One hour back on the clock had us up bright-eyed and bushy tailed as the saying goes. Sometimes that extra hour does help.
So today we are visiting another African country, Angola. The capital is Luanda and the population is 25.8 million folks that speak a variety of native languages including Portuguese. One thing we should mention is that we did not need to buy visas here.
Angola is a land of traumatic history with startling natural treasures. Its past history is all about civil war than peace, but it is also about huge oil reserves and "blood" diamonds, which stirs up bad memories. It doesn't seem like that long ago when the horrors of the trade were first and foremost in the news. On the other hand, Angola houses the continent's second largest waterfall by the name of Kalindula Falls, hidden within its wild borders. Nagging political issues plague the country as well as government corruption for the last 50 years. For that reason, most of the country is closed off to travelers. Wasted oil revenues and starving people are still stories in the back round.
It is said that you will sink into the sands of a Luanda beach while drinking capirinhas, a Portuguese treat. Locals eat fish stew and drink "white" coffee, which is really coffee with a lot of milk. Random fact: not long ago, Angola had more land mines than children. That speaks volumes once again.
Tours here were not cheap. A two hour drive took folks in small vans for a tour through the city to see the sights for $150. The changing faces of Luanda for 3 hours was $220, while a city tour with a boat ride to Mussulo Island, the local high end resort area, ran $430 which included lunch and a day on the beach or in a pool for 8 hours.
Arriving to Luanda in the darkness of the morning, we were surprised that the ship had cleared by 8am, despite the fact that the Zuiderdam has gone into Code Red with a Noro virus type bug. Just what we didn't need. Many of our friends have been affected, as well as four of our tablemates. Knock on wood, we are OK, but many are being quarantined, but on their own honor. That does not always work.
Watching from the promenade deck at 9am, we saw four Angolan dancing girls with two marimba players. Guests were pouring off the gangway, stopped, and took many photos. Many left money in their bowl. One thing for sure was that it was going to be one very hot day despite clouds floating overhead. We may even get some rain.
While I stayed in the room typing, Bill went to watch the dock activity. The kitchen has run out of so many items, we were curious to see if we got deliveries today. Sure enough, two containers were dropped off, and one crew member conducted the off-loading. Bill had to laugh since three local fellows did the work, while 33 others stood by watching. By then, the local dancing ladies were finished with the performance so they picked up the money bowl, and danced their way out of the dock area along with the band of two. They were happy as could be it appeared. By the time he returned, I was done.
Recalling how dangerously hot it can get here, we packed two bottles of water when we left the ship by 11am. A commercial vessel was off-loading some kind of grain, and it put a terrible smell in the air. There were several complimentary shuttle buses taking people to the port gate, although we walked it before, we decided to do it again. Our main reason was that was we did not want to ride in a crowded bus at this time. We zig-zagged our way out of the port area, following directions from the port workers. That gate wasn't too far away, but far enough.
Guess this is a good time to mention the warnings about our visit here today. Only the craft market would accept US dollars. The hotels may not accept US dollars or even credit cards we were told. Then you take a risk using your cards here as there can be a lot of fraud, even in the best hotels.
It was suggested not to exchange money for local currency which is kwanza ( 504.80 to 1 USD). It is often a practice of locals to sell you old paper money that is no longer accepted as currency. How would you know the difference? The same applies to buying something of value. You can pay with their money, but receive bogus bills for change. Then the usual warnings were don't go anywhere alone, don't wear jewelry, even our watches, or flash money in your wallet. Do not eat the food or buy bottled water, even in the better hotels. And we had not considered kidnappings, which Linda reminded us of the next day. At least this is the complete info we got 5 years ago. And from here forward, these same warnings will apply to every African port on the West Coast.
One aspect of stopping here is the fact many ship tours had been sold. At least the guests are guaranteed safety as well as safe food and drink with a ride in air-conditioned buses and vans we assume.
Directly across from the gate, we crossed the busy road and came across the craft market which had been set up for today only. It was located in the center of a spacious square, but was a quarter of the size that was here 5 years ago. Many tents of souvenirs were set up, but it was mostly clothing and cloth being sold. No wood carvings like we bought last time, there were a few vendors with small items such as key rings and tiny animals. We did buy one piece of a batik cotton, useful for chair pads. It was 6 yards of wide heavy cotton for a mere $10 USD. A few artists displayed their colorful oil paintings which were pretty, but also expensive. Our travel hosts had just purchased some postcards where they were handed a small Angolan flag. Luisa gave it to us for a souvenir. Now we are owners of a red and black flag with a half a gear, a star and a knife on it.
Continuing on, we hiked to the huge lagoon that the downtown area faces. It is a long stretch of walkways and bike lanes lined with palm trees and lot of lawn areas. The best thing is that there are several varieties of shade trees most useful in this part of the world. It actually rained a bit and it would have felt wonderful if it continued. It stopped and never came back. This esplanade had much more of a police presence 5 years ago, compared to today. Of course, looking around, there were only six passengers from the ship that we saw walking like us. Too frightened or too hot – take your pick. Despite this, we were not hassled. There was one exception – a young boy dogged us from the craft market and stayed on our heels for a ways. We stopped, let him pass, then he disappeared. There were dozens of school kids here, all with uniforms from private schools. They were from seven to seventeen and were more than likely on a lunch break. They loved it when they said "hi" to us and we waved back, especially the cute little girls who giggled as little girls will do.
Some older local guys were net fishing in the lagoon using make-shift mattress-like floating beds catching the small fish that the terns and egrets were eating. We saw only a few of these birds today , so we highly suspect that this lagoon may be polluted as it had a funky smell and also garbage like plastic bottles floating on the top.
We slowly made it to the old fort and the Shopping Mall towards the end of the lagoon. This was as far as one of us would go, since we were burning up. No matter how much water we had, it still was not enough as we stated earlier. We went from palm tree to palm tree for the shade and a breeze. A cop on a motorbike followed us halfway back to the next set of officers. Can't say we minded. We did notice at the very end of the lagoon, a homeless camp was hidden behind some concrete walls. We stayed well clear of that area.
Finally back at the craft market and clocktower, we noticed that few guests were there buying things. Perhaps they were still on tours or felt it too hot to come out here. We decided to tough it out and walk back to the ship even though the bus was there. We were back to the gangway at 1:30pm, when the bus arrived at the same time. The air-conditioning was lifesaving at this point. We ordered a room service lunch, which arrived 2 hours later. No doubt, the room service kitchen was slammed.
Relaxing on the veranda with a breeze and several ice cold sodas, we waited for the all aboard time at 4:30pm and subsequent sail away by 5pm. It was not to be. Greg had called to give his regrets for dinner as he and Heo are still not well. They hope to be cleared to leave their room by tomorrow. He had also heard from 15 more of their friends that had caught the bug. This one is bad. In the meantime, he told us about a last minute debark of an ill passenger who needed to be hospitalized. He also added that their room service meals had been arriving 3 hours late with no tray pick-up. Oh boy….this is worse than we think.
The ship left the port 2 ½ hours late with the medical debark and other ship traffic blocking our way. The sun had set, but we did get a few shots of downtown in the after color. It sure looked far nicer in the dark all lit up. Dinner had six of us there. Barb had invited Cecile, and Woody and Susie showed up. Our mains were one lasagna, which was shared, and one snapper which was very good. Cooked properly, the fish dishes have been tasty. Calves' liver was on the menu, which is Barb's and Susie's favorite. Except Barb's was too rare and they had to bring her another one. It was sliced so thin, they had only heated it up. Glad she likes it……
It had been a long day for us,, so we were content to end dinner by 9pm. Barb had taken the shuttle with Ellen, saw what was there, and stayed on the bus for the ride back. Too warm for them, they were better off on the ship staying cool.
There was a movie, Death on the Nile in the World Stage, but who could stay awake for 2 more hours and seven minutes? Not us…..
Bill & Mary Ann
