Hotel Tata, Labé, Guinée, Christmas Eve, 2018

I had a pretty good sleep but because of condensation, my tent was dripping this morning!  It's so hot in the day and so cool at night.  It makes it easy to sleep but we always have soaking wet tents in the mornings.

Breakfast went off without a hitch and by 7 we were on the road, travelling to Labé-

It was only 100 or so km but with the roads, it took awhile.  There was pavement, then rough crevices from erosion and some dust-

but always beautiful views-

The markets are always busy and colorful-

Every vehicle seems to have someone riding on top of the load.  It would be super hot and dusty up there-

I upgraded at the hotel even though it was quite expensive but I have my own bathroom!  And it's Christmas!  I hopped on the back of a motorbike to go to a "liquor store" - a small shop with flats of beer and a fridge jam packed with beer.  I got enough to last me a lifetime for $14.  Beside the liquor shop was a restaurant selling fou-fou which according to them is manioc, a patty that looks like it's made from semolina wheat, like cream of wheat but in reality it is a tuber that's very toxic.  It's peeled and grated and rinsed numerous times to get rid of the poison and then made into a patty.  It's pretty gross too.  The stew is monkey meat which I just had to try-

Once back to the hotel, I borrowed a plate and tried to eat it.  It tastes so wild, is stringy and in big chunks.  It's disgusting-

The owner of the hotel says it's not monkey meat but it's definitely some wild kind of animal.  They're probably still laughing about the dumb toubab who came to their restaurant and thought she was going to eat monkey!  The texture and color is in a way like duck, a dark meat, but it's so stringy and wild.  Whatever it is, I'm not eating it!

I've booked a hike tomorrow to see some waterfalls.  I hope we follow the itinerary we're supposed to and that it's not extended.  While we were in Bissau, a group booked a boat trip to an island to see some hippos.  I opted not to go because it was going to cost me over $200.  Well, they left the hotel at 7 am and the 1.5 hour boat ride ended up being 4 hours, then the walk to see the hippos in the blazing sun was longer than expected, blah, blah, blah.  They ended up eating lunch at 5 pm and coming home, another 4 hours in the dark in a boat WITHOUT lights!  They were naturally exhausted!  

Looking forward to enjoying my own luxury suite, a good sleep and tomorrow's walk!