every country or bust!
another project of cote d’ivoire’s former autocrat felix houphouet-boigny was the hotel ivoire. this brutalist architectural masterpiece was built in the 1960s and hosted all the visiting world leaders. it fell into significant disrepair during the civil war of the 2000s, but is now owned by an international chain and being restored.
abidjan has some very striking architecture, including st. paul’s cathedral. this is the second largest cathedral in africa, built to resemble an anthropomorphic giant. it was built by cote d’ivoire’s long-time autocrat and ardent catholic felix houphoeut-boigny in the early 1980s. houphoeut-boigny’s other catholic masterpiece is the basilica of our lady of peace in the administrative capital of cote d’ivoire, yamoussoukro, which is the largest church on earth.
in june i was able to go to georgetown, guyana for 2 days! historically there were 3 guyanas – british guyana (now guyana), dutch guyana (now suriname), and french guiana (still part of france). as the latter 2 are currently closed to travel due to the covid-19 pandemic, i will have to go back to visit them.
guyana is quite a large country, composed of mostly jungle, and very sparsely populated, with essentially everyone in the country living in the capital georgetown. it is the only english speaking country in south america, and considers itself more a caribbean country than a south american one, evidenced by the accents and by the headquarters of caricom (the caribbean community). the population is very diverse, with the highest proportion of ethnic indians of any country outside of india – indians compose almost half of the population. the remainder are black and amerindian, with a few chinese and portuguese.
guyana means “land of many waters.” the country is divided by the essiquibo river, the third largest river in the amazon basin. guyana has been one of the poorest countries in south america to date, but it is expected to become the continent’s richest country per capita over the next decade as vast oil reserves have been found off its atlantic coast. so things there are going to change a lot!
in miami en route to guyana, something happened that i’ve been hoping would happen for a while. my flight got delayed overnight! the reason this excited me is that i have a credit card with trip delay insurance covering up to $500 in expenses in the case of such delays, and i’ve always wanted to use it! i’m glad it happened when i didn’t really have anywhere important to be.
to maximize the benefit, i booked a $400 room at the coral gables biltmore hotel! it was very nice, and has one of the largest swimming pools in north america. if only i had more like 24 hours to enjoy the amenities, rather than just 6, but there is always next time. for dinner i headed to ruth chris’s steakhouse in coral gables, where i ordered their $85 t-bone steak. as i was already pushing up against the $500 limit, i couldn’t afford any sides, lol.
a couple weeks later, i got a $500 check. here’s to the next trip delay!
i was able to fly from ohio to fairbanks for the extremely low cost of 10k delta points and $5. i stayed for just under 24 hours.
returning from africa i used united airlines points, and was able to route myself through istanbul and then sao paulo, brazil en route back to the united states!
for as long as i can remember, i’ve wanted to visit the idyllic swahili town of lamu, and it didn’t disappoint! lamu is located on an island on the indian ocean, in the far northeast corner of kenya, just miles from the border with somalia. it is one of the last bastions of swahili culture – a unique blend of arab and east african influences, where life has revolved around around islam and the ocean for hundreds of years, and has changed relatively little even in the modern era. the town is composed of countless narrow alleys, which are always busy with donkeys and commerce.
the area is known in security circles due to its proximity to somalia. united states special forces maintain a heavily insulated base called camp simba a few miles outside of town, which was infamously briefly overrun by al-shabaab militants in 2020, the first such direct attack on us forces in kenya. we chatted about this and other current events over drinks with a couple british military contractors and – you can’t make this stuff up -a local named satan (who was actually a nice guy), and an aspiring nomadic kenyan poet. lamu’s manda airport, across the water on another island, has been intermittently shut down for security reasons. but as expected, all was good during our visit. definitely recommend visiting this paradise while it remains an idyllic backwater!
in lamu, kenya we stayed at the lamu house hotel. this is the only place you want to stay or eat in lamu town. that is partly due to lack of any other options, but it really is one of the best places we’ve ever stayed, anywhere. very kindly, they upgraded us to a rooftop suite with amazing views over the town.
many of these intricate doors in lamu, kenya have seen hundreds of years of history.
