equatorial guinea travel… 5 star accommodation?
vip treatment?
spa days?
perfect roads?
what kind of african trip is this?
what is this insanity?!?!?
welcome to equatorial guinea…
the only spanish speaking country in africa, most visits to equatorial guinea usually consist of a quick tour around bioko island. the country is now trying to expand its tourism industry and we were the lucky group to experience lupine travel‘s first tour around the mainland.
bata
upon arriving on the mainland (known as rio muni), we were greeted as vip guests and brought to the beautiful hotel panáfrica in bata, the administrative capital city of the mainland. not to be confused with the capital city malabo on bioko island… actually… the capital is moving… nevermind… it’s complicated… more on this later…
they let us check-in early and prepared an amazing lunch buffet for us before taking us on a tour around the capital.
the most touching site was the 7M monument – a memorial to 107 people who died and in a tragic explosion in 2021. over 600 people were injured and almost 250 structures were damaged. t
hey kept the surrounding building in situ as a remembrance.
the boardwalk (paseo maritimo) along the coast was the most vibrant part of the city, especially the area around the funky torre de la libertad which was built in 2011 to commemorate independence.
bata was a quiet town during the day, mostly due to the heat, but around sunset this area became the centre of activity and was great for people watching.
corisco island
the next day we headed south to get our ferry to the island of corisco.
but of course there was no ferry…
so we stopped at the local bar.
we eventually found some “local boats” and made it to the island with the guidance of our fearless capitan. luckily he brought some local whiskey to offer to the gods for a safe voyage. clever man.
wherever we went, we needed to register locally with the local administration.
luckily, there is usually a local bar nearby where we can chill…
there is a definite pattern forming here…
after some quality island time in the bar, we eventually made it to our bungalows. there was an initial threat that we would be camping, so we were all quite pleased to arrive to these adorable things…
we had some great views around the area and chilled/swam/drank for most of the day.
more island time was spent waiting for lunch…
which was served imprecisely around dinner time…
the next day we had a tour around the island. as you know, i love anything abandoned… so i was excited to see the island’s abandoned airport.
they built a large airport on the island years ago in the hopes of making it a tourist hub….
wait for it…
but it never really took off…
boo.
there were some beautiful ruins of a former spanish mission as well as an unusual looking church.
to top off the tour, at the southern end of the island was arena blanca’s whitest of white sand beach. the sand was so fine, it squeaked when we walked on it. bizarre.
corisco was a bit of a journey to get to, but was one of the highlights of the trip.
my seo check says i need to insert the key phrase equatorial guinea travel.
so i’m inserting the key phrase equatorial guinea travel right here.
grand djibloho in ciudad de la paz
formerly a small village called oyala, a new capital city is being built in the middle of the central rainforest… see i told you we would come back to this…
a presidential palace, government headquarters and a university are all being built in preparation for the capital which will be relocated here in the near future.
we got to stay at the 5-star, 380 room grand djibloho hotel and were treated like royalty. no more dorm rooms, bunk beds or floor mattresses… woop woop.
it was quite a surprise/treat to get a chance to stay here. the manager and staff made sure we were well taken care of… i can’t thank them enough.
we used the hotel as a base to travel around the country. one fun stop was this bar called in “no persons land” between the borders of cameroon, equatorial guinea and gabon.
another was this abandoned guesthouse in the national park of monte alén. the park hasn’t been maintained over the past few years, but it has a lot of potential for future trips as it contains gorillas, mandrills, chimps and many other primates.
more obligatory pics of abandoned stuffs…
abandoned vehicles used to build the amazing roads across the country.
the basilica of the immaculate conception in mongomo has the 2nd largest catholic church in africa after the basilica of our lady of peace in yamoussoukro, ivory coast.
we finished up the mainland tour with some pretty great company and good vibes…
bioko island and malabo
our tour of the mainland was finished and we are on the home stretch now – back on the island of bioko.
ureka is a beautiful area of waterfalls and black sand beaches on the south coast. before being allowed into ureka we needed to visit to local shaman for a blessing.
known as one of the rainiest places in africa, whatever he did worked as we were treated to some amazing weather.
we toured the island for a bit and even found a guy selling fresh rat.
i’ve accidentally eaten rat twice and vowed never again, so i passed on it.
one final i heart pic…
i’m surprised they spelled the whole thing out. well done.
i wonder what the longest “i heart” sign is in the world. if you know, send me a instagram message or pic.
cool. there you have it… epic trip. i’m spoiled now, it will be tough to sleep on a stained mattress behind a bus depot…
