First, a couple of pics from the Biergarten party by the Lido pool last evening.
We didn’t have an excursion here today and were just winging it. We kept hearing from HAL that this was one of the most expensive cities in the world. They are known for oil and diamonds. They are also known for a huge difference in the classes.
We took the shuttle out of the port area to a square where they had a small market set up. They were mostly selling clothing, material and paintings. It’s interesting that some of the “original” paintings that we saw here, we’ve also seen on the previous couple of ports.
We had a city map downloaded onto my phone and set off walking with the idea of checking out the Catholic cathedral – which was supposed to be about 1 -1/2 miles away. Well, we walked and walked and walked and walked. AND it was early in the morning and it was already well above 90 degrees. About the time we were supposed to get off the main road and head inland, I lost access to the map. The street I thought we were supposed to turn on looked pretty sketchy. Jeff thought a large complex ahead of us said “mall” on the signage, so we headed that direction instead. Yay! A mall in one of the richest cities in the world!
Along the way we have noticed a couple of different things. First, there are numerous people queued up in front of banks. It’s Saturday morning. I don’t know if they aren’t open yet or if it’s payday or what is going on. Second, we don’t appear to be in the nicest part of town. Third, little kids … maybe six, seven, eight years old, are approaching us, begging. They don’t speak English, but they let it be known that they are asking for money. Third, there is this smell that we just can’t seem to escape. It seems to be a combination of rotting garbage, urine and mildew. It just invades your nostrils and you can’t get away from it. Looking around, dumpsters are along the street that we’re walking on behind cement walls. Water is dripping onto the sidewalks from the air conditioning (at least I hope that’s what it’s from). And lastly, the walkways or sidewalks that we’re on are pavers or cobblestones and hard to walk on.
We get to the mall and …. Hallelujah … AIR CONDITIONING! I swear that we’ve probably walked 3 miles in this humid heat BUT we’ve also, at least momentarily, escaped the horrid smell outside. As soon as we get inside we’re met with a Christmas display. Out here, off the coast of Africa, in the heat, I hardly ever think that Christmas is coming soon. Looking up, it appears that there are about 4 or 5 floors. So we start on the first floor and work our way up. The shops are open, but with the exception of a few stores, I wonder how they stay in business. They don’t really appear to be high end, yet a clothing store with less than 25 pieces of clothing for sale gives me pause. We circled each floor and went up to the very top floor which was a food court with a movie theater. There appeared to be about 30 people in line for the food court, but it wasn’t crowded. We didn’t explore further to see why they were lined up. Besides the store, locals had tables set up selling what we saw at the market – t-shirts, clothing, paintings and material. Nothing gave us a reason to look at it any closer but we did walk through the grocery store to check for Dr. Pepper …. Nada!
We have a long walk back to the ship, so we head out. Instead of retracing our steps along the street we decide to walk along the bay. The bay ended up being a source for part of what we were smelling. At first it looked fine but the closer we got in the direction of the ship, the more garbage was in the water. It was incredible but even more incredible is that we witnessed two grown men bathing in the water with the garbage all around them. These scenes were right across the street from brand new looking skyscrapers. By the time we got back to the ship I had logged 20,000 steps (7200 were from my morning walk). We were hot and sweaty, I was out of water, and our feet hurt! Do not pass Go! Head straight to the room and take a shower. After we showered, we both noticed that our room smelled. It didn’t take long to figure our that we needed to wash our shoes.
This is one place in Africa that I’m good without ever coming back for a return visit.
Leaving, the coastline of Angola was interesting. I don’t think I would want a front row view. It appeared that the cliff collapses were fairly common here.
We have adopted the female singer and dancers to our “Team Bar” group!