Dec 31, 2013
Hotel: Hippocampe Hotel; Brazzaville, Congo; 28000 CFA ($60)
I had heard from ironmanjt that he was essentially stuck in Gabon until tomorrow. That left me with an extra day and a half in Brazzaville. I had a great continental breakfast of croissant and baguette with juice and coffee.

The Hippocampe Hotel is very conveniently located to what few sights there are in Brazzaville.. the center is fairly compact. I walked up a few blocks to the Sacre Coeur Cathedral, built up on top of a hill. Pretty little church. There was a large courtyard behind it and I heard people singing. There was a list of activities for the New Year including singing listed on a flyer.


Back to the hotel to check email again for a minute. Before our trip we had arranged train tickets for the Congo-Ocean railway to Pointe Noire throuew gh a local travel agent. I had emailed them the night before to let them know that I was in Brazzavilleeemed like a ca two days early. Their agent came by while I was there and we ended up doing a bit of a walk through the city to see a few more sites. The huge Sainte Anne cathedral is very unique, covered in gree diamond roof tiles resembling the skin of a snake. The interior was a very interesting style as well. The doors were covered in Biblical scenes with a local flavor.

The streets were pretty busy today as Steve said that people were out shopping for the New Year. Still Brazzaville seemed like a calm enough city. It was a little warm and humid but not horribly so. I asked about the possibility of visiting some villages on the islands out in the river. We first went to the Mami Wata restaurant where they rented boats. We had a beer while waiting on the boat guy to arrive. But he wanted 75k CFA ($150) to go out which was too expensive. The other option was to rent a wood pirogue which sounded more interesting anyway.

Green taxis in Brazzaville - 1000 or 2000 anywhere

We caught a cab (1500) out to the pirogue docks. The traffic was pretty bad and we had to maneuver around some mudholes to get there. This area was full on colorful chaos, vendor stalls, people grilling chicken, Africa at its finest. We wandered around looking for someone to rent tue pirogue. There were dozens of them here, 20-30 feet long beached on the rotting muck of the shore. I was taking some general scene photos but people started yelling but Steve diffused the situation. As I was walking back up the hill I felt a tug on my bag and commotion behind me, I looked down to my bag and noticed a pocket was open and my phone was gone!!! I looked around but whoever took it had already melted into the crowd. I just lost lots of photos of my daughter as I hadn't done a backup lately! Well nothing could be done... I usually keep my phone more secure in my vest but it had been too humid to wear it. Wow.. this was the first time I'd every had my phone stolen. Though I did lose one when travelling in Ghana a few years ago so Africa seems to like claiming my phones.

Pirogue docks... a few seconds before my phone was stolen

We did find the guy to rent a boat, 35k still expensive at $75 but better.. and a more unique experience in the pirogue too anyway. The boat owner had to go get a motor first, then bail out the bottom of the canoe. Then they went and got a plastic chair for me to sit in as the bottom was still quite filthy. We set off through the reeds and out into the Congo river. It was quite a ways upstream to the island. Along the way it starts raining but luckily had brought my rainjacket with me. At one point I snapped a picture of another pirogue... the driver got mad and yelled at me to delete it. Oops. The locals here are more antsy of photos than people in central Brazzaville.

We arrive at the island only to find it is a beach resort, not a village. And it being the day before a holiday it was totally empty and only the caretaker was there. I'd been hoping to eat as it was nearly 3PM by this point. We headed back by a slightly different route, passing one of the island villages. Probably best we didn't visit as the locals might have been antsy too about a mzungu just showing up unannounced.

We made it back to the docks but then had to walk a long way out to the main road to catch a taxi back to the hotel. Steve said he would bring the train tickets by the hotel tomorrow morning. I had dinner that night at a very quiet hotel, only two other guests were having dinner. Despite it being New Years eve the town was very quiet and I actually went to bed around 11PM.