Zanzibar

Zanzibar Sights and Sounds from Louis Majanja on Vimeo.

sights and sounds of Zanzibar

Georgetown, Guyana Pt I & Trinidad Airport

After a weekend on Ilha do Marajo, it was time to leave Brasil, having been in Brasil for two months and travelled the length and breadth of that huge country. From Belem i booked a flight on a small airline called Voemeta that flies mostly through the Amazon, in Brazil and to Paramaribo,Suriname,French Guyana and Georgetown,Guyana. the flight from Belem to Georgetown took about 2 hours. we made a brief stop in Paramaribo to unload some passengers then it takes about 30 minutes  to Georgetown.

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The Airport in Guyana is in a place called Timheri, which is about 25 minutes away from Georgetown.

Immigration and customs was a breeze, i was originally supposed to spend only a night in Georgetown so i got a transit visa - there is a familiarity about former British colonies, the order of the place the uniforms - the language all felt familiar. In a few minutes i was out and looking for a cab. 

Outside the arrival gates were the familiar taxi drivers, but also there were other folks i dont if they were waiting for relatives but the kept waving at me, or looking at me like i was supposed to be looking out for them , gold chains,rings and fresh sneakers  - seemed obvious they were waiting for details which i did not have.

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My taxi driver Jonesy, dropped me off at the my hotel - turns out Guyana is not quite inexpensive. On the way to the airport got a sneak preview of Guyana. Most houses are elevated as  Guyana is prone to flooding. Somehow this has led to some quite elaborate mansions which you see on the way from the airport. I stayed at Sleepin International which is located downtown close to the parliament building - rates were about $50 USD a night which up until  then was the most i had spent on accommodation.  Once i checked in, put my bags a way took a shower and was out to explore the town.

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Georgetown is a relatively small city,  there is a visible dutch influence on the architecture and canals .

but apart from that - the mix of India and Africa is quite visible, the streets, and style of commerce would fit in any East African city minus the dutch influence, down to the minibuses and touts.  Mosques,churches and temples are common and people walking around trying to save you

In the evening as students get out of school - more familiarity the school uniforms,students carrying hockey sticks[field hockey]. One of the major landmarks downtown is the Starbroek Market,

the market is built right on the docks and a part of it  is actually on the river., its made from wood, some really sturdy timber. There are lots of vendors outside the market selling all kinds of stuff. 

cellphones,cellphone cables , fruits ,vegetables, mixtapes and Nigerian movies. Inside the building you have more fish and produce on sell - there is a warren of stalls. The Market also serves as a terminal for the river taxis which can take you across the river to the vreed en hoep terminal. I found a calm place above the streets get some food -  roti and curry where i could  relax and observer the streets and sip on some banks beer.

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I had an early flight, 5 am - check in time was 2am - so i went to bed early, i had arranged with jonesy the cab driver to drop me off at the airport. Back in the airport the check in process was quite slow which

went through custom search and questioning the was on the plane to Trinidad. I was looking forward to being in Trinidad - over the years i had attended various carnivals in the US - San Francisco and Miami and so it was only fitting that i go to Trinidad for the real thing.  i had just been in Brazil and decided to skip the carnival in Brazil for Trinidad instead mostly because i had been in Brazil for 2 months and the pre carnival atmosphere in Brazil is a one month carnival in itself and Carnival in Brazil is quite expensive. Carnival in Trinidad is not cheap either but i had figured out a plan to stay on tobago and take a ferry for one of the Carnival days after which i was supposed to take another ferry to Venezuela.

So when, i walked to the immigration booth, and handed over my passport and gave the officer my elaborate plans he looked at me like i had just landed from the moon. He looked at my passport asked me some question then told me to step aside while he refers to hes boss. at first i didn't panic i figured i had looked at all the rules and everything was good - i figured maybe he just not used to my passport. One minuete became 10,20,30 minutes. Then an hour - lucky for me i had my laptop with skype so i started calling around friends of friends - nothing doing. After about 2 hours one of the immigration officers appeared and basically told me that i didn't meet the "standards" of admission into Trinidad and Tobago.

what to do ?

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Thing got a little complicated, based on some rules which i really don't understand well, if an airline flies you to a country which doesn't admit you its that airlines responsibility to send you back from whence [using the T&T officials word] you came from. But it was complicated since i needed a visa to be in Guyana it would mean that i would end up back in Brazil. Meanwhile i'm in an argument with airport and airline folks who want me to get on the next flight back im trying to explain to them i can't go back to Guyana - so i need time to book another ticket  and re plan my trip which i do. I book a ticket from Guyana to Jamaica and then Jamaica from there re route my plans.

The security guard assigned to watch me wavers between being harsh and being nice at the same time, i basically told him im not a prisoner so he cant order me around, so we go back and for the between him trying to be friendly and trying to order me around the biggest issue was that he had a speech impediment - combine that with Trinidad patois and i couldn't understand a word he was saying. By this time it was late at night - dinner was KFC - KFC is huge in the Caribbean. As the crowds thinned out 

i was left with another passenger who had not been admitted - A Nigerian national, coincidence maybe - he too did not meet the "standards" of admittance into Trinidad.

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Its late at night, at the airport im sitting at the airport with the Nigerian and 3 security guards, chopping it up. they all were interested in life in Africa and Nigerian movies - turns out Nigerian movies are really huge in Trinidad - we talk about many things, The Nigerian,  i don't remember hes name starts telling us about he's adventures in South America, how he lived in Mexico and Venezuela and now lives in Sao Paulo - Turns out there used to be a large Nigerian population in Trinidad but because of some incidents they got deported to Venezuela, which didn't quite work out the way Trinidad intended. So i figured thats why the authorities there are wary of African nationals.

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My new friend at the airport made a living from fraud. Making fake US dollars  then goes to the casinos in Suriname and changes the money for legit dollars.

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I slept at the airport,  In the morning the airline informed me that they would put me up in a hotel and put me on the last flight back to Guyana. I was the airlines responsibility,they took me to this hotel, a third rate hotel close to airport, not your typical layover airport probably specifically built for my exact situation when i got there i found numerous folks from Guyana who apparently had to be flown back to Guyana.

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Later that night i was on the flight back to Guyana. 

Places - Addis Ababa

Addis Ababa - view from the backseat from Louis Majanja on Vimeo.

I was in Addis Ababa, and it rained almost every single day i was there. So i found myself spending a lot of time in the back seat of one of the lada taxis getting form one part of Addis to the next.

The background music is by Mulatu Astatke - wubi

People in Accra - Wanlov the Kubolor

Wanlov the kubolor, Accra from Louis Majanja on Vimeo.

In Accra, i met Wanlov, a musician, rapper and actor. We hang out together and talked about he's past projects - the album Green card, Current project - coz ov moni [http://www.cozovmoni.com/]. a pidgin musical and future projects.

People in Accra - Unoma

Unoma - Accra,Ghana from Louis Majanja on Vimeo.

In Accra, i met and talked to Unoma a photographer from Nigeria. Unoma was part of a project - Invisible borders[http://invisible-borders.blogspot.com/]
where a group of photographers was travelling from Lagos to Dakar and documenting the whole experience.

Marajo - PR,Brazil

After getting back from Brasilia, i had about a weekend to burn in Belem before flying to Guyana. I decided to go check out Marajo which is an island in the Amazon delta about 3 hours on the river from Belem.  I had been to Marajo before but i had only gone for a day trip - this time i decided to spend a weekend over there.

To get to Marajo you have to go down to the docks and book a ticket on one of the Amazon boats. Its a 3 hour boat ride, the boats are pretty big with 2 decks upstairs and downstairs, they have a bar and TV. I took the afternoon boat which was packed mainly with traders  and people returning to visit family and a few travelers. Through the boat ride most folks were tuned to the TV as the Brazilian soccer season had just started - Brazil has many leagues each state has its own league then there is alos a national league - so it gets a little confusing to follow. At the back of the boat there was an impromptu party going on with some cerveja and somebody playing the guitar. But mostly people just sitting still and some laying down.

So after 3 hours on the river the boat pulls in to a small port called Camara, from Camara you have to take a minibus or moto taxi to a town called Salvatera. In Salvatera you wait for the ferry then cross over to Soure which is the main town in Marajo.

Ilha do Marajo is the size of Switzerland, this give you an idea of how big the Amazon River is as the island is located entirely on the river - some parts of the Amazon are so huge that you cant see either bank of the river it almost feels like sailing in the ocean. In Marajo you notice a couple of things most

 people either ride a bicycle or motorbike and some  even ride the buffaloes.  everywhere you go you see buffaloes grazing freely - you can order buffalo meet at the restaurant, it tastes like beef but is a somewhat stringy.

By the time i got to Soure it was getting dark, so i got situated at my pousada, showered and got ready to check the nightlife out. The thing is in Brazil outside of Rio and Sao Paulo english is almost useless and then outside of the other cities even the basic Portuguese cant take you far. I had met some friends from Belem who at least spoke some better Portuguese than i, so we set out to to check the nightlife. Soure
had to major venues on opposite sides of town after asking around we figured out that one was the main
event and the other was the after party both places had big signs written  "Casa de show"

So we set out for the first venue - when we got the there the packing lot was full and everyone was streaming in with there rides  - the packing lot was full of bicycles and motorcycles. it was interesting to see people especially women streaming in on there bicycles all nicely dressed up. Some people rolled up 3 or 4 on a bike.

 Before getting to this spot i thought i had seen the biggest sound systems in Colombia. The sound system in this venue was massive. i have been to outdoors events in stadiums and the sounds system in this clubs was stadium sound - huge and loud.  they had like some sophisticated dj setup  like 3 dj's in 3 different corners of the club so instead of switching dj's sharing the turntables they would just change the stage all of it seamless plus they had all this lighting effects  none of which you would expect to find on an island in the middle of the Amazon. after about 1am the whole club decides to switch venues so everybody was leaving the club and going to the other Casa de show - the setup was similar
except they had alive band performing i cant remember the singers name but she had dancers and the crowd was going wild.

The next day got up had breakfast and then went to look for an ATM - turned out none of the ATM machines worked with my card. So i decided to use the little cash i had to buy a ticket back to Belem
rather than stay cashless on the island.

                                                                          

After 2 months in Brazil, i was off to the next country Guyana.

Brasilia

After a few days in Belem, i decided to fly to Brasilia, the flight was about 3 hours  departing shortly after midnight - I arrived in Brasilia very early and even from the design of the airport you can tell that Brasilia is very different city from most cities in Brazil. I found a cab to take me to my hostel and even in the dark i could notice the wide avenues and the long distances between places. I was in Brasilia mainly to handle some paperwork - get visas for certain countries. But in between i found time to check and out and enjoy the city.

Brasilia, is a huge spread out city with numerous satellite cities which are much less planned than the core city which is called the plano piloto - since the core city is shaped like a an aeroplane. walking around the core city, Its almost as though the city is a memorial to 3 individuals Juscelino Kubitschek, the President who ordered its construction, Oscar Niemeyer - the lead architect and Lucio Costa, the urban planner .

The plano piloto also feels like a huge college campus - everything is hyper organized,
everything has its sector, the hotel sector, the diplomatic sector, the government sector, the military sector etc - the hostel where i stayed was in the military sector close to the military headquarters.

Apart from the architecture, people in Brasilia dress very differently [coastal] from the other parts of Brazil - while in Rio, Sao Paulo, and Salvador, everyone seems to wear shorts and is generally less formal, in Brasilia you notice more formal dress - this probably because of the weather which is generally much cooler and less humid than the coastal areas - at least when i was there.

Brasilia, like most of the larger Brazilian cities has a brand new subways system - it feels new and the some of the trains still have the newish smell.

You can take the train to one of the numerous suburbs of Brasilia  - Aguas Claras, Ceilandia, Sobrandinho etc which are much less tightly planned and controlled than Brasilia and which are huge construction sites Highrise apartments and condos coming up left right and right. Huge shopping malls, and i mean Huge shopping malls. If you are a shopping addict be careful about going to Brazil.

Culturally i didn't get to see much of the city and nightlife mainly, because of distances - unlike most Brazilian cities where you can just walk down the street and find a bar or wander into an entertainment district Brasilia requires you to know the specific location and sector you need to go - directions there are funny you use numbers preceded with a letter some like W3 sector 5 number XXX , its all probably makes sense there but for a visitor its a strange way to addresse locations.

Despite the hustles of getting around i was not deterred from going out, Together with a group of friends we found some Japanese restaurant  that had some really good sushi, and then went out to drink in some neighborhood bar - Brasilia has some really nice, and expensive restaurants, this city is not cheap.

Brasilia was designed so that each neighborhood would be self contained, just to track back almost everyone in the core of Brasilia lives in an apartment or condo - all this apartments are divided into neighborhoods around a small shopping center, a church , and recreational club - all in a utopian way though it doesn't quite work out that way.

 I liked and enjoyed Brasilia, some people i met absolutely hated it, After 5 days in Brasilia i flew back to Belem to catch my flight to Georgetown,Guyana

Places - Ilha do Marajo

Ilha do Marajo from Louis Majanja on Vimeo.

Marajo is an Island located in the Amazon River. Marajo has a large herd of water buffalos. law enforcement on this Island ride water buffalos to get around. I talked to one of the officers to find out why they use water buffalos - Apparently the water buffalos are like SUV's the Island is quite swampy but the water buffaloes can go everywhere and they eat anything that humans eat hence low maintainance costs.

People in Havana, Cuba

Havana - Afro Cuban Music from Louis Majanja on Vimeo.

In Havana i spent some time in callejon de hampel, talking to some of musicians there and learning about Cuban music - I was planning to return on Sunday when they have live performances but didnt make so only have an interview but without the matching live music.

Belem, Para

In most guidebooks  Belem, does not get mentioned as a destination, rather its where travelers embark on on boats to Manaus or disembark from up river excursions. By the time i got to Belem i had been in Brazil for almost 2 months -  From Belem, i had planned to get on a boat and go up river to Manaus - but that would have taken about 5 days. The way those boats function is that you book a space on the boats then buy a hammock which is where you sleep. The though of beng a drift on the river for 5 days on a hammock with 200 other people did not sound so appealing. So i decided to stay in Belem and figure out how i would get back to Africa from there.

Belem, turned out to be one of my favorite cities in Brazil., full of parks and mango tree everywhere.  the weather is tropical - it rains heavily everyday but not for long.  The highlights of Belem are  the cidade velha  - the old city and the The Port and the Vero Peso market.

Belem,  which is pronounced Belen - is quite a large city the downtown area has numerous residential
high rises which from the river appear somewhat like mini Manhattan from a distance.  One of the most interesting activities to do in Belem , is to get up early and walk down to the docks and watch the unloading of produce brought in by boats  fro the Amazon.  All kinds of fish,herbs and produce are unloaded - buyers and seller haggling over the price of fish and baskets of acai lined up on the beach for buyers.

The food in Belem is somewhat different from other parts of Brazil. In the southern parts of Brazil acai is
normally eaten either as a desert sprinkled over fruits and granola or as an ice cream flavor. In Belem acai is the meal - eaten with chicken, acai in the bowl and chicken dipped into the acai .All over Belem you can find acai stores that process the acai berries in to the paste. Apart from acai some food i tried out various local foods  and fishes which i cant even remember the names - Manicoba,Cupuacu and Guarana

I stayed in Belem for about a week in total with brief detours to Brasilia and Ilha do Marajo. While in Belem i found an airline that flies to Guyana.  I decided to take the flight to Guyana and then from Guyana fly to Trinidad for Carnival then from Trinidad to Caracas where i would catch a plan to Spain and catch a connection to Africa - that was the plan. But first i had to go to Brasilia to get some visas.

Places - Olinda,Pernambuco

Olinda,Pernambuco from Louis M on Vimeo.

Olinda, Pernambuco in Brazil, when i was their the town was preparing for Carnival - some street scenes and photos

Places - Salvador,Bahia

Salvador,Bahia - Street Scenes from Louis M on Vimeo.
Salvador,Bahia scenes from Pelourinho the historic center of Salvador.