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The Ba’Aka Adventure – Part 1

Wednesday, February 6th, 2008

We spent the first day in CAR buying goods such as rice in Bayanga that were needed for the camping trip. While waiting around in Bayanga, I saw a number of duikers go by in baskets that had been purchased in the local market area. Duikers are small antelope that live in the rainforest and all of this bushmeat is adding up in an alarming rate. There is some legal hunting in the area, but all indications are that most if not all of this bushmeat is based on illegal hunting. The following morning we arrived at the village where Louis Sarno lives and we seemed to be greeted by dozens of Ba’Aka with a celebration including drumming and a mythical dancing character made out of leaves. Unfortunately, we soon learned that this was a death celebration for a woman that died a few days later in labor after giving birth to one of her twins. Ups and downs like this are just part of Ba’Aka life.
[read on]

Football and Elections

Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

We are once again stuck in Douala after spending 3+ days on the coast in Limbe where it was nice to relax, but a bit boring.  Douala is a bit boring, too, and it is easy to see why it is not a major travel destination.  Yesterday we visited the central market and it was by far the best market scene I have seen in Afica or Latin America.  The people are exceptionally friendly and they had a lot of unusual things for sale such as the red palm oil that they produce and consume in huge volumes, odd-looking vegetables and fruits and plant materials such as bark, traditional medicines, and animal parts as well as the normal stuff like clothes, chickens, goats, pineapples, etc.  I was definitely the freak of the market and people loved saying hello to me.  Pam got a good view of what it is like to be mzungu in a local situation in Africa and she thought all of the attention was fun.  It is fun!  We struggled trying to find out what some of the odd stuff is used for, but there are a surprising number of Cameroonians that speak English well to help us through the questions and answers.  Two guys got me to try chewing a bark that has some medicinal properties and it was horrible, but it definitely affected my head even after spitting it out after a couple of minutes.  I could not find bushmeat for sale, but I did find stalls selling animal parts such as tortoise shells, forest animal skins and snake skins including one that we opened up that was a python that was about five meters in length.  We only scratched the surface of this huge market in over three hours and we will go back if this Douala episode continues.  We are supposedly leaving the city by plane on Thursday for the northern part of the country, but who knows since we are in the Cameroon twilight zone.

[read on]

Cameroon to CAR

Sunday, February 3rd, 2008
I decided to go back and re-read what I wrote about my last visit to Central African Republic’s (CAR) Dzanga-Ndoki National Park.  Unfortunately, all I found is tales about the trip from Brazzaville, Republic of Congo (ROC) into Northern ROC.  ... [Continue reading this entry]

Let’s Go Cameroon

Tuesday, January 29th, 2008
I think Pamela must be in the air, but I have no message confirming that Kenya Airways allowed her to board.  Jean Pierre saved the day by getting documentation from Cameroon and passing that to KA in Cameroon.  What a ... [Continue reading this entry]

Downed in Douala

Sunday, January 27th, 2008
I am glad that I could not have predicted the last forty-eight hours.  It seemed simple enough, but this is Africa and anything can happen here and you should be guaranteed that anything will happen especially when you're thinking everything ... [Continue reading this entry]

Out of One Jungle and In To Another

Saturday, January 26th, 2008
This is a just brief update to let you know that I have safely returned from Central African Republic and I am now in Douala, Cameroon.  Shocking to go from the Congo Jungle to this Concrete Jungle of 3.5 million.  ... [Continue reading this entry]

Leg Four – Start

Wednesday, January 9th, 2008
I am looking at the most difficult travel so far. I have an overnight trip from SFO to London, followed by a six hour layover and then another overnight flight to Nairobi. After twelve hours in Nairobi, I fly west ... [Continue reading this entry]

The Tribes

Wednesday, January 9th, 2008
I haven't discussed Kenya yet for a couple of reasons. Namely, we had a bad experience there that colored my whole experience a bit. I need to press forward with all the good stuff about Kenya. When I went ... [Continue reading this entry]

Ethiopia – The Roads

Tuesday, December 18th, 2007
I traveled over 5000 kilometers of roads in Ethiopia on this trip. Other than the trails I was on last year in the Congo, these are the worst roads I have seen. Aside from the minority of well-paved roads, ... [Continue reading this entry]

Ethiopia – The Hotels and Food

Tuesday, December 18th, 2007
In a brief description I can only say that the hotels in Ethiopia SUCK. The worst places I have ever seen overall and one in particular in Konso was the worst place I have ever slept (see another story ... [Continue reading this entry]