by buffybot_in_beirut » Tue Mar 26, 2013 8:50 pm
Can offer little more than sympathy and nostalgic memories... I entered EG from Gabon some 20 years ago. Bush taxi from Libreville to Cocobeach. Overnight there, dinner was crocodile or porcupine stew. Boat across the border. Immigration in Cocobeach was actually worse (unfriendly and unpredictable) than in Acayalong. I think the Gabonese were fishing for "fees" and it was a matter of who was more patient. (I was. After all, I was on vacation!) The officials in EG were also looking for "tips", but in a less intimidating manner. Got on a pickup truck to Bata after a short wait. Cogo is a longer trip from Cocobeach and had no road connection going anywhere when I visited, only the boat to Acayalong. Cogo is a rather pretty village though. I also chartered a boat from Cogo to the tiny islet of Elobey Chico, which has overgrown colonial ruins and gravestones.
Now, for all that I have heard since then "tourist" travel to EG has gotten even more difficult since the bastards found oil. When I was in EG there were no tourists, so the poor, uneducated, corrupt and paranoid government officials treated me with suspicion. The officials' qualities have not changed, but their egos have become massively inflated, which means paranoia is now mixed with hostility, arrogance and demands for oil rig-sized bribes when 20 years ago a bottle of beer was enough.
Give it a try, it will be an epic journey. If you don't succeed at Cocobeach, make the detour to another border. What's two or three extra days when you've come all the way from Luanda! I hope you make it to Malabo. The town has a stunning setting.