🇨🇲 12/2024 Cameroon Travel

Day 80, 18.12.2024 - Pirates in Uniforms. Traveling by cargo boat from Nigeria to Cameroon. 🛳️

The electricity flickers — on, off, on, off — but morning comes at last. 😅 Once again, we are greeted and called over. It’s not surprising. Though some “white people” travel by boat here, it’s 99% certain they don’t wander half the city looking for the cheapest lodging and a vegetarian meal. 🍋‍🟩 As walkers, we stand out, and it feels like many are seeing “white folks” for the first time. Of course, there’s the occasional “White man! Money! Money!” but it’s minimal. 🤭

The morning is foggy. Will the boats go? Everyone says they’re risky and unreliable. 😬 The immigration officers (yes, the men in uniforms) promise to arrange everything for us. Suspicious. We enter their office, where the news highlights the rampant kidnappings in Nigeria. We ask them how this happens. “That’s in the north and border areas, where terrorism exists,” they explain. 🔫 That’s why land borders aren’t safe. Some exist, but no one recommends taking the risk.

They marvel at our Latvian passports, seeing them for the first time. They ask about our currency and whether the government sponsors us. 🇱🇻 “No way you’re spending our own money just to see Africa!” they exclaim. But our spending isn’t extravagant: cheap hotels, street food, public transport — just like the locals…