Welcome to my latest trip report, this time to my first West African country and third African country overall, Nigeria.



Previous reports:
A Trip to the Grand Canyon and Sedona

A Trip to the Azores.

One Week in India: Mumbai, Amritsar, Agra/Taj Mahal, Jaipur and Delhi CX and EY J

A Snowstorm in Tokyo and Volcanoes in the Philippines

New Year’s in Seoul, South Korea Delta A350 Suite

Keeping it Domestic: Grand Teton National Park

9 Days in Asia: Taipei, Hanoi, Ha Long Bay and Shanghai

Two Weeks in South Africa and Namibia: Joburg, Cape Town, Sossusvlei and Kruger

¡Bienvenido a Cuba!

For country counters or adventure seekers, Nigeria isn't usually at the top of their list. Nigeria, or more specifically Lagos, is usually used as a quick layover to 'check off' the country from the list. Admittedly, this is how I planned on visiting Nigeria. However, in late 2017, the opportunity to visit a friend's friend in Nigeria came up in June of 2018, so I seized the opportunity.


Background


Touching on what I just mentioned. A friend of mine that I travel quite often with had previously visited Nigeria a few times. A friend's parents of his currently live in Nigeria (various parts) and his friend goes back to visit a few times a year. We timed our trip to coincide with one of her visits to Nigeria to visit her parents. This not only meant that getting a visa would be pretty easy. Normally, obtaining a Nigerian visa is a pain. You'd have to ship your passport and docs off to the embassy, wait, etc. Additionally, Nigeria has starting making applications to show up in person to get fingerprinted, which further complicated the process. Luckily, our contacts were able to arrange 'business' visas on arrival. Ya, it was a tourism trip but OK. Needless to say, I was issued a tourist visa on arrival (which oddly enough isn't technically offered). Welcome to Nigeria.


Day 1


As usual, the first day started with an early departure from work. A nasty storm had run through Atlanta earlier in the afternoon and had caused trickling multiple hour delays on all of the remaining Tampa - Atlanta flights. Luckily, after switching flights 10 or so times, I was able to make it to Atlanta about four hours later than scheduled. The Atlanta - Lagos flight was also delayed, so connecting was no issue. However, not the most pleasant way to start a trip.

The route out to Africa today.


The Delta A330-200 operating the flight to Lagos.


My seat for the next 10 or so hours.


I ordered the fish for dinner which was ok.


Pre-arrival meal.



Day 2


The flight took me into day 2. We were running about an hour or so late, so we weren't estimated to land in Lagos until 4PM local time.
Only about an hour out.


On approach to Lagos.


Looking fresh.


Likewise.


Lagos Airport.


Our hosts in the country had our Lagos driver meet me at the airport upon arrival. By that, I mean right outside the jetway. He walked me to a small non-air conditioned room pre-customs to obtain my visa. Pretty easy process though they did issue me a tourist visa on arrival (instead of 'business' as indicated on my application), which they technically don't even offer. Getting through customs was easy as my driver (and security guard) was with me. We spent quite a bit of time sorting out a sim card for the week as T-Mobile wouldn't unlock my phone. Eventually, we got it to work but it had taken well over an hour. By the time we made it into the city, it was already dark and close to 7PM.

This is where you'll see how different this trip is from my normal. There are quite a few days where we did basically nothing, just sat around and relaxed. Our hosts in the country covered the hotels and told us to just order room service for our meals. I met my friend at the hotel in Lagos (he had arrived the day prior) and we ordered some dinner to the room. His friend (daughter of our hosts) was planning on arriving from Abuja in two days, so we had the evening and the next day to ourselves.

Some chicken suya for dinner from the hotel.



Day 3


We texted our driver in the morning to see what we had on the agenda today. Normally, our travel pace is pretty fast with most days being full of activities. Our hosts had arranged today to be a 'relax and recover' sort of day, though we didn't really know that until that morning. Hey, can't argue with a veeeeeery cheap trip.

The room at the Lagos Continental Hotel (ex-Intercontinental).


We went downstairs to grab some lunch once we realized the day was going to be rather slow. Interesting mix of Indian, Thai and Nigerian cuisine.


Eventually, the boredom took over and we decided to go out for a walk around the hotel. The hotel is located on Victoria Island in Lagos, a rather upscale part of town. Most of the city's luxury hotels are located here.


Not a bad day to stay indoors though. It rained all day except for the hour or so we went outside. Below is our hotel, the Lagos Continental. It appears IHG is in no rush to force them to remove the Intercontinental branding. Our keycards were IC branded, the room had IC stuff in it, most of the signs, etc.



Just walking around a wet Victoria Island.


It started raining for a bit so we explored this random mall/store.


Victoria Island, Lagos.


Interesting method of seizing a property.


Walking around Victoria Island, Lagos.


More IC branding.


It appears I went blind for a moment with focusing in this picture, but anyway. Keeping it authentic with a pizza for dinner.



Day 4


Our driver/guard, Fred, picked my friend and I up around 10AM to head to the airport to pick up his friend (the one with family here). She was heading down to Lagos for two days to explore the city with us.


Fred and I waiting at the domestic terminal for her to arrive from Abuja. Great guy, if you're ever in Lagos and need a driver/security guard, he's the one to go with.


After picking her up and dropping some stuff back at the hotel, we spent the second half of the day actually doing some stuff in Lagos. The first stop was the Nike Art Gallery on Victoria Island. We met the artist, Nike Davies Okundaye, and she arranged for an employee to give us a tour, not something I'd normally do, but it was interesting none-the-less.


Touring the Nike Art Gallery.


The gallery was rather impressive.


A rather disorganized toll plaza.


We stopped by the hotel for some lunch before heading out for our next activity...


...which was a boat ride around the Lagos Lagoon. Certainly something unique.


Welcome aboard.


We had one security guard on the boat with us (in addition to Fred).


The weather certainly wasn't the greatest but it never really rained, which was nice.


Lots of nice looking houses and buildings line the lagoon.


An unexpected LSU advertisement.


The Radisson Blu Lagos.


We headed into the Port of Lagos which was interesting.


Up close with an oil rig.


Oh, I forgot to mention the rig was repossessed by the Nigerian government. Naturally.


Local fishermen from the nearby Makoko Floating Village, which we'd be visiting tomorrow.


Some colorful condos/apartments along the lagoon.


Rusting away.


This is where my Nigerian Prince lives I'm pretty sure.


More fishermen from Makoko.


Lekki Iyoki Link Bridge.


We headed back to the hotel for dinner after a great day exploring Lagos. We decided to visit the Chinese restaurant for dinner tonight, which was quite good.



Day 5


So the night before we had actually started devising a plan to do a day trip over to Cotonou, Benin (the neighboring country), which was about a 3-hour drive away from Lagos. We spent a few hours the night prior trying to plan everything for it but hit a few snags. For starters, I hadn't gotten my Yellow Fever vaccine yet as it's around $400 in the United States right now. Fred assured us that's nothing a few bucks can't solve. However, we also realized that our Nigerian visas were only single entry. Fred still thought we'd be fine but we decided not to risk it. Instead, we put together a plan to see more of Lagos for the day.

First sighting of one of these Nigerian made imposter G wagons.


The first stop was the Lekki Conservation Center on Victoria Island. They had a tortoise which was over 100 years old.

The conservation center was a nice escape from the bustling city of Lagos, Africa's largest city in population.


Plenty of monkeys to spot.


The tree canopy walk was actually closed due to flooding, but the guide let us go anyway. It just meant walking through the ankle-deep water.


The canopy walk is about 75 feet in height at it's tallest part. It also sways quite a bit which is a tad uneasy feeling.


It provided some great views of the conservation center though.


Our guide. One thing I noticed about the Nigerian people was that, sure, they're louder in a public setting, but when you're one on one with them they're very quiet, which I found interesting. Our guide was quiet at times that we could barely hear him.


Spotted some more monkeys on the way back to the car.


Monkey.


Reflections.


Our next stop was the Makoko Floating Village, part of mainland Lagos. It's one of the poorest areas of the city and the population consists mostly of refugees from Benin. Fred negotiated for someone to take us around on one of the boats. I'll omit descriptions for most and let the images speak.


More than half of the population consists of children, of which most were not even remotely camera shy.























They had us get off of the boat for a little while and sit in the church. I don't want to say it was a shakedown, but it was. Not totally unexpected but at least they weren't aggressive about it. We had nothing to give so eventually they stopped asking.
Understandably, as we got deeper into the village people became more apprehensive to the camera, though some would blatantly ask for their pictures to be taken, or for me to photograph something they were carrying, like a fish.














It was clear that this part of the city rarely sees visitors. The reactions from the kids were profound and many people were surprised to see white people in general. For example, one guy in a boat rowed past us, pointed, and literally screamed "white man!!!!!" Word spread quickly...

Our next stop after Makoko was the Balogun Market, the largest market in Lagos. Hectic, busy and colorful, just the way I like it.


Balogun Market.


Shrimp.


Lady with bananas.


Did some shopping for family here.


Traditional dress.


Balogun Market.


Fred stopped to get us some groundnut (peanuts).


4 days later and we finally saw a sunset in Lagos.



Day 6


The plan for today was to head over to the Nigerian National Museum then off to the airport to fly up to Abuja, Nigeria's capital to meet up with my friend's friend's parents (confused yet?).

Nigerian National Museum. Our guide was VERY strict with pictures but I still managed a few.


Female genital mutilation tools. The museum also had the limo that Murtala Mohammad was assassinated in, though I wasn't able to get a picture of it. Lagos's airport is named after him.


We arrived at the airport less than 15 minutes prior to the flight. Traffic was horrendous as many roads were closed due to Macron's visit that day. Fred turned on the siren (yes, we had a siren and yes, it was entertaining) and got us through the traffic in a rather erratic manner. When we arrived at the airport, he ran inside, got behind the Air Peace ticket counter and picked up our boarding passes. We made the flight.


Didn't get any pictures from the flight as I was in an aisle, but our host picked us up at the Abuja Airport and took us into town. He hadn't booked a hotel, which seems typical in this part of the world and was relying on booking upon our arrival. The only issue was that Macron was in Abuja (he made a short trip down to Lagos that day) so almost all of the hotels were booked up. Several hours of hotel hopping landed us here. Not the nicest but fine for one night.



Day 7


Another slow day. We slept in, then our host picked us up and took us to the next hotel. He wanted to put us up in the nicest place in town (which looks really nice online) but they were fully booked, as were most places still. We ended up at the Chelsea Hotel which was fine for two nights.


We spent most of the day sitting around relaxing, but we did go out for a drive later in the day. We were trying to arrange the Yellow Fever vaccine for me but we weren't able to. Everywhere our host called said they had the vaccine but not the card.

We drove near Aso Rock.


Abuja is a planned city, so the city layout and roads are significantly better than Lagos and exceeded my expectations.

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.

Free snacks on the 50 minute flight to Enugu.


A class watching our plane arrive in Enugu.


We stopped by a mall in Enugu on the way to the village to pick some stuff up.


We also got Coldstone, which was refreshing.


My friend had been asking for this for days, yet we couldn't find it. Ended up finding it in a convenience store in Enugu. Interesting story on this stuff later.


Amokwe is about an hour out from Enugu. The roads weren't in the greatest of condition, but it was a pretty uneventful ride.


The family built a compound of houses in Amokwe for everyone (aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc). All of the structures were built out of concrete, which differs greatly from what we have in the US. Lots of not straight lines, rough edges, etc.


My room for the next two nights.


The road outside of the compound.



Day 10


Today was another rather uneventful day. The plan was to drive out to Cross River State (about 4 hours) to see some waterfalls on the border with Cameroon. We had everything arranged with the driver but our hosts advised not to go due to road conditions, which are quite poor during the rainy season. Oh well, you can't do everything. We ended up just relaxing most of the day in the house.

We did head into Enugu for dinner and to meet a family friend. No pictures of the food considering it was KFC.


The sun was going down as we were heading back to the village.


I'd be a concerned homeowner if I was the guy on the left.


The sky just exploded, it's too bad I didn't have a better spot to shoot.


Sunset.



Day 11


Today was our last day in Nigeria. Our flight from Lagos wasn't until late at night, around 10PM. We woke up rather early in Enugu to head to the airport and fly back to Lagos. We met up with Fred in Lagos, but we didn't have much of a plan outside of that.


My first time flying on a 737-500. This particular one came from Continental. Going back to the Feyrouz comment. My friend had put about a dozen of them in his checked bag. On the way out to the plane, they pulled him (and effectively me) aside. They pulled out the Feyrouz and basically said that they'd be taking it unless he "helped them out". Unfortunately, he had to pay that one since he wanted to keep them and it would've caused too much of a scene to try to save what ended up being $3. Sad that things go that way, but it is what it is.


The flight was rather uneventful. Some interesting aircraft on the ground in Lagos though.


A 727 hanging out in a field.


Since it was Sunday, some places on our list were closed, but we did find another art gallery (much smaller) to visit.



We decided to treat Fred and his wife to lunch at one of the nicest restaurants in town, located on Victoria Island.


Chapman to drink.


Salmon cakes to start.


I went with the Sea Bass as the main, which was excellent.


We then went out to Elegushi Beach on Victoria Island. We didn't expect much, we were just looking for something to waste some time. Note: The sky was perfectly clear, a stark contrast from our other days in Lagos.


Just a run aground oil tanker, nothing unusual.


Beach food.


Going over the Lekki Iyoki Link Bridge.


Fred then took us to the New Afrika Shrine, which is near the airport.


Fema Kuti, a famous Nigerian musician, performs here.


Drums.


Fela Kuti (Fema's father) started the Old Afrika Shrine, which burned down in 1977.


Decor from the Old Akrika Shrine.


One last bowl of Chicken Pepper Soup at a restaurant near the airport.


On the way to the airport we came up to this round about. The driver infront of us slammed on the brakes, then someone jumped out and threw rebar into a stopped cars wheel on the side of the road. We stopped, Fred got out of the car, and a fight ensued. Apparently the stopped car was an Uber driver waiting for someone and the assailants were a towing company that wanted to tow the car away. A few minutes of screaming and eventually they let the guy go.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey2q...ature=youtu.be

Fred dropped us at the Lagos Airport about four hours prior to our flight. The immigrations official tried to extort me, naturally. After I handed him my passport, he tossed it back and said "put something in it" before he would stamp it. I continually refused and he eventually just stamped it and let me go.

The Lagos Airport was a dark and hot place.


Air Peace recently acquired two 777s, so it'll be interesting to see where they send those.


We flew confirmed on this trip and our upgrades cleared into Business class with no issue. Time to head home.


Overall, I really enjoyed my first trip to West Africa. Nigeria was never one of those places that I actively sought traveling to, but I can't imagine there's any better way to do it. Having someone arrange everything for you, drive you around everywhere, cover expenses and provide housing certainly made it easy. Sure, I wish our schedule had been more active and I wish we had done the day trip to Benin and the drive to the Agbokim Waterfalls in Cross River State (which look epic), but you win some and you lose some. Now that I have contacts in Nigeria, if I do return in the future, I'll know where I want to go. A road trip from Lagos to Abidjan with Fred may or may not be in my future plans (cough, hint hint).

Next up is my recent weekend trip to Oregon where I visited way too many waterfalls and took what I feel is my favorite photo I've ever taken. That'll be followed by my trip to the Caucuses coming, which I depart for next week.

Fantastic TR and pics of a fascinating place