Today’s expedition was into Conakry, the capital of Guinea, to obtain our CDI visas. The journey should have been 40 minutes but took a leisurely 3 hours through their legendary chaotic traffic.
Conakry is less of a city and more of a living organism—a sprawling, chaotic beast perched precariously on a peninsula jutting into the Atlantic Ocean. It’s a place where urban planning seems to have been scribbled on a napkin during a power outage and then promptly abandoned when the napkin blew away. The streets are a kaleidoscope of potholes, honking taxis, and street vendors selling everything from mangoes to mobile phone credit, all set to the rhythmic background of car horns, construction, and street music.
The skyline is a patchwork of gleaming new towers that look like they’ve accidentally wandered in from another dimension, nestled alongside buildings that have clearly given up any pretense of structural integrity. The markets are vibrant, crowded labyrinths where you can buy fresh fish one moment and accidentally adopt a chicken the next.
In the end as we individually and small groups explored this chaos Liz and Paul set off to the embassy and succeeded in obtaining our visas!
CDI, here we come — but first, Sierra Leon
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