Our Kindia Experience

Fair warning: it's a long one :)

Being from the Northwest, I love the outdoors. I am a huge fan of all things green, and yes, even the rain. So for our first three-day weekend we decided to get out into the countryside of Guinea and check out a region called Kindia! We planned to be joined on Saturday by a bunch of our friends, but we talked another couple into coming up with us early - Maria and Freddie, our beloved New Zealanders. And we hired our own driver, a man who went by Barry White and had a particular affinity to Akon (we soon found out). So bright and early Friday morning he picked us up outside the port, and we were off!

Road ready!

For our first adventure, we call to the floor Conakry's traffic. We had barely been on the freeway for thirty minutes when we were rear-ended - by a motorcycle driven by a police officer. No one pulled over, we stopped in the middle of the road, he pulled up to our front window, kinda shrugged, and then drove off. Lol. Thankfully he only broke our back right tail light.
This trip was off to a great start :)

Finally getting to the outskirts of Conakry

After weaving through the Capitol for over an hour we finally emerged from the city and began to breathe clean air. This is the Africa I remember - rich red dirt, lush green foliage, thatched huts dotting the landscape, and roadside fruit stands :)

Out Maria's window

We bought some of the sweetest pineapple I've ever eaten

By mid-afternoon we were in Kindia! All of our travel and lodging arrangements were made through a man named Chico, who owns a large farm in the area and hopes to begin a tourism industry. He joined us in the village just down from our hotel and after we checked in and dropped our things, he took us out to his "Agro-Artisanal & Eco Touristic Resort".
His farm hosts the Mercy Ship's Agriculture Center, where volunteers teach the local men how to farm organically. There are acres and acres of crops, pineapples, banana trees, rice pads, you name it. There are also chicken huts, where they produce over 1,000 eggs daily, and a rabbit pen where four newborn bunnies were cozied. Chico hopes to not only grow the farm exponentially, but he plans to build an authentic African hotel (huts along a small creek), a restaurant, and an artificial beach...this guy was brimming with ideas.
He walked us around his property for hours; it was beautiful.

Chico, showing us the lay of the land

Rows of baby shoots!

Our one cheesy tourist photo (Chico's idea)

We left the ranch well after dark and our poor driver had to navigate the 9km path back to our hotel in his skinny-wheeled taxi. This "road" was mostly made up of dirt, rocks, and potholes.
Oh Africa :)
We spent the evening playing cards with Maria and Freddie, went to bed early and slept in deliciously late. Saturday we woke up to the rest of our friends arriving! They planned to spend the day on the farm with Chico, so the four of us decided to find one of the famous waterfalls we had been hearing so much about. We drove further into Kindia, and 45 minutes later we came to a beautiful tree-lined path leading up to the Bridal Veil Falls.

Le Voile de la Mariee

A tree growing at the foot of the falls

A secret stair Maria found along the side of the mountain
(I thought of LOTR the whole time, lol)

Patrick & I - so much mist!!

We spent the afternoon wading in the shallow pool beneath the falls and exploring the surrounding area, which had some beautiful nooks. Toward dinnertime we drove back to our village for a bit of a rest. Then we made our way toward the farm, where we were meant to meet everyone for dinner and a drum show. I should have made allowance for Africa time and known that we just wouldn't make it in time, but boy did we try! We spent over an hour on that wretched path in the dark and rolled into the ranch around 8:30pm. Thankfully, dinner had been saved for us and the drummers had just started! So we spent what was left of the evening having dinner and a show :)
The next morning we were all up early. Chico brought our breakfast to the hotel, we packed up, and the +14 of us set out for a hiking adventure! We were about to tackle Mount Gangan - a series of various ascending plateaus that overlooks Kindia. We found the start of the path up and were met there by a guide Chico had arranged; this guy was going to compete in the Olympics this year but was injured. The man was IN SHAPE. Let's just say he did the hike in flip-flops. No joke.

Our first look at what lay ahead...

The east portion of Mount Gangan

We began pretty optimistically: the sky was somewhat overcast, the path relatively flat. About 20 minutes into the hike we even came across a natural rock slide. Locals were doing laundry and their children were laughing and shrieking as they went down their very own water slide!

The coolest natural slide I've ever seen

Soon however, the path began to incline. The switchbacks became more steep. And then they stopped altogether. The only way was up, one step at a time.

A look down

And a dizzying look up

Thankfully we persevered, and after nearly an hour and a half we crested the center portion of the mountain. Little did we know that we were in for a treat. Two small villages were nestled up there! They graciously brought out benches for us to sit on, and gave us corn and bananas to eat. When your heart is beating 200 bpm and you're covered in sweat, that kind of hospitality can just about bring you to tears :)

The first village

Enjoying the break with our guide

Our little welcoming committee :)

Soon we were on our way back down, but not the way we came. Turns out we had come up the center of the mountain and then went west into the villages. We made a loop of sorts, descending through a beautiful green valley opposite of the waterfall at the beginning.

Single file, ladies

Sweating and sunburned but still smiling!

A view from the bottom -
we came down thru all that lush green

It turned out to be nearly a four hour round trip, but it was more than worth it. I haven't tried my body like that in awhile, and it's amazing what you can do when surrounded in front and behind by friends who are determined to do it with you!
As a final hurrah before we made our way back to Conakry, we decided to stop at the Kilissi Falls. We all hopped in the car, and at the head of the path to the falls, a few of us jumped onto motorcycle taxis for the 2km drive. Again, this is the Africa I remember - riding on the back of a boda on some rutted, pocked road with the wind blowing in your hair. I have missed that :)

A glance back at Maria!

One of the three Kilissi Falls

The girls and I, on the bridge to nowhere, lol

We took off around 5pm and enjoyed one more long, Akon-themed ride in Barry's car. The four of us made it to the ship at 9pm, just in time for a good night's rest before work Monday morning! It was a definitely a full weekend, but I'm so grateful for the chance to see more of this country that we're living and serving in. I can't do it justice, but Guinea and its people are truly beautiful.