I had my simple breakfast at about 7:20am and unfortunately at this time baguettes in Bolama are not yet ready, mine was a yesterday’s stale. I was hearing a hum coming from the jetty and I even thought it could be the pirogue but I didn’t worry much. People saying the transport is at 8am so I believe them. But also keeping time is not always a habit in certain parts of the world.
The keeping time part is tricky though. Transport rarely leaves on time but when it does, the timing is ruthless.
My 3am toca toca from Varela showed up at 3:02am and left immediately. I also remember a particular boat in Bluefields, Nicaragua which was leaving at 10am. I arrived at the port at 10:05am and it was already gone.
As I walked to the jetty at 7:45 I saw the boat leaving the jetty and moving towards the mainland…
It wasn’t until 9am till we left. The boat was full. Someone even asked me where I’m going, having assumed I was headed to Bissau and there was no ferry to Bissau on Saturday. When he heard I was headed for Buba, he nodded it was OK.
Buba was an intermediate destination but I thought it’d be possible to reach and it seemed like a transport hub between Bissau on one side, Guinea Conakry to the South (roads in Guinea apparently not passable by car) and Bafatá and Gabu in the East towards Guinea Conakry, where I was going.
There was a camp made of a camper, a huge truck and some other two cars made by white tourists on the other jetty. And there was no truck waiting for me.
I asked someone what to do, the man told me to walk to São João, a kilometre or so away, I should be able to find a motorbike to the junction of Nova Sintra. So I did walk.
In the village my walking companion talked to another man explaining my situation and they told me to sit – I was given a plastic chair – and wait. No motos were available but soon there will be something.
Soon I was surrounded by children. I think children big quiet men like me. They crowded on front of me, asking for photos, giggling, touching, pulling hair on my head, arms, legs, playing my watch and also asking me to buy them something (didn’t understand what). Then a boy climbed to sit on my knee and immediately a girl climbed another. Soon they were taking turns sitting on my knees. It was very jovial and the people around village didn’t seem to mind.
The man came to me and said that there is a truck coming from Enxudé and when it reaches São João it will be coming back so I can take it to Nova Sintra. Soon however a motorbike was found and for 3000cfa agreed to drive me the 13kms to Nova Sintra. It’s been a bit more than an hour waiting.
And it’s been around an hour of quite a rough ride, the road at times not wider than a bush truck and quite bumpy and I had the large rucksack on my back.
In Nova Sintra a woman told me that there is a truck coming from Enxudé to Funacunda, a town before Buba, so I’ll be able able to sit on it. I waited on a wooden sit under a tree. This time there were no children. After another hour a truck arrived but it was the one from Enxudé to São João. After maybe 15mins the truck to Funacunda showed up. I threw my bags in, it was quite full with goods, lots of rice sacks – and since it was coming from Enxudé that means people were coming from Bissau which means there must be some other boats between Bissau and Enxudé – and I hopped in. 1000cfa and maybe 2 hours later we were in Funacunda, a dusty village’o’town where there was another truck waiting for passengers to Buba. We waited some time. I drank 2 bottles of water, sharing it with a woman who travelled with her months-old baby (she was still breastfeeding) and two enormous bags of pepper bells. All that by herself from Bissau! I also had cold juices, the baobab fruit juice, here called cambaçena, and bissap juice, here called ondje. They were refreshingly cold but the bissap juice is a bit too sweet for my taste and I’d dillute it with water. I also tried sticky couscous that was very slightly sweet in taste.
The truck finally left, not full with people. It was 45mins to Buba and it cost 500cfa. In Buba, finally, asphalt. We got dropped at a junction and I walked to an “aparthotel” Franconia, based on Google Maps, conveniently located by the junction. Electricity only at night. Bucket shower. 10000CFA. Bissau ain’t cheap!
I went to find food. It’s almost 3kms down to the river where road and Buba ends. There was a camper with some French guys on the riverside. I wondered what local people make of us tourists and of some of the more unusual-looking tourists and whether any of the tourists ask permission to camp in the middle of the village/town. I already paid village entry tickets twice on this trip.
Since what I only saw was bars, I decided to ask. I was directed to a side road to a Bar Mendes & Mendes (now on Google Maps thanks to yours truly) and yes, there is food, chicken and rice and salad (!) and it’s 3500cfa. Not a price I’d buy food for normally but seems there was no choice.
The food was good, the salad fresh, with carrots and lettuce, which is rare. There was a nice flavour of the local version of Francophone piment, called malgeta. It’s finely chopped fresh pepper with oil. There was mayonnaise of course but on side so easy to avoid.
It got dark, on my way back I visited two bars. One was run by a white, presumably Portuguese, man who first started shouting at me when I entered the building with the “Bar” sign on it but which was his house. Took him a while to understand a bar sign means it’s a bar but then he was all cheers and friends.
Yet another bar, this time next to the junction, this time noone shouted at me.
And in my aparthotel, no water, but there is a bar! I couldn’t resist. Cheers!
PS
Small Cristal beer 0.25l is 500cfa
Dark Super Bock stout 0.33l is 600cfa
Large Super Bock lager 0.5l is 750-800cfa.
Coming back to Maman 