travel – Page 29 – PalmTreeMusings

Kissama Game Park, Angola

August 15, 2008March 20, 2022Posted in AfricaTagged angola, best things to do in, counting elephants, game warden, kissama game park, quissama, travel, travel blogLeave a comment

with the park rangers out in the bush angola

I spent this past week driving around Kissama (Quiçama) Game Park, which is 1 million hectares (2.2 million acres). Of course we didn’t drive through the whole thing. About 1/4 of the park is fenced in and that is where the majority of the animals, such as elephants, giraffes, zebras, and more are.

Our task was to drive around to about 40 villages located within the park and ask the sobas (the head man of each village) when was the last time they saw any big game. We were trying to determine if there are any elephants or palancas left in the park- most of the big game were shot for meat during the 30 years of Angolan civil war here. We went to villages that consisted of maybe 10-15 huts, no roads, no electricity, and no running water. The villages don’t have cattle because of the tse-tse flies. These are areas of Angola that the colonizing Portuguese never even went into for that reason (and the malaria).

children in african village, hut with thatched roof, angola — A Quiçama village

Each village we went to, the soba would invite us into the ondjaingo (a large round thatched hut that they use for a type of town hall meeting, where villagers take their complaints or they have celebrations). They would greet us and the game warden would ask his questions. Roland, the game warden, has only been in this area once in his six years as warden- and before that, it had been 30 years since a warden visited. So they had had two visits from park officials in the last 35 years. I sensed that most of the villages had not seen a white woman in years, and some of the children, perhaps never. It is very uncommon for a woman here to travel into the bush.

round ondjaingo hut thatched roof village africa angola — An ondjaingo hut

Roland is the game warden and who oversaw the “Operation Noah’s Ark” six years ago, in which 200 animals were flown in from South African game parks to repopulate Angola’s parks. He is also former South African Special Forces. Along with us, we had two men from the Angolan Ministry of the Environment, who were there to check on the conservation and management of the park (it seems there were some tensions between them and the park manager, so I tried to keep my mouth shut and my ears open. Millions of dollars are at stake for managing this land). I got to practice my Portuguese a lot this week! Also we had Meghan, the ambassador’s niece, who is in vet school and had just finished a 4 week “Vets in the Wild” program in Kruger park in South Africa. In addition, we had 7 armed Angolan guards/ trackers that work for the national park- all former military and some former poachers. We were armed for two reasons- one, the animals, but also because there have been firefights with poachers in some areas of the parks. As these villages are on national park lands, they are not allowed to hunt the animals…. even though they domesticate no animals besides the pig and only cultivate cassava (manioc)as a food crop.

So, we drove around for 5 days, asking villagers about the animals, and also asking questions such as “How many children are in your village?”. (Rural Angolan women average 7.7 births each). “Do you have a school? Do you have a generator? Do you cultivate any crops? Do you have any animals? Are you going to vote in the election in September? Has anyone from MPLA visited this village lately? Has anyone from UNITA visted? When was the last time a car came through here?”. Some places said they saw a car maybe once a week. Some villages had brand new shiny bikes that had just been delivered from MPLA (the party of the current- and only- president).

children in african village angola thatched roof mud hut — Village Life

We drove for 7 to 8 hours each day, but only covered between 60 and 100 kilometers (40 to 65 miles). It was very rough travel. We got stuck fording streams and got multiple flat tires (we had two land cruisers and a pick up truck with our supplies, and we all had extra tires). One land cruiser tipped over when it fell into a hole (I was in it, and it was scary! The guards all had to tip it back the right way while Roland tried to drive out of the hole in the ground. I just hung on to the door handle). The brush was higher than the car- 3 meters (9 feet) tall. We were never on a paved road the whole trip- just dirt tracks. We camped on the ground each night under mosquito nets- no tents- and it was beautiful to look up and see the moon and the Southern Cross. The a/c didn’t work so well in the cars so we often had the windows open, so if you weren’t in the lead car you got plenty dusty (I washed my hair three times when I got home). Chris sent me with 12 bottles of water and 12 MRE’s and that was what I ate all week.

bush camping africa angola mosquito net — My “tent”

All in all, it was an interesting trip. It was not what I would call “fun”. But certainly educational and enlightening, and as Roland said, a historical trip. Some interesting facts about Angola: 77.2% of their budget comes from oil money…. they produce 1.9 million barrels of oil per day…. they have one of the fastest growing economies in the world (due to oil production and prices)…. yet have some of the poorest citizens in the world.

This next month should be interesting. I’ll be in Portugal for 10 days, then as soon as I get back, Chris and I will be heading north to observe the elections in another province. The elections are for the Assembly (Congress, basically), not the President (there has not been a Presidential election here since ’92, and the president has actually been in power since 1979). Hopefully the elections will be peaceful. MPLA dominates now but perhaps more UNITA will be elected as a backlash to the incredible governmental waste and corruption that is present here. Angola is certainly a country that is ripe for change.

From Cape Town To Etosha Game Park

July 5, 2008March 20, 2022Posted in Africa, Solo TravelTagged angola, best things to do in, Cape Town, company gardens, etosha game park, first trip to africa, lubango, namibia, robben island, sunflower hostel, table mountain, travel, travel blog, two oceans aquariumLeave a comment

Chris and Deah outside Etosha Game Park gate, Namibia

After a really, really long flight (24 hours, via New York and Dakar), I arrived in Cape Town, South Africa. I had pre-booked a hostel that included airport pickup, and on the way I got to see a little bit of the scenery as we entered the city. I checked in at the Sunflower Stop, and went for a little walk down to the ocean to stretch out my legs and watch the sun set. This was the farthest south in the southern hemisphere I had ever been- and although it wasn’t freezing cold, it was definitely “winter” time here, even though it had been high summer when I left Texas the day before!

Sunflower Stop Hostel. Photo Credit: Sunflower Stop website

The next day, I went to the Victoria and Albert Waterfront, where I could pick up the Hop On/ Hop Off bus. Chris and I have discovered that this is a great way to see a new city, because for about $15 you can get transportation all around the city for a whole day, plus some interesting facts on the history and culture of the place. It really helps me plan what all I want to see while I’m visiting a city. Some of the stops were the Two Oceans Aquarium, the original Dutch fort from the 16^th century, the Robben Island Gateway, the South African Gold Museum, St George’s Cathedral, the District Six Museum, and of course, the Table Mountain Cable Car. Table Mountain is a beautiful mountain that towers over the back of the city, and you can take a cable car up to the very top of the mountain and see for miles all around. It’s really an incredible vista and definitely worth the price of the cable car. With a picnic, or if the restaurant was open (it was closed for renovations), this attraction alone would be worth a day’s exploration- especially if you were brave enough to hike up and down the mountain (3 hour round trip, I am told).

But as I was in the city only a short time, I got back on the bus, which was then heading for the southwestern edge of Cape Town, an area studded with beautiful homes and long stretches of sandy beaches. I enjoyed the ride so much that I went on another whole circuit of the bus route on the same day just to enjoy the views.

The next day, I went on a wine farm tour with a group of people. There were 14 of us, plus our driver, who really knew a lot about the region and was a great guide. We visited four wine farms. The first one also specialized in cheese, which is a particular weakness of mine! We sampled 7 wines, and tons of cheeses- goat milk cheese, cow milk cheese, soft ones, hard ones, cheese rolled in chakalaka, a South African spice- yummy! Then we left Fairhaven farm, and headed to another wine farm, and this one had a chocolate shop attached. Mmm, chocolate and red wine, nothing better (except cheese and wine). Our third stop was a wine farm specializing in Pinotage (a mixture of Pinot Noire and Cinsault), where we also had lunch. Delicious. Finally, a stop at a last wine farm, which also had some ports. We all basically dozed the entire trip back to the city, and I was so full from my lunch that I didn’t even bother with dinner.

Fairhaven Vineyard. Photo Credit Deah Hester

I spoke with Chris that night, and he and two friends had left Luanda and were headed down to Etosha Game Park in Namibia; the plan was to meet up with them over the weekend and drive back up to Luanda with them.

My last full day in Cape Town I went on an early morning ferry to Robben Island, a small island off the coast. This is an island that has a long history of being used as an isolation point, first for lepers, and later for political prisoners (including its most famous inhabitant for 20 years, Nelson Mandela). Robben Island also has tons of penguins! Which are really fun to see. After the ferry ride over, we took a bus tour of the island, and our tour guide gave us a very interesting history of the island. Then we got out and walked around several of the prison units, listening to stories told by former inmates (who are now tour guides there). Then a quick look at the penguins by the beach, and then the ferry ride to the mainland.

Maximum Security Prison, Robben Island. Photo Credit: CC

After Robben Island, I had a great lunch of fried seafood down at the Victoria and Albert Waterfront (until a seagull stole some of my calamari!), and then I toured the Two Oceans Aquarium. Their shark tank is famous, holding dozens of sharks and rays, and you can walk completely around it 360 degrees, ending at a large viewing window that is over 30 feet wide and 15 feet tall. You really get a panoramic view of the creatures swimming in the shark tank. Another famous exhibit is their live kelp forest, one of only two in the world, a huge tank full of live kelp over 18 feet tall with thousands of fishes swimming in and out of the stalks. The aquarium is definitely a great place to spend an afternoon.

Two Oceans Aquarium Shark Tunnel. Photo Credit: CC

Friday, my last morning, I left the hostel and took a cab ride over to the area of town where the train and bus station is. I still had about two hours before I needed to get my bus to Namibia, so I had the cab driver drop me off several blocks north of the train station, at the start of the Company Gardens, a huge section of gardens that were once owned by the Dutch East India Company. It was starting to rain that morning (the weather had been surprisingly dry for winter in Cape Town all week), but it was still nice walking through the Gardens and seeing several of the old historic buildings in the area, including St. George’s Cathedral (the home church of Bishop Desmond Tutu).

Company Gardens, Cape Town. Photo Credit: CC

At last our bus was ready to leave to go to Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. It was a long bus ride- 20 hours- but it was nice to see the countryside go by. I guess I could have flown but I enjoyed most of the bus rid. I particularly enjoyed the sunset and the sunrise. I didn’t sleep much during the night, and for long periods of time I would sit watching the stars out the giant bus window to my right. The stars were amazingly bright as we drove north through the bottom part of Namibia, which is not very densely inhabited or polluted.

We arrived in Windhoek and I met up with a group that was going to the game park. I didn’t know if Chris had been able to make it out of Angola in time to meet me or not, so I signed up for a 3 day camping safari. We left Windhoek around 10 am and drove north to Etosha Game Park, one of the largest game parks in Africa. We stopped for lunch along the way. However, pretty soon after arriving in the game park I spotted Chris, who had a cabin, as opposed to sleeping on the ground in a tent with my safari group. We went on a night drive that evening, which turned out to be absolutely freezing in an open-safari car. Over the course of Friday and Saturday we saw tons of animals at the game park, including zebras, giraffes, elephants, warthogs, kudus, springboks, elands, rhinoceros, foxes, and ostriches. In all, we saw everything we had wanted to see except for cats- we never saw any lions in Etosha.

inside the cabin in Etosha Game Park Namibia — Etosha Game Park

giraffe safari etosha game park namibia — Giraffe: Etosha Game Park, Namibia

elephants at etosha game park watering hole safaria namibia — Giraffe: Etosha Game Park, Namibia

After a couple of days at the game park, we started heading back up towards Angola. We spent one last night in Namibia, at a great little inn just south of the border, where I had the best dinner ever- a kudu steak. Wow. It was awesome. The place also served pineapple pancakes for breakfast. Delicious!

Finally we crossed the border into Angola and started heading north. We were figuring it would take two days of hard driving, or three days if we went a little slower, to get back to Luanda. Unfortunately, there was no gas to be found in the small towns in the south, and we wound up having to buy gas from a street seller…. Which ten minutes later caused our fuel pump to break. We got the fuel pump somewhat repaired, which of course took hours, but then not too much later it broke again, this time for good. We were still quite a ways from any major town, so we got towed for a while by some Angolans in a truck. They towed us until dark, but as the roads are really bad, it wasn’t safe to continue on that night. The four of us- Chris, me, Delvis, and Noel- slept in the car that night on the side of the road. The next day we got another tow, and finally made it to the town of Lubango by early afternoon. In Lubango we found a body shop that could order the part we needed, and we got a hotel room to figure out what to do next. If we had had more time, we would have stayed in Lubango and waited for the car to get fixed, but Chris, Delvis and Noel needed to return to Luanda for a 4^th of July function at the Embassy. So, the following day, we wound up getting a quick flight from Lubango to Luanda, thus saving ourselves the last 12 hour leg of our driving journey. A week later some other guys from the office flew down to Lubango and drove the car back up to Luanda after it was fixed.

three guys fixing a car — Noel and Chris, fixing the car

All in all, I really enjoyed my visit to Cape Town and to Etosha Game Park. I would love to return to Cape Town- in fact, I think I could live in that city for a long time and be happy there. I liked Namibia, as well, and am hoping to go back in late November, early December to visit some other parts of it- they have the second largest canyon in the world, Fish River Canyon, as well as the Skeleton Coast, which looks fascinating, plus the Caprivi Strip and Okavanga Delta, both of which are en route to Victoria Falls, a destination I hope to see in December before I fly out of Africa. So much to see on this continent and so little time!

*Note: Most of my Cape Town pictures were lost, so I later had to fill in this post with pics from the internet. In general I try to use only my own pictures for my blog but this time it was unavoidable.

Germany’s Weinstrasse

March 8, 2008March 20, 2022Posted in EuropeTagged best things to do in, burg trifels, cologne, dauchau, deutsche museum, frankfurt, frederickshafven, germany, hof brau house, lake constance, liechtenstein, luxembourg, munich, neuschwanstein, porta nigra, stuttgart, travel, travel blog, trieste, weinstrasse, wurzburgLeave a comment

woman in long coat at frankfurt train station

Chris and I (Deah) flew into Frankfurt, and hit the town running! We started at the Dom, the large cathedral that is there, that saw the coronation of ten emperors. We visited the Roemer, which is the town hall, and has portraits of 800 years of German kings and emperors. The Roemer and the Dom are at a large town square, a pedestrian area, which is nice to walk around. We went into a bar for a hefeveizen beer. Then we toured the Städel art museum, with paintings by Rembrandt, Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, and others. Dinner was a pretzel and then a Freebird burrito that I had brought to Chris, all the way from home!

huge cathedral in frankfurt — Frankfurt’s Cathedral

On Sunday, we picked up our rental car. We drove to Cologne for the sole purpose of seeing the large cathedral (dom) there. The sheer size of the cathedral, begun in 1248, with its twin towers is staggering. When we arrived, a church service was going on, so we couldn’t tour the church yet. Instead we walked up one of the towers- 300 feet (509 steps) and visited the bell tower. You could see a wonderful view of the city and also a nice view of the opposite tower with its gothic ornaments on the outside. It was super cold up there and we were both glad to be dressed warmly. It was amazing, thinking of the techniques that must have gone into building the church. When we came back down from the tower, we had a few minutes to wait, so we went out to the platz and got a beer (55 cents) and a coffee (3.15)- which seemed pretty bizarre to me but made sense to Chris. We sat outside in the sun and drank our drinks, then walked through the Fusgangerplatz and listened to singers, accordion players, harpists, and other musicians in the walking area. We window shopped for a while, then walked back to the church. The service was over so we went inside and looked at the marvelous stained glass windows and the treasures of the church- the main one being the Shrine of the Three Magi, a gold box which purportedly holds the bones of the three magi.

After viewing the church, we had seen the one thing we wanted to see in Cologne (Koln), so we got back in the car and drove south to Trier. We had at least another hour of daylight, so we went to the Aldstadt (old town) area, and walked around their pedestrian area. The main attraction in Trier is a large Roman archway called the Porta Nigra, and it was really cool to see this structure built in the earliest part of this millennium. We also visited the birthplace of Karl Marx- ironically, close to the BMW dealer, but the house itself was closed, being a Sunday evening. In the Aldstadt area there was a small street fair and we stopped at a wine booth and had a white German Reisling, then moved on to a tent that had gluhwein, a hot spiced cider wine. By then the street fair was packing it in, so we left the city and found our hotel, called Nell’s Park, which was on a cute little park and orangerie. We ate our second Freebird, drank some beer, and called it a night.

Porta Nigra Trier Germany old building — Porta Nigra

Monday morning we drove to Luxembourg, only 20 km or so from Trier, and visited the main city. We visited the city palace, the town hall, some ruins of an old fortress, and had a doner kebab there. It was quite cold that day so we were bundled up in our scarves and gloves. But the views were spectacular and a lot of really old sights to see.

Luxembourg City was wired for internet, so we used the chance to sit in the parking lot and look up our next hotel room, which we wanted to visit on the Weinstrasse. We booked a room at a b&b and got directions, and headed back to Germany. Along the way, we visited several villages on the weinstrasse, and saw several vineyards. The quaint little German villages are very picturesque. We found our bed and breakfast and checked in. We were the only guests. The proprietress directed to a German tavern and we went and sat by the fire and ate jagershnitzel and drank hefeveizen. Great food and drink and we were ready for bed.

The next morning we drove to Burg Trifels, an old German castle that once supposedly housed the Holy Grail, and was also prison to king Richard the Lionheart of England. We walked up a very large hill to the castle, but once inside it was a very nicely renovated castle that definitely gave a good feel of what it was like to live there once upon a time. Replicas of the crown jewels are kept there, the real ones being in a museum in the capital. The cold winds blew in the many windows and we were once again grateful for our warm coats. After walking back down to our car, we hopped in and got ready to drive to Lake Constance, on the border of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

We arrived in Freiderickshafen just before five, and parked near the walking center. We toured the streets of the old town, and then stopped by the train station to get directions to our guesthouse. It was only a km or so away, so we got checked in there and talked to the owner about where to go for dinner. He directed us to a castle not far away, where we parked, and we walked back to the city center, along the promenade around the lake. The sun was setting and across the lake the lights of Switzerland and Austria twinkled. We wound up going to a restaurant called Panorama on the 12th floor of a tower that gave us a beautiful view of the lake and three countries and had wonderful French food for dinner- including a garlic soup that I thought would sounded weird but turned out to be awesome.

Wednesday morning we woke up, had breakfast, and decided to drive into Liechtenstein. We left Germany, and were in Austria for less than one minute when we were pulled over and given a ticket for not having a pass to drive on the Austrian highways.Make sure you have the pass! After paying the ticket, we drove through Austria for twenty more minutes and were in Liechtenstein. We drove to Vaduz, their capital city, and stopped by their Postage Museum, and saw the residence of their monarch, Prince Hans Adam II. We visited a winery and tried some reisling and some merlot, bought two bottles, and headed back to Germany via Austria. The amazingly beautiful Swiss Alps were our backdrop through this entire day, and the snowcapped peaks made for great photos.

Once back in Germany, we headed to two famous castles, set right beside each other. Neuschwanstein, built in the 1840’s by Bavaria’s mad King Ludwig, and Hohenschwangau, another of Ludwig’s family’s residences, are amazing examples of European castles at their finest. Both are perched atop high crags, and you can take a horse drawn carriage, or tough it out and walk, and see both on an afternoon. Well worth the hike and a nice chance to get some exercise.

couple at neuschwanstein castle germany disney castle germany — Neuschwanstein Castle

We left the castles and continued toward Munich, taking the “Romantisschestrauss” for part of the way. Twisty, turning roads through cute little Alpine villages, high up in the mountains, still with snow on the ground. An excellent chance for a one-sided snowball fight. Eventually we got on the autobahn to Munich and arrived in the city around dusk. We found our hotel, which was very conveniently located right in the middle of the historical district, just one block from the marienplatz and one block from the Hofbrauhaus. We checked in the hotel, and left for the Hofbrahaus, where we proceeded to drink five liters of beer. I guess we had a good time, but I can’t really say for sure, as I don’t remember the second half of the evening or the walk home.

man at Hof Brau house with big beer germany — Chris at the Hof Brau

Thursday morning we got up, ate breakfast, and set out to see the historic section of Munich. Very beautiful rathaus (town hall) and church with a facade that includes over 600 statues and gargoyles on the sides of the building, and includes a very comples glockenspiel that chimes twice a day and plays several songs and has marionnettes that act out various events in the city’s history. We grabbed a bratwurst and ate it standing outside the market area, and then went back to Hofbrauhaus for some more beer, oompah band, and servings girls in dirndls. Then we spent the afternoon at the Deutsche Museum, a six-story building that we only had time to explore two floors of before they closed at 5. The Deutsche Museum includes galleries of modern marvels such as marine transportation, aeronautics, physics, chemistry, etc, with lots of interactive displays.

rathaus glockenspiel munich marienplatz germany — Munich

Friday morning we left Munich and went to Dauchau, the first concentration camp built by the Nazi’s in 1933. They have an extensive visitor’s center and you can walk around and see the barracks, the crematorium, and watchtowers. The memorials include several chapels and churches built by various faiths and the museum is quite extensive, a very moving experience.

arbeit macht frei in german in dauchau germany — Dauchau

After leaving Dauchau we headed towards Stuttgart. We drove through the city and looked around, but our hotel was out a little further, in a suburb called Zufenhaussen. There was a nice German restaurant right around the corner from the hotel, so we ate there (schnitzel and spoetzel, of course). The next morning we went a few blocks over to the Porsche factory and museum and looked at their new and old cars.

On our way back to Frankfurt we stopped in Wurzburg, a cute little city with a large UNESCO heritage site called the Residenz. We spent a couple of hours walking around the public gardens, then touring the residenz. The building itself is amazing, patterned after Versailles, and extensive renovations are going on inside to save and restore the 18th century wall and ceilings paintings and stucco work. Outside the residenz, we walked toward the pedestrian area, followed a walking bridge over the Rheine and visited a couple of churches, and ate our last lunch meal of donner kabab (for Chris) and bratwurst (for me). Wurzburg turned out to be a real hidden jewel and a great way to spend our last afternoon.

At last we were back near the Frankfurt airport, and stayed at the same hotel we had stayed in the previous Saturday night. We found a very random, but quite good, Croatian/Hungarian restaurant and had a fabulous meal. In fact we both ate way too much and felt way too full afterwards! But we both enjoyed the dinner very much. In the morning, we returned the car to the airport, said our goodbyes, hoping to have another fabulous trip soon. In all, I loved Germany and would love to go back and see the northern and eastern part soon.

The Secrets of Sao Tome

December 29, 2007March 20, 2022Posted in AfricaTagged angola, beach huts, best things to do in, Claudio Carallo chocolate, club maxel, ilheu das rolas, MJ's, portuguese, Roca Săo Joăo dos Angolares, sao tome, Sao Tome coffee, scuba diving, travel, travel blogLeave a comment

couple sitting on equator line sao tome island

Chris and I spent the week before Christmas on the island of Sao Tome. We had a wonderful vacation- it was so great to get out of Angola! During our week on the island, Chris got his diving certification at Club Maxel Dive Center, we stayed at some really nice hotels, and we also stayed in a little hut down on the beach. Very secluded and very hidden! I’m not telling the name here because I want it to stay hidden!

Chris in Sao Tome — Chris diving in Sao Tome

couple standing on beach sao tome — Chris diving in Sao Tome

We rented a car and drove all over the island, which is pretty small, and enjoyed several meals and drinks at Café e Companha, also known as MJ’s, a little expat hang out in the downtown. We also visited the Claudio Carallo chocoalate factory. We stayed the last 3 days at a nice hotel right on the beach, and while we were there we met some really nice people- one of them invited us to his house one night for an awesome South African braii (barbecue).

Pico cao grande tall rock sao tome — Pico Cao Grande

We ate at a fabulous old plantation, Roca Săo Joăo dos Angolares, that is now owned by a Portuguese chef and had the best meal… ever.

old portuguese plantation house sao tome — Old Portuguese plantation house

I think Chris’s favorite part of the trip was when we rented a small boat from some fishermen and boated over to the small island “Ilhéu das Rolas” that has the equator running through it. We beached the boat and climbed up a hill to the point where the “actual” imaginary line runs through the island.

man in canoe sao tome beach — At the equator

Sao Tome is a really, really beautiful place. Like Angola, they were originally a Portuguese colony, so a lot of people there speak Portuguese, but also a kind of English creole. Dotted throughout the island are tons of old Portuguese plantation houses that have been abandoned since the Portuguese left in 1975. Some people are starting to reclaim those houses and are turning them into eco-lodges, hotels, and restaurants. I think Sao Tome is a place that would be really cool to visit again in ten years. I had a great time and it was a wonderful way to spend Christmas.

That Time I Spent Thanksgiving in Jail- in Africa

December 1, 2007March 20, 2022Posted in AfricaTagged angola, arrested abroad, best things to do in, jail in africa, N'dalentando Angola, Thanksgiving, travel, travel blog, tribunal in angola2 Comments

Yes, the rumors are true. I was arrested last weekend and thrown in the slammer. In Africa. As Jonathan says “All respectable expats have spent some time in jail. Welcome to Africa!”. Here’s the story:

Chris and I were taking a road trip to the Calendula waterfalls, about 8 hours away from Luanda. Naturally with a long drive like that we would take turns driving. However, we both forgot all abut the fact that my purse had been stolen the previous weekend, and my driver’s license along with it. Of course about half an hour after I start driving, we get pulled over. It was just a routine police check just before N’Dalentando, the capital of Kwanze Norte province. Chris showed his id cards but they also asked for mine. I didn’t have my driver’s license, and I had left my passport at home (we had thought it would be safer there). So the police took us into the city, to the Office of Immigration.

truck falling into sinkhole in Africa — Giant sinkhole in town

We spent the rest of the day (Thursday) dealing with Immigration. They were mainly concerned about seeing my passport. But they were also acting like it wasn’t that big of a deal, so we thought they would eventually just let us go. Everything in Africa takes time. But by the end of the day, they still were dealing with us, so they made us spend the night there. We slept in the car in the parking lot of the immigration building. We called a friend in Luanda and he got the key to the house, and retrieved my passport.

Friday morning, our friend in Luanda took my passport to the Immigration office in Luanda and showed it to them, and they called the guys in N’Dalentando, and we were done. We thought. Then the immigration guys said we needed to go see the police chief about the driving without a license charge. So we drove over there. When we got there, a woman asked us a bunch of questions, and decided we needed to see the judge. So we drove to the courthouse, and waited around there a while. Finally, the judge asked a bunch of questions (mainly the same ones) and informed us that the penalty for driving without a license in Angola is one month in jail! We explained about the stolen license, and she said she needed to see a copy of the license, and until she did, I was going to jail. And with that, she picked up her purse and left for the day! Even though it was only 2:30 in the afternoon.

We were pretty freaked out about the jail part, so I called Ken, in Texas, and asked him to go to my parents’ house, and look through the mail- I had ordered a new license when my purse was stolen, so it should have arrived. Chris was going to call Ken back in an hour or so, and the police took me off to jail. They took my shoelaces. Chris gave me some clothes from our backpacks to use as pillows, and a magazine, and some bottled water. I went into the cell and the guard locked the door. The cell had no electricity, it was about 5″x8″, and it had an outdoor latrine. I was the only one in there for a few hours.

Chris had found a courthouse clerk named Amadou, who spoke some English, so they went off together to go find a way to get me released. He promised to return in a couple of hours with some dinner.
Being in jail wasn’t too bad. The guards were really nice and came over to talk to me and play music for me on their cell phones. After a while we started doing Portuguese/English lessons. You learn a lot of words when you’re in trouble with the law in a foreign country. I learned more Portuguese in those four days than I did in the first four weeks I was here.

Meanwhile, Chris was busy, finding a phone with charge in it and some phone minutes (his phone charge was gone and we hadn’t brought the charger with us), finding internet connection (he had to go to four or five places before he found the only one in town, at the Catholic Mission), and coordinating with Ken in Texas and other people in Luanda. Ken had retrieved my new driver’s license and scanned it in and emailed it to Chris, who got it printed out. He brought me some dinner- an MRE and some juice- and said he was going to look for the judge or the police chief, and he’d be back later.

The sun sets here around 7 pm and when there’s no electricity, there’s nothing to do except lay down and try to sleep. Another woman, Vivi, was brought to my cell for a while, but released about an hour later (her husband was abusing her so they put her in jail for “protection”). I couldn’t really sleep- all I had was a blanket (from Vivi- she told me she’d come pick it up the next day) and a somewhat dirty sheet, on a concrete floor- so I sat up in the doorway with a lit candle for a while. I was still sitting up like that when Chris came in again at 9:30, and said they were releasing me from jail.

chris doing laundry in a bucket at our hotel in N'dalatando Angola — Chris doing laundry at our “hotel”

our hotel in NDalatando Angola — Chris doing laundry at our “hotel”

I was out of jail but we had to stay in town for the weekend. I was basically detained under house arrest. We found one restaurant to get lunches and dinners, but other than that I just stayed at the “hotel” (an empty boarding house, maybe?) we found. If I left the hotel, the police followed us around. But really, they were pretty nice about it and were just trying to keep an eye out for us, I think. We hung out in the city (town, really, it wasn’t that big-maybe five or six main streets) on Saturday and Sunday, and then Monday morning we went to the courthouse. We met with the same judge, who took us into to a “tribunal”, a short trial with three judges. The other judges didn’t seem to really care at all about this whole situation, but for some reason my original judge really had a thing for keeping the case going. Finally, after a couple of hours, I was declared “absolvo” and released. I waited a good half hour while some guy on a manual typewriter typed up a copy of my release papers,– and then actually SEWED my court case shut with twine– and then we beat it out of town. We never did get to see the waterfalls.

All in all, it was an interesting weekend. I learned a lot of Portuguese. I got a close look at the Angolan justice system. An even closer look at an Angolan jail. And, it was an excellent lesson in reminding me to always keep paper copies of my documents with me. It wound up being a very cheap Thanksgiving vacation- when we added it up, we came to about $270 for a five day trip. Of course, two of those nights were in the car and two nights were in a very scary “hotel”- I use quotation marks because I can guarantee that unless you’ve been to a third world country, you haven’t seen a place like this. But at least along the way we met some really interesting people, and a few people like Amadou and Americano, a police officer who was very helpful. And we got to have an adventure.