Guinea-Bissau

Visited: December 2008

Duration of visit: 5 days

Capital city: Bissau

Population: 1.5 million (2009)

Guinea-Bissau travel blog reading time: 5 minutes

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

• The most bizarre country I visited until 2009.
• Bissau feels more like a large, ruined village than the capital of a country.
• Presidential Hummer perforated by bullets after recent terrorist attack.
• Long adventurous ride on dirt roads to Guinean border.

When I was looking for words to describe my feelings about Guinea-Bissau, it occurred to me that this former Portuguese colony might be defined as bizarre.

Since Guinea-Bissau won its independence from Portugal in 1974, it has experienced almost non-stop political instability. Political leaders are frequently ousted – or even assassinated and a new leader steps in. The presence of six different presidents over the past nine years accounts for the unstable political climate.

Due to ongoing instability, conflicts, and a lack of resources, Guinea-Bissau ranks among the poorest countries in the world.

Guinea-Bissau was part of my three-month trip to West Africa in 2008-09, from Morocco to Ghana.

I found the infrastructure in Bissau, a capital of half a million people, far more basic than in my hometown of just 5,000. Power cuts happened several times a day, there were hardly any cars, and the streets felt almost empty. Even the three paved main roads were falling apart, driving speed was no more than 20 km/h.

There is a significant number of deteriorating buildings that could seamlessly act as locations for war movies, with no requirement for special effects to enhance the scenery.

I couldn’t spot a landmark, museum, or any other beautiful area that would be attractive. The capital simply didn’t offer me any remarkable places to visit or things to do.

During my trip around West Africa, which I had started a month earlier, I was convinced that Mauritania was the poorest country in the world. But after spending some time in Guinea-Bissau, I realized how wrong that judgement was. I dare to say that, so far, Guinea-Bissau was the absolute winner when it comes to poverty.

Neither water nor milk is sourced locally. All goods are imported from Europe or neighboring countries. The cost of imported products is prohibitively high, making them unaffordable for the average local consumer.

People are friendly, but the situation in Bissau seems tense. There are very little lights at night and general security situation is not very good. I avoided walking around at night.

In spite of people’s friendliness, the communication is not easy. Official language is Portuguese, but only a small portion of population speak it. Creole and African dialects are much more common. They are completely incomprehensible and plenty of improvisation helped me to get by.

I met a Spanish guy, who spent half of his life in Bissau doing business. He was buying old cars in Europe and driving them overland to Bissau. Quite a challenge to cross various countries in the region, but the reward was worth it.

He invited me to an informal street restaurant renowned for its delectable fried fish. It was the best meal during my stay in the country.

He invited me to an informal street restaurant renowned for its delectable fried fish. It turned out to be the culinary highlight of my stay; the best meal I had in the entire country.

The former presidential palace remained completely looted and empty following the recent bombing that led to its destruction. The people of Guinea-Bissau seem exhausted by their president’s inactivity. His lack of action only adds to the sleepy feeling of a city that looks stuck in the past.

It was hard for me to believe that people of Guinea-Bissau are rebellious, but my new Spanish friend showed me the consequences of attack on the Presidential Hummer. It had happened some weeks before my visit, when a group of terrorists wanted to take over the government and unsuccessfully attacked the President in front of his residence in downtown Bissau.

Being the president of Guinea-Bissau comes with serious safety risks. Political leaders face attacks from small rebel groups and live under the constant threat of a military junta ready to take over, just like in neighboring Guinea.

I made an effort to stay optimistic while searching for attractions and landmarks worth visiting. However, I found that there is very little of real interest to see in the capital city of Bissau.

The Old Presidential Palace was hit during the war, and a huge hole in the roof is still there. The Old Portuguese Quarter, with its colorful Mediterranean-style colonial buildings, gave me the feeling that this used to be a pleasant area some decades ago. These days there aren’t many appealing places to visit or memorable things to do.

Most of the existing buildings were raised during colonial times, when the Portuguese still had money and interest to invest in their overseas territories. You can only imagine in what state these properties are, considering they were built from 1951 to 1972.

There is no indication of any renovations occurring since the Portuguese departed in 1974.The only new structure in the city is the parliament building, the National Assembly of Guinea-Bissau, officially completed in 2005 and handed over to the Government of Guinea-Bissau by China.

In addition to its rural appearance and the scarcity of activities typically found in other African nations, the overall atmosphere in the capital is notably bleak. I didn’t notice much interest and effort of people to work hard or wish to progress.

Nearly all entrepreneurs buy products in bulks and later sell them individually: chocolate, candy, chewing gum and other sweets. Cashew nuts represent the most significant local product cultivated extensively in Guinea-Bissau. Overall, the situation on the countryside is not too bad, as agriculture is prevalent and the soil is rich.

In a country with deep internal problems, anarchy, and many young people without a future, it’s only a matter of time before bad things happen. And when they do, they occur on a large scale.

The United Nations declared Guinea-Bissau Africa’s first narco-state. It serves as a key route for cocaine from Colombia to Europe and heroin from Southeast Asia to the United States.

The two-days drive from Guinea-Bissau to the city of Labe in Guinea is one of the legendary road trips that I could set alongside livestock truck ride in northern Kenya or an all-night bounce on a broken pick-up in the Colombian Andes in Colombia.

I showed up at the bus stop in the village of Gabú at 7:30 a.m., but it took more than two hours for the other six passengers to arrive. At that point, were we ready to set off for the Guinean border, 65 kilometers away, in a worn-out Peugeot sept-place.

No big deal. There’s never any hurry in Africa. At least I had a hearty breakfast, exchanged money, and chatted with the locals while I waited. Only a few kilometers later, a shock absorber on the rear wheel started squealing, but we kept going until we finally met one of the rare oncoming vehicles, which helped tow us to a mechanic.

After hitting a broken shock absorber with a single piece of tool (a large wrench) for a few minutes, our driver was happy to be back on track. But not for long.

Precisely at the halfway point, about two hours into the journey, the transmission failed. Following some hopeless attempts to start the engine by pushing the car and violent maneuvering of the driver, the vehicle was parked along the road and retreated into the shade.

The situation seemed hopeless as we were right in the middle of nowhere located between two villages; but soon a completely empty taxi appeared out of nowhere, collected us and transported onward.

An hour later we came across a farmer with two bags of peanuts, who wanted to transport them to a nearby market. All of a sudden, they started unloading already perfectly packed bags from the roof to find more space for additional baggage. Intense discussions regarding the transportation fee commenced, becoming progressively more contentious.

It was obvious that the poor farmer didn’t want and probably also couldn’t pay the price for his peanut’s bags, so I decided to interfere. I offered to pay for the cargo, if we were going to move immediately.

The farmer suddenly ran to the bush and started to haul seven additional bags, each weighing 25 kilograms. No problem, there is always enough space for more people or cargo.

Upon completing four hours of travel, we reached the border, having covered a distance of 65 kilometers.

I quickly completed the border formalities for the crossing from Guinea-Bissau to Guinea and was soon seated in the next Peugeot sept-place bush taxi. It took us to the first major village in Guinea for just a few Guinean francs. This time the waiting time to fill up the vehicle was less than an hour and apart from military checkpoints there were no special inconveniences.

Saraboydi, however, was not my final destination that day; it was another 15 kilometers to the village of Koundara, where I planned to spend the night. By the time we reached our destination, it had already been dark for a few hours, and it was approaching 9:00pm.

I needed more than twelve hours to cover just 95 kilometers. With no food since breakfast and endless waiting. Welcome to Guinea-Bissau!

This was only the first part of the legendary journey, which continued to Labe in Guinea the day after.

In 2009, Guinea-Bissau is not a popular tourist destination, nor a place to enjoy sightseeing, tourist attractions or special cultural experience or traditions. It is a country where constant political and military conflicts have directed people’s focus to survival on a daily bases without any plans, ambitions or particular interest in the future.

I admire the foreigners who choose to do business in such a complicated and unstable environment. I also respect the backpackers who give priority to Guinea-Bissau over many other beautiful destinations around the globe.

Various national parks, beautiful beaches and exotic islands are theoretically available for exploration. In reality, they may be difficult to access, very expensive to visit or simply off-limits.

Guinea-Bissau still has a long way to stabilize and normalize before it can attract a greater number of foreign visitors.