Guinea-Bissau: A land of foreigners

We decided to go to Guinea-Bissau to take advantage of the culture and language affinities. However, in a country where only 14% of the people speak Portuguese, the story ended up being very different...

At the border, we met Forrest (his name is Berryl Forrester, but for me he will always be Forrest - blame Tom Hanks!). Two minutes of talk and he invited us to stay with him in Catel, 17km after São Domingos. Forrest, together with a team of volunteers, is installing a new cashew pressing system, proving medical care to the population, educating the children and spreading his faith (http://bissaumennos.blogspot.com/). A remarkable example of someone that decided to leave his home comfort to give to others. We were also given a shelter, a meal and friendship. Thanks!

Forrest

In the next morning we left Forrest, and took the road to Bissau.

Glimpses of the road to Bissau: Fishing

Glimpses of the road to Bissau: Giant Lizard

In a couple of hours we arrived to Bissau. After passing "The Institution", we spotted a white jeep with two white people: Lopes and Rui! The first is a Portuguese military living in Bissau and the other sells "Leite Mimosa", "Azeite Gallo" and other Portuguese products close to the UN headquarters. We ended up spending four great days with them and Viana, another military working in Bissau!

"The Institution": Casa do Benfica in Bissau

Portuguese Military Cooperation with Guinea Bissau

Bissau was also the place where we met Pinto, the Portuguese selling Moroccan watermelons in Mauritania, Jessica, the British girl living in Kenya that cycled along East Africa, Gerardo, the Italian producer with a house in Cape Verde, and Adrian, the Romanian eating at a Portuguese restaurant that made us change our plans to visit the Bijagos in November! Bissau was also the place where we met several people from Guinea Conakry, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Senegal. I guess that the several police we had to bribe were some of the few locals we met!

In fact, Guinea attracts so many foreigners, that now even Clark and Sweet Potato are residents in Guinea Bissau!