Ziguinchor To Bissau

I woke up at 6 am, snoozed until 7, listened to music till 8, and then showered, settled my minibar tab (1600 CFA or $3.20 for 2 beers), and then headed out to the gare routier at 9. The road was about 50% brown standing water and it was sort of misting.

I got to the gare and asked where the sept-places to Bissau were. I found them and paid for a ticket (2500 CFA) my bag (1000 CFA) and got a rather comfortable seat. I was #2 of 7. While I waited, the guy who helped with the ticket got me a 1.5 liter water which was 8000 CFA but I let him keep the change from a 2000 CFA bill. That made his day. I also bought a handkerchief for 100 CFA. I almost paid 300 CFA. When I hear the French "cent" the Japanese "san" registers and I think 3 instead of 100.

(BTW the power just came on--whew! I guess they turn it on at night for a while at least.)

The sept-place wasn't seeming to fill up very fast but at 10, a family came and voila! At 10:10 we had gassed up, gotten our tires inflated at the tire shop, bought a baguette (the mother) which smelled so French and yummy, and hit the road.

It was pretty short to the border. The road is really good in Senegal. The driver let us out and we all went over to the police. Three of us had passports--two Gambians and me. The others were of a nationality requiring only some ID card. The border police duly entered my information into his ledger and handed me the passport with a stamp, partly on the plastic sheet that connects my new pages. Why do the immigration officials like to stamp that plastic thing? It wasn't even 11. Then we headed a little further and I guess we were in Guinea-Bissau thought there was no sign like "You are now entering Guinea-Bissau". This was a tad more complex. We first went to customs. One officer looked at the luggage in the back of the sept-place while I was instructed (I think) to take my passport over to some guys at the side of the road. Because I had my laptop in my lap, I had it with me and the customs guy made me open it. He asked for the "facture" which is French for invoice. I told him "je n'ai pas un facture". He looked a little more at the wires and stuff, and then let me go. One of the guys from my car asked what I thought of the US election. I told him I hoped Obama would win. He was an Obama fan too.

So we got back into the car and headed a few feet down to the immigration police. I went up and the guy at the front door looked for my visa. He finally found it after a bit of a search since my passport is pretty thick now. He brought me in and laid my passport down open to the visa page. Then the lady at the desk picked it up and lost the page. She asked for the "residence" and I told her "Les États Unis". She looked confused. I asked "visa?" She said yes. I found it and showed it to her. She got out her ledger and checked me into Guinea-Bissau and gave me an entry stamp. It was only like 11:30.

(The power keeps flickering in and out. It's driving me crazy.)

We drove toward Bissau. A few minutes later, we passed another customs point. The driver stopped and a customs guy looked in the back. Then a bit down the road from customs, another immigration checkpoint. I went up to the counter and showed the guy my passport along with everyone else. He had a hard time finding the visa, but I found it for him.

Then we were on what looked like a really nice road when it ended in a detour. Then I realized, it wasn't a detour, it was a ferry. Actually, there is a nice looking bridge under construction. Would that it were complete. We piled out of the car. It was noon-ish. And on again off again rain now turned to sun making the humidity that much worse. Across the other side, the ferry was going around in circles near a bridge pile under construction just downstream from the landing. The ferry apparently doesn't use its own power and a boat was lashed to its side. But there seemed a control problem. Another boat came in and help get the situation under control. They eventually did and about a half an hour later, the ferry headed over to us. I watched as it almost seemed to crash into the concrete landing. No grace at all. Men started to secure the ferry, but the passengers were already hopping off. The ramp is only on one side, so all the cars and trucks had to back off the ferry. Some of the last ones did Y-turns on the ferry deck and drove off. None of the other people from my car got into the car. They all bought tickets for the ferry, so I did too. It was 300 CFA or US$0.60. Not bad. I hopped on and watched the water as we pulled away.

The boat took quite a ways upstream from the landing. Then it unlashed and came around to the other side. It aimed right at me and came within 2 or 3 feet of my face. A guy tried to pull me back, but it all so slow and I knew I was totally safe. They relashed the boat and then chugged into the landing. We all piled off and the car was waiting by the time I found it. Then we were off. It was about 1:30 ish.

We crossed another bridge that was probably a ferry at one time. I was happy there was a bridge. Then another customs point. Same drill--driver lets the girl see the back. Then same as last time, another immigration point a few feet down the road. This time I didn't have to get out--the guy came to the car and looked at my passport. But there was some sort of irregularity with one of the youth's ID and that took about 10 minutes to resolve. Then we were on our way.

We got to Bissau at about 2:30. I got a cab with the other guys from my car. I paid 1500 CFA to get to the Pensão Centrale. It took a long time to get the cab driver to understand me. I also think he stopped to ask a couple guy for directions. We got there pretty soon. It is an old building right in downtown Bissau. It has huge verandas with tables and chairs. The reception is on the first floor--that's the second floor for us Americans. So I went in and looked confused as to what to do. I asked ou se trouve the reception to a white man sitting with a really old white lady. He asked "do you speak English?" in an accent reminiscent of Ricardo's. "That's even better," I replied. "My French isn't that good," the guy said. So he helped me. The woman he was with is the proprietress. I saw the room. It was acceptable to me (sure wouldn't be for Elena) and I went down and paid 20000 CFA. Then I got a 1.5 liter water and a Cristal and sat and relaxed on the wide veranda watching the city and reflecting on my trip.

August 18, 2008 20:00 Guinea-Bissau local time