I know that travel blogs are not a ton of fun when its mostly text and not a lot of pictures so i'm going to try to keep this pretty visually friendly. This post is probably the exception though since we're just into Pointe Noire, Republic of Congo and have had pretty interesting couple of days. I would have pictures but photography is illegal here and I wasn’t up for risking the night in a Congolese jail.
From the start Delta screwed us over claiming that they couldn't check our bags all the way to PN since they only had a baggage agreement through brazzaville. Its not exactly true since they're supposed to be part of the skyteam with airfrance and airfrance DOES have an agreement, but long story short we ended up needing to grab our bags in brazza and then quickly recheck them for our last in a series of 30 hours of flights to pointe noire. thank god we had a 'protocol man' from JGI to get us through the airport or we never would have made it. that plus everything in Africa is behind at least and hour or so. there’s not a sign in the airport and its just a series of rooms with bidirectional traffic through narrow doors and everybody pushing and shoving to get where they are going. you've seriously never smelled anything like this place. if you're white you have about 20 Congolese following you everywhere trying to do things for you and then demanding money so its a little tense trying to keep an eye on all of your equipment while shooing people away. people follow you to your car and lean in the windows trying to sell you anything and everything. the moment you pull away is a relief. we got 6 of 7 checked bags ok but poor Tory is missing a critical one for her saliva samples....hopefully it will come soon.
Got to pointe noire late and spend the night in a nice hotel although the street outside was littered with prostitutes, pickpockets, and beggars....a pretty sad sight especially since half of them were children.
republic of congo is a lot like other african countries just poorer. during our first day in pointe noire the atms were out of money and then the next day the town ran out of gas leading to some interesting scenes at the petrol stations.
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A few things you should know....
This blog documents my research in the Congo where I work with chimpanzees and bonobos. There are lots of pictures of cute babies in this blog but its important to me that you know that APES DO NOT MAKE GOOD PETS. All of the apes at the sanctuaries where I work are orphans of the bushmeat trade. Their mothers were shot in the wild and the babies were confiscated, often from unbelievably awful conditions, as they were being sold into the pet trade or other sad fates. Think twice when you see a chimp on TV or in the circus...its often the last stop in a sad life for that animal. At the sanctuaries orphaned animals are given the opportunity to grow up with other apes in vast expanses of the tropical forest they have evolved to inhabit.
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