Malabo
If I had a dime for every time someone asked "Where's Equatorial Guinea?", I would have...about a dollar right now (FYI, it's here). It's very small, not actually on the equator, and it's the only African country where Spanish is the official language!
On my flight from Paris to Malabo, I was surprised that about 70% of the passengers were Americans, and about 95% of them were oil workers. I think I was one of 3 women in my cabin (coach). I was in coach due to my stopover in Paris, and I had a middle seat (grrr! My travel agent is supposed to get me aisle seats!) sandwiched between two oil workers. One was a Dutch guy of average build. The other was a gregarious (fortunately, the gregarious thing was diffused early on), fat American whose leg was so big that the armrest wouldn't go all the way down. Both my seatmates spilled over the armrests into my seat. The corpulent American also had a problem with sleep apnea. He snored loudly. Can one do something with gusto while asleep? If so, then with gusto. So, his 5-hour nap was probably not too restful. At one point, both my seatmates were snoring. It was a very uncomfortable seven hours!
If you set your expectations low, you won't be disappointed. That's my new motto. I was expecting my suitcase to be lost or at least pilfered, but it wasn't. I was expecting our hotel to be horrible, but it wasn't. Actually, the Hotel Paraiso was much nicer than the place we stayed at in Liberia. It did have a few quirks. Like most African buildings, only the rooms, and not the hallways or lobby, were air-conditioned. The bathroom was kinda crappy. The shower was a tiny little corner stand-up shower, which was odd given that the bathroom was relatively large. It had a hand-held shower head, but there was nowhere to mount it, so you had to set it down to lather and pick it back up again to rinse! Instead of a bath mat, there was a rubber welcome mat in front of the shower. I noticed after a couple days that all the welcome mats used around the hotel said "Bienvenidos", but my (bath) mat said "Welcome". I guess this was a nice little touch for the English-speaking guest! I had a spider in my shower the first morning, and washed him down the drain. The second morning, either he or one of his buddies was back. I was able to avoid him, so as long as he didn't mess with me, I didn't mess with him. Housekeeping was hit or miss. You had to leave your key at the front desk in the morning if you wanted to have someone make up your room, although sometimes my coworkers would return to their rooms, not having left a key, to find the bed made up and fresh towels in the bathroom. I never got fresh towels. In fact, the one day I turned in my key to have the housekeeper make up my room, she actually left it dirtier than before (she poured a cup of coffee in my sink and didn't rinse it down, so there was dried coffee all over the basin). I decided not to bother leaving the key on subsequent days! One morning, we woke up to no water. Actually, there was just enough water left in the pipes that I got halfway through washing my hands before it gave out. I called the front desk, and although I'm not sure if my call was helpful, water was restored about half an hour later. The power had gone out the night before, so maybe their well pump was off. The power went out frequently, but they had generators that would kick on within a few minutes, so we weren't without power for long. This was the first place I noticed that the water smelled...not good. Oh well, you gotta shower!
Overall, I felt a little like I was in the Carribean the whole time, what with the tropical climate and the spanish-speaking. They actually spoke some French there too, since the bordering countries are French-speaking. That was kinda handy when I was in a souvenir shop. When "bargaining" (I add the quotes, because I'm not sure what I do could really be considered bargaining) I couldn't think of how to say "too expensive" in spanish at the time (although I can now...thanks brain), so I said it in French. I'm also better at numbers in French, so the shopkeep and I did those in French too. And when I couldn't think of a word in French, I'd switch back to Spanish! It was ugly, but we communicated. And I got another mask for my collection (which is now up to 2). Zach hates this one less.
I couldn't really get a feel for what the culture was like in Malabo. Everyone wears western clothes. Everyone has cell phones, and everyone answers those cell phones whenever they ring, regardless of what they're doing. We did not have a single meeting where our counterpart didn't take a phone call. We thought it was rude, but I guess it's okay over there! They probably didn't even realize we would mind! There are a lot of Americans there, but we almost never saw them, because they pretty much keep to their respective oil companies' compounds. Speaking of oil companies, a couple of us got a quick tour of the natural gas pipeline that Bechtel is constructing. They are almost complete with a suspension bridge that takes their pipeline from their compound down a few hundred feet to a jetty at the coast. It is something like the 300th longest suspension bridge in the world, but it is the only inclined suspension bridge! Seriously, aren't you jealous that I saw it and you didn't?
My flights back home were business class and therefore comfortable. I watched "The Queen", thus saving Zach from having to see it with me. I surprised myself by tearing up whenever Princess Diana's death was discussed! I didn't want to cry in public, so at least 3 times I had to take a drink of water and look up at the ceiling to control myself. This is what being Canadian has done to me. Instead of pictures of Donny/Jordan/Joe on my walls when I was 13, I had pictures of the Princess of Wales and the Duchess of York, because I thought they were so awesome and stylish. Is it any wonder I was never one of the cool kids? Anyway, when I got to Dulles, my bag was the second one out of the chute. Awesome. Pictures here.
posted by Stephanie @ 11:18 AM
1 comments
