This email comes to you from the Atlantic Beachfront Pacific Palm Hotel in Banjul, the Capital of the country THE GAMBIA.
Guinea-Bissau is a very tough place to get to and as a consequence not visited by many people. It took us two days drive through Guinea to get to the capital Bissau. Guinea-Bissau is similar to Guinea in landscape but is a dormer Portuguese colony so Roberto (from Brasil) was in his element and we had no trouble with communication and boy - what a difference it makes in negotiations and planning our drives and trips. Guinea-Bissau was liberated in 1974 and has a population approaching 2 million. It is 40% Muslim.
Guinea-Bissau is also very poor with one of the lowest GDPs in the world and an unemployment rate approaching 70% - most people fish and grow their own food to survive. The country also has no exports or industry to peak of and the main reason for this is that no foreign country wants to invest there given that no President has ever served their full 5 year term since independence. Things are simply not stable and corruption is rife - we paid almost $100USD in bribes to drive the 300km from the Guinea border to Bissau…
Bissau itself is a contradiction - it is calm, spacious and full of old unkept Portuguese buildings that are simply falling apart. The city is more like a big country town and most inner city streets are gravel with pigs and goats running around !!! Like most African cities the place is full of garbage - this is easily the biggest environmental issue in Africa - NOT climate change. The weather in Bissau was terrific - very cool and dry in the mornings with a hot dry day much like Southern Queensland. The highlight of our visit was a personal tour through the Fortaleza (Fort) by an old army guy who has served in the army for over 60 years - the Guinea-Bissau army played a major role in the liberation from colonial forces and the return of free slaves to Africa. Guinea-Bissau is also famous for its archipelago of 80 islands starting 100km offshore with white sands and clear Atlantic water - the problem is that there are no organised tours so you either have to allocate 3 days to use the slow supply boats or hire a same-day speedboat for a small fortune so sadly we were not able to visit them - for this reason we left Guinea-Bissau for Gambia a day early. The journey to the Senegal border was very good - we hired a van and passed through mangroves and palm forrests.
Enjoy the panoramas of Guinea-Bissau…
John WACO Golfin
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