We drove up to the top of a hill for an overview.


Aso Rock, Abuja.


Our hosts' fleet.


Hotel food for dinner again. I've really become attached to Nigerian Chicken Pepper Soup.



Day 8


Our host arranged the family driver and guard to take us wherever we wanted for the day. I put together a quick list, which included the National Assembly. I just wanted a simple picture, but that ended up being a full walking tour around the outside of it with several AK-47 wielding guards. We also witnessed the President of the Senate arrive in his motorcade (including jammer cars, an ambulance, etc).

Aso Rock seen from the National Assembly. Her mom is actually involved in the government and could've gotten us a tour of the inside, but it was too close in to plan that. Maybe next time.


National Assembly of Nigeria.


We then stopped at Millennium Park next.


Really quite relaxing and no one was there.


We stopped for lunch after Millennium Park, which included some pepper soup.


We then drove about 45 minutes out of town to see Zuma Rock.


Zuma Rock, along with our blacked out, no license plate, Land Cruiser.


Quite the busy street.


HIV mingle?


Some sachet water for 10 Naira (3 US cents).


The City Gate to Abuja.


The family Police Escort taking us around. Normally he carries an AK-47, but he didn't during our trip to Nigeria since her mom didn't really go anywhere with us.


We were looking for souvenirs and ended up here, not 100% what it is.


We then headed over to the National Mosque. Couldn't really get a good distant picture of it from the car. Nigeria is roughly half Christian and half Muslim, with a dividing line right through the center (North Muslim, South Christian). Abuja lies right in the middle.


We arranged a guide for the mosque (who was really nice). In the parking lot was this car, which I inquired about. He said it still runs and someone that works there drives it. Not sure I believe him...


National Mosque, Abuja.


Pictures were allowed and the guide was very informative, they don't get a ton of visitors so he was quite excited.


National Mosque.


After our tour of the city, we met back up with her parents to head out to dinner. My buddy's friend's dad (our host) works in real estate so he drove us past one of his friend's places. This guy apparently is building houses out of shipping containers, this particular one is made out of four. Pretty interesting.


Dinner was at the #2 rated place in the city. I started off with a Chapman, a Nigerian mocktail specialty.


Followed by the best Chicken Pepper Soup I had on the trip.


I decided to go with the Japanese Teriyaki Chicken for the main (very traditional, I know). It was excellent.


We also shared some Chicken Suya.


Naira, the local currency.


We then drove around erratically trying to find somewhere to take pictures at sunset. Normally a quick Google search solves that problem, but in places less traveled like West Africa, that didn't prove to be the case here.


We missed the light and I don't have a long lens, but this is a pano of Abuja.



Day 9


Another slow day (or next couple of days). We had a noon flight south to Enugu to visit Amokwe, the village that her parents are from. They built a compound of houses down there.

As I mentioned, her dad works in real estate. He's one of the people in charge of the Centenary City development outside of Abuja. It's another planned city which they hope to attract tourists and businesses to Nigeria. Not much is done yet as most of it is in the planning stages, but we did get a tour of the plans and models as the area is on the way to the airport.


Information about Abuja.


The mockup of Centenary City.


Centenary City.


House model.


Apparently, they just settled with all of the property owners in the area in the last few months, and they anticipate construction to start early next year. Now, whether it'll be on time is another question, after all, this is Africa and we know how these things end up.


The Abuja domestic terminal.


Boarding was rather chaotic.


Flying down to Enugu on an old 737-300 with Air Peace. They're a newcomer to the domestic Nigerian market, but they're quite good. I guess Nigerians like them since they run a pretty on time schedule compared to Dana Air and Arik.
The flight was oversold and they boarded one extra person than seats on the plane. This, of course, caused a huge debacle with him getting removed from the plane. The captain then came out to explain what happened and calm people down. Quite entertaining as the passengers were erupting and people started yelling. Just the kind of experience I was looking forward to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHPx-7M45ZU&feature=youtu.be

The Air Peace 737-300 taking us down to Enugu.


Dana Air had a nasty crash in Lagos a few years ago which killed almost 200 people. Public faith in the company plummeted after that and Nigerians (at least the ones we spoke to) hate the airline.


Taking off from Abuja.