. The girl was cute. They spoke in French and probably saw that I was reading La Route.

In the evening I headed to the Hotel Tata and got there right after 7pm. They indeed have quite the pizza menu. I got the Pizza Americain with ham, garlic, and msuhrooms. Yummy. It was about 8 or 9 inches in diameter, thin crust, bubbling hot, and the best pizza I had in a long time. It was GF30000 (US$6) and a Skol beer was GF8000 ($1.60). The walk home was in pitch black. The moto-taxis were running around though they were a double edged sword. On one hand their headlights illuminated the ground, but on the other hand, their headlights were blinding.

August 25, 22:10 Guinea local time