SIERRA LEONE!

Just got back to my trip to Sierra Leone! It was AMAZING!  We left on Monday morning early at 6:00am to get to the taxi station and found ourselves a cab.  As we were standing there waiting to get going, we exchanged some of our money for Sierra Leone currency, and then had some man come over and say we needed to pay 60.000 francs for our baggage, which we said we would not, he persisted but again we refused and eventually our taxi driver told us it was fine we did not have to pay.  We hopped into the car and headed on our way, once we got to the boarder we had another man say to us, "Here is Africa"  We responded "Yes we know, we live here"  then he said "In Africa you pay me."  We again said, "No we don't, we are not tourists"  then eventually he left us and we were able to cruise right into Freetown.  Not difficult.  Thankfully we had all our documentation, passport, visa, WHO card, but for anyone who didn't have these, each check point they had to pay off the police, it was ridiculious!

We found a YMCA to stay at which was comfortable, had electricity and running water, then headed out to walk around and see the sites.  We went and saw the large tree in the center of town, there were ATMS, we stopped at a cafe to have coffee and look out at the beach, then that night we went out for drink at a bar on the beach and enjoyed listening to the music, chatting, meeting people in a setting which was familiar to us.

Big Tree in the Center of town; at night it has
a million bats that come out and fly around!

Then the next morning we woke up early and started walking to get to the beach.  We grabbed a cab and headed to Lakka Beach Resort.  We pulled up and had to walk through the ocean to get to the bungalow, which had a little cute restaurant with a bar and a beautiful beach that extended both sides.  We went immediately to the beach and laid out.  The women there were dressed like they would be in the States, with jeans or cute dresses, it was so refreshing to not have to hide your body under so many clothes in the hot weather!  We relaxed and that night we had dinner at the hotel; freshly caught barrucuda with fried plantains, so good!!! and a SODA! 

The next day we went to the beach all day we got up and had toast, eggs with a coffee while looking out over the ocean!  Then we laid out, got too much sun, ate fresh pinapple, mangos, and oranges and that night went for a run on the beach before dinner.  We had met a friend who said he wanted to cook for us and made up coconut rice and freshly caught baracudda with white wine.  When we were there we met an author from Sierra Leone whose book I read, so it was really neat to be able to meet him.

Then the next morning we headed home and it took only 6 hours, easier than getting to site.  Here are some pictures from the trip.  I will be heading back to site tomorrow, so I will talk to you all next month!

The hotel on its little Island!

Beautiful Beaches!

Beach with clifts all around!

At sunset!

Another Sunset!