An island that belongs to Equatorial Guinea, Malabo was one of the least developed places I have ever been to. At the time we went there, in mid 2000, the place did not have a hotel with enough rooms to accommodate the 15 of us, so we were usually split between two hotels. Hard mattresses and leeches glued on windows, the hotel rooms were not the most welcoming, but the best in town. Since then things have improved, at least in the accommodation department, as oil companies were looking into exploiting the place. Hilton and Sofitel became part of the scenery.
Tired after the 15-16 hour flight from Houston, Texas, my colleagues and I would hardly feel like exploring.  The effort made paid off in interesting experiences. From the fish market that I could not even enter, because of the flies and the smell that turned my stomach around, to the outside local market where all kinds of birds and animals (including monkeys) were sold alive to be cooked later, all was part of a different lifestyle, totally foreign to us.

We were strange to them, too. Most did not get to see often white people by then. I saw a mother pointing at me and saying to her child: “blanca, blanca”. Am I that pale?

From our hotel location we passed shacks and a stream of garbage in order to explore further.

We saw people aligned to take water from a village well, carrying buckets and plastic cans. Kids were washing each other in front of their modest homes, all friendly, waving at us and laughing. We were even invited to a wedding as we were passing by, but sadly too tired and under-dressed to accept the nice invitation. Friendly and nice people in a remote and poor island.

 

Latest Posts

[catlist name=malabo excerpt=yes title_tag=h2 title_class=lcptitle orderby==date order=DESC morelink=”Read more” excerpt_size=300]