A Full Day In Conakry

Today I woke up deciding I would go to the Sierra Leone embassy. It is right on the Route du Donka and I know there is a bus that leaves from the port rond-pont that goes up the Route du Donka. But first I headed to MouNa to check the internet and see what I could learn about Sierra Leone visas. Nothing on google on getting a visa in Guinea for Sierra Leone or getting the visa at the border. The Lonely Planet shows CFA430000 which is like US$860. But that doesn't make sense because neither Sierra Leone nor Guinea used CFA as currency--they use the Guinea Franc and the Leone. If you are a US citizen flying to Sierra Leone you can actually scan your passport, email it to them and receive a visa you can print out and take with you. But I don't know if that works at land border crossings. That is US$70. So I went to the port.

There are 2 sets of buses leaving from the port. One was empty and one had people. I went to the one with people and asked a guy if it went to the Carrfour Bellevue which is the rond-pont near the Sierra Leone embassy. It has a huge statue of an elephant in the middle. He said no, the other buses were. SO I went and asked a guy there and he told me to get on the bus. When the ticket man came I got a ticket for GF1500 (US$0.30). Eventually at 9:20 or so we left. The bus took a very roundabout way to get around. I recognized some parts but not others. One of the advantages of walking yesterday is that I got to know the Route du Donka by sight in places. Eventually we got back on the Route du Donka and went passed the university. I saw a woman scooping something out of a pot into a half baguette at a shop called Baguette Magique. It looked yummy. I'd try it on the way back. Eventually I saw the embassy and got up. We passed it and the bus went a ways before it stopped but I got there at a little after 10am. There were 4 men in front. I never know if these guys are employees of the embassy or just people who hang out there. I asked one if I could apply for a visa. He spoke English so I switched to English. Sierra Leone's colonial language is English and not French. It was established by the British to take prize ships with suspected slaves to determine in a court of law if the blacks on the ships were actually slaves or not according to the British which banned the international slave trade pretty early on.

The guy asked me why I wanted to go to Sierra Leone. I said I was touring West Africa and wanted to visit for a couple of days. He asked if I had any friends or relatives in Sierra Leone. I said no, that I was just planning to see Freetown for a few days. He led me into the embassy and had me sit down. Then he got the consular officer. The officer led me into his office. He asked my nationality and when I said US, he told me I'd need US$131. Just like Mali. He wanted US currency--not even Euros. So I asked him if there was a place where I could get US currency. He directed me to asked the guy who brought me in.

So I went out and told the guy I needed US currency. Well, one of the 4 guys sitting there happened to be a money changer. There are a lot of them. He gave me 4 Jacksons for GF800000. I went back in and when I got there I realized I didn't have a Hamilton. Oh well. I paid US$140. It's not like $10 will matter in the scheme of things. I filled out the form. I left the employer blank and he just told me to check the vaccinations for small pox, cholera, and yellow fever even though I only have a certificate for yellow fever. I suppose I could show my shoulder for the small pox. I didn't know that even still exists.

He noted that I was an engineer. He was impressed. He asked my employer and I explained I left my job to travel and didn't have a job. I asked if he like the address of my last employer and he said yes, so I provided that. The visa would be ready Monday at noon. I smiled and thanked him and headed out. I wonder how many American tourists come through there... Not many, I suppose. On the way out the guy who helped me hinted that he wanted a tip (I think) so I gave him a GF10000 (US$2).

I headed down the Route du Donka till I got the the Baguette Magique. The woman and the pot were there, but she was out of it. It was beans and not meat as I assumed. Too bad. It looked pretty good. I walked a ways until a taxi beeped at me--it was heading to downtown so I took it.

I got back to my hotel and got my journal and fountain pen and headed to the Patisserie Centrale just a couple blocks from the hotel. I got a slice of pizza for GF6000 (US$1.20) but they didn't reheat it so it was cold. I wrote into my journal and then made out a couple of post cards. Then I headed to the post office and mailed the post cards. I headed back to a place called Le Chelsea on the Rue de la Republique where I got a positively yummy chicken sandwich. They had Euronews and showed highlights of the Democratic National Convention but the speeches were voiced over in French. I sat there, a proud American, seeing who should be the next President of the United States. If the American people vote for McCain and his principles, then I'll know that fear has triumphed over hope and that America as I love it has ceased to exist.

I took a nap and nursed my sores from my fall into the hole a couple days previous. Then I got dressed to go out, but a hard rain started so I listened to music. When the rain ended, I wrapped up my La Route into a plastic bag and headed out to find Le Petit Bateau, a hotel with a supposedly nice bar/restaurant. I had seen the sign from the taxi so I knew about where it was. I found the sign after a 20 minute walk and headed in the direction of the sign. Le Petit Bateau is out on a spit and the road to it is twisty and curvy. There is a restaurant on the way called Restaurant P.A Petit Bateau and I almost thought that was it. But it wasn't. I saw the thatched roof when I got onto the spit. They have a nice round bar and a bunch of tables. Even a couple of pools. I sat at the bar.

I had a seafood pizza and 3 beers. In a country where physical comfort is almost unknown, Le Petit Bateau was a paradise. The bar was surrounded on 3 side by water. The beer was cold. The pizza was yummy as hell. The sea breeze was perfect. I could live out my days here. I stayed until it started to get dark. I wanted to make it back to the port at least before it got dark because there were no small amount of obstacles that I would have to negotiate on the way back that wouldn't be easy in the dark. It started to rain fairly hard on the way back, too. But I made it back safe and sound. And now I'm typing up my day.

So I get to stay in Conakry until Tuesday morning. I'll know Conakry pretty well by then, I guess. Everything takes a long time in West Africa. It'll be a day to get to Freetown, Sierra Leone. A day to get back. A couple days there. On the way to Bamako, I'll spend the night, I think, in Mamou and Kankan. I'll get 2 or 3 visas in Bamako before trying to take a sporadic boat to Timbuktu. I hope I can complete my itinerary. It's going to be a long trip, though.

August 28, 2008 20:27 Guinea local time