a bamboo fire and 3 cell phones

October 2, 2011 a bamboo fire and 3 cell phones

In Yaounde we drive 4 hours, on a one lane highway passing slow trucks carrying gasoline and tree trunks, to get to a beach. Quite different from the easy 4 block walk I grew up with in Jersey. Here you have to work for your ocean. But Kribi has proved itself to be SO worth it!

The first day we got there we stopped at the ‘fish market’ where the fishermen bring in the catch of the day and sell it to towns people and restaurant goers.The fish here is served with heads and tails attached, and yummy spices and onions. No forks in sight Cameroonians eat with their hands and so do we. Pima and vert sauce is served on the side side, one super spicy the other mild and garlicky.
We get food and a show, watching the boats role in, men gathering their nets, chatting it up, and carving boats. 2hours later, with full bellies, we arrived at the Tara Plage, a small hotel literally on top of the beach that late afternoon. It was like living in nature (with 12 other people) for 2 days.

When we got there and we went swimming right away- which was the theme of the weekend along with sleeping, eating, playing poker, and scrabble. I have two favorite moments; one was swimming in the rain. We could ride the huge waves totally alone, the river forming a water slide into the surf, the beach (a cove) all to our selves. I think we all swam for at least 3 hours. The other was swimming at dusk. It was a perfect sunset. One of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen.

On our last day we got to check out The Lobe falls of Kribi, water falls that drop directly into the ocean, and haggle for jewelry and native wood sculptures.

That night Jeff, one of the teachers, arranged for everyone to eat fish, prawns, fries and plantains a 2 minute walking distance from our hotel on the beach . The only light we had was a bamboo fire and 3 cell phones held up by the guys who caught and cooked the fish. We all stayed up and talked till, couldn’t tell you what time…I didn’t look at a clock the entire vacation. It was definitely a weekend worth repeating… so we booked it again 2 weeks from today.

Tags: Africa, beach, fish market, FOOD, Friends, Kribi, natural water slide, night swimming, Teaching, teaching abroad, water falls

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