did i mention the sunsets?

I know I've said this before, but the sunsets in Conakry are truly spellbinding. Last evening T and I looked out our East-facing living room window to see a spectacularly red sky and knew that we had to make a dash to the other side of the peninsula to see the real sunset. It's only a short drive to the other side, but by the time we got there the best of it had already passed. Still, it was worth it. Next time we'll just have to be a little quicker. And there will be a next time - expect a whole photo-gallery of sunset shots on this blog before we leave. And no, I didn't Photoshop the colours ;)

snapshots on the sly

T may have a fancy new camera and the knowledge to use it, but what do you get? Photos from my camera phone. Sorry, but taking photos in West Africa is all about sneakiness and there's nothing sneaky about lugging around a giant camera. In the countryside you can get away with it, but here, in the "big" city, it's a different story. There are people to offend and police officers to bribe everywhere you turn. Still, there are so few photographs of Conakry on the web that I figured even these bad photos are better than nothing.

As you can see, I went for the drive-by technique again, though this time from a car instead of the bike, as the bike's still floating around somewhere on the high seas along with all of our other stuff. With any luck it will be here on Saturday, but I have my doubts.

Instead of another Peugeot 406 (a car, which in my opinion, has no business on this continent - Africa is where such cars go to die) T's got a big ol' Landcruiser, which is, at times, a little too big. For example, notice the traffic jam developing in the photo to the left. Well, moments after snapping this shot, we had the pleasure of involuntarily extending our stay in that street much longer than originally anticipated thanks to a stubborn man's refusal to back up his parked car (which he was sitting in the whole time) - yet another version of the waiting game so popular in West Africa. C'est la vie.

We were Sunday-driving, so the traffic was far more tame than usual, which is why there aren't so many cars in these pictures. Actually, there seems to be far fewer people in the city on Sundays as well. We have no idea where they all go - maybe to the countryside - but the streets feel refreshingly empty. As soon as it gets dark, though, the hustle and bustle has returned and you can feel the peace of the weekend slipping away.