Departure and arrival

Everything was smooth yesterday at Dublin's airport after the AirCoach dropped me off: no lines to check in or go through security check, no shoe removal, no manual scan. I quickly found the couple of things I wanted to buy before taking off too, a pair of headphone splitters and a photography mag (no photo books to be seen). I even got myself a bargain hat to avoid the equatorial heat for 4,5 EUR at Monsoon.

My plane landed late last night at Freetown due to a stop-over in Marrakesh to fuel up. According to other passengers' explanations, since not that many people were flying, they put us in a smaller plane which couldn't fit enough gas for the otherwise direct flight from Heathrow to Freetown. The detour extended our trip for about two hours. Upon arrival, customs check was very smooth and my bag was already on the baggage collection belt. And the best of all was the temp: 27C. Then the long waits came: bought a ticket for the Pelican boat to take me to the other side of the river, gave my large bag away and stood there. Before my receipt and change came, my bag had already been loaded to a van, then I was led to an almost empty air-conditioned (!) bus. I was told that bags and passengers traveled separately, so I followed. Air conditioning was appreciated because the shuttle didn't fill up for awhile. Then we were taken to the boarding area, but the ferry wasn't there. They invited us to wait at an area full of tables unsurprisingly located by a bar; it had the look of a typical infrastructure built to please tourists, dim lights and stones paths with plants alongside –smart business, I thought: after the long flight and forced to wait in the humid heat, a drink sounded like heaven :)

I was the last one to fit in the first boat, phew! The pier was only a few steps away, on the beach. I enjoyed a short and peaceful walk on the wooden structure -hit by the ocean breeze, I loved the sound of water reaching the sand in a soft movement, and I observed the line of people in front of me moving slowly between occasional lights on the pitch dark background. At the end of the pier was an interesting floating structure, which you had to walk on for a few yards to then climb into the boat. Easy-peasy.

Most of the people on the boat were foreigners. There is a cheaper transportation alternative to go from the airport to Freetown, but it gets crowded and it is potentially less safe. Using the life-vest wasn't easy, for it had plenty of untied straps, so a did a quick fix to it but preferred not to give it a second thought. The ride was smooth compared to open ocean rides, but it felt very long and I tried to snooze for a bit. Other passengers guessed it took 45', which is longer than usual, and observed that the boat took a different, less/straight route than usual. We reached the boat landing around 11pm and I was exhausted. Luckily someone was waiting for me there :)

Sillah, our driver for a few days, took Tucker and I to Ali's place, where we will be staying until we head to Mani land. Tucker is the PI of the project and Ali had worked with him on another language a few years ago. Ali has been very kind to offer the place he's building for us to stay. Ali offered some food and I ate my first West-African meal in years: rice with cassava leave sauce. Very yummy for a day or two, very boring for any longer than that ;)