Remy, my sister's partner, and Augustino at the River |
Buba is a
small town 3 or 4 hours south of the capital that lies at the head of the Rio
Grande de Buba (river). After hearing Rui rave about how amazing Buba is, I
decided I had to go, and my sister being in town was a great reason to escape
the city to check it out.
While Rui
lived in Buba he stayed at a hotel called “ “. This hotel is owned by Abdon Dalga who just
so happens to be the West African Regional Director of SlowFood International. In1992 he opened his hotel and restaurant
right along the Buba river. This was exactly where we were going.
My stepdad
was soooo incredibly skeptical about where we were going!! He kept saying
things like, “ If we get there and there is no hotel, I don’t know where you
guys are going to sleep.” And “we drove all this way I really hope there is
something there” or “ Did you call the owner? Does he know we are coming?”. He
brought his nephew with us as, in retrospect, his “security blanket. ” He said
he would be sleeping at his house in Buba and not the hotel.
Our santuary when it rained and restuanrant when it was grub time |
Buba it’s a
very small town. You can probably walk around the whole city in 2 hours. There is only one paved road and it’s the same
paved road we used to Buba from Bissau. The
road cuts all the way through Buba until you reach the river. Other then that,
all roads are dirt and houses are layed out sporadically along side the main
road.
The hotel
is at the edge of a mini-peninsula. There are 10-12 individual rooms and a sort
of living room/dining bungalow area in the center. Next door is another also very nice hotel
called Bela Vista. It might even be a little nicer than the one we stayed at,
but they didn’t have nearly as good as a chief.
The fact that it rained almost every day was unfortunate, but we made the most of every second that the sun came out. In the mornings after breakfast we went with Abdon when he went to get fish for lunch. We watched the fisher men come back from their morning fish and saw the women at the waters edge just waiting to get their hands on the fresh catch. Before coming to shore, the fishermen arranged the fish to avoid the commotion they knew would ensue once they docked.
The afternoons
we spent swimming in the river, and if it was raining we sat and talked with Abdon,
Augustino ( my step-dad’s nephew) or any of Abdon’s friends that had stopped
by.
My sister Cecelia enjoying some time at the river |
However, all
of the new learning and engaging conversation was just supplementary to the
amazing food we ate. So when I say we were sitting and talking, we were
actually just passing time while waiting for Abdon to finish cooking lunch or
dinner.
The food
was absolutely amazing! In one meal we had gazelle, in another grilled
barracuda. For dinner one night we had an appetizer soup and bread sticks
followed by a main course of quiche, goat, salad, rice, and french-fries and
desert was some pastry that
It was a feast
for royalty! And everything was made from scratch! Every time we had French fries
I for some reason kept assuming they were frozen, because in the US more often
then not they are. It wasn’t until I saw him slicing and frying the potato’s
that I realized they were fresh. Then I felt silly, because I knew very well
that there is no electricity in Buba!
My sister and
her husband couldn’t get over the fact that we were having five star meals at a
small hotel that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. Jokingly they would say
that they were going to stay in Buba until it was time to go back to France.
They were very under-impressed with what Bissau had to offer.
I was a
little bit concerned about the damage this trip would put on my wallet. But 100
dollars covered my own room for 3 nights, breakfast, lunch and dinner for 3
days with all drinks between and during meals included!
I would
absolutely recommend this spot for any visitor in Bissau. In the end, my step
dad wanted to make plans to go back when my mom comes in December! The drive is 3-4 hours long, but if you can
stay out of trouble, unlike us, the drive is smooth sailing.
Lunch: and this is nothing compared to other meals |
“Im peeing!” I responded, half surprised to see anyone and
half annoyed that they had interrupted me.
“Oh my god, oh my god, I’m so mad. This is a disgrace!! I
can’t believe you are doing this.” She
continued.
I wondered to my self why they were freaking out. When I
walk to work I see on average 3 men stop and pee, sometimes less then 2 or 3
feet away from me. Sometimes the guy in
front of me will suddenly veer 2 steps the right and pee. Just because I’m a girl they are going to
freak out?! I finished peeing and pulled up my pants ready to rebuttal whatever
their reason was for disapproving.
Gravity gas pumps |
“Oooooooh shit,” I thought, but said instead,” This isn’t a church.” She told me to come around to the front of
the building and low and behold “ House of God” written in Portuguese was
written across the top. I apologized and
repeated that I didn’t know, but she kept insisting that I had done it on
purpose, as if I purposely wanted to pee on gods house, and as if it was
obvious it was a church.
There was
nothing I could do at this point, the deed was done. But she kept yelling as if
to make a scene. I didn’t understand why she was making such a show out of this.
I again apologized and said God is
merciful and would forgive me and walked away. She didn’t like that and went to
find my dad. She said she was obligated
to tell whom I had come with what I had done.
This ground
my gears. I felt like a child and she was running to tell my dad on me. She approached him and not even 30 seconds in
to her grievances he handed her a dollars worth of change. She stopped, looked
at the change, and almost as if to show she wasn’t going to stop just because
he gave her money, she finished her sentence before walking away.
I got in
the car and when my sister asked what happen. As I told the story her eyes widened
as she realized the mistake we made, then quickly transformed to a grimace for how
the women was making a scene to make a dollar. Her only verbal response was , “If
its god’s house why is it so ugly? It’s not our fault we confused. Look at it! “
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