Good Day – October 27th
We decided not to stay an extra day in Bissau, even though that had become a bit of a pattern. With the November 1st target for Conakry so Johan can fly back to Spain, we needed to keep moving. We did manage to get into the old part of Bissau and drive around a little. It was hectic—busy streets, markets everywhere, people everywhere. You have to stay cautious all day long with pedestrians and especially motorbikes coming at you from all directions.
I forgot to mention yesterday that on the way out of The Gambia, we spotted a Bedford truck like the ones we used to use at Encounter Overland. This one was still in use for small tourist day trips, so I needed to mention that.
The Poste Restante Adventure
I remembered in time that I had mail sent to the Poste Restante in Bissau, so we located the main post office. That alone was an adventure. You walk in and there’s nothing on the first floor. You find someone upstairs who knows a little bit, then they take me to the courtyard to find the boss. He then takes me to the Poste Restante, which turned out to be a five-inch pile of paper documents.
He asked when the letter was sent. When I said October, he said it takes two months. So there was no chance of finding the letter with the NL sticker I was hoping to receive. I’ll need to find another way to sort that out, and there’s still another chance in Conakry.
On the Road to Bafatá
Next we headed toward Bafatá. I had read it was an interesting town, so even though it was a little out of the way, we went. On the way we got to “enjoy” more of Guinea-Bissau’s roads. The paved roads simply haven’t been maintained, so massive holes develop—sometimes so many that people create parallel dirt tracks alongside the road to drive on instead. That’s where you drive to avoid the worst of the craters. It’s slow going.
Despite that, we made good time and reached Bafatá early enough to walk around. The hotel was as basic as they come. Normally we aim for two single beds, but that wasn’t an option. There was no running water—just buckets stored in the bathroom. You can take a shower, but it’s a bucket-and-cup situation. No air conditioning, but there was a fan, and as long as the power stayed on, we were fine.
Exploring the Town
We walked through town to find a place to eat. Everything is scattered everywhere. I even came across an abandoned swimming pool while checking out the river. These are intense places to be.
For dinner, we met Ugwe Solomon Ekini, who runs a small restaurant. He only serves fufu—cassava dough with some meat and vegetable mixture. Johan didn’t eat much of it because it didn’t agree with him, but I was impressed with Ugwe. He’s from Nigeria, had only been in Bafatá six months, and had been searching for another place to build a life. He speaks excellent English and now needs to pick up Portuguese—or the Portuguese-like Creole spoken in Guinea-Bissau.
Ending the Day
By the time we finished dinner, it was dark and we walked back. It’s good to walk in the shade when you can, and at night that’s not an issue. Bafatá was an interesting town, and hopefully tomorrow we reach Guinea. The route looks fairly good and one of the reasons Bafatá felt like an acceptable detour was that it didn’t pull us too far off track.
Thanks for coming along again. And if you can send some people to maintain the roads in Guinea-Bissau, I know many would appreciate it.
