Days 156 to 169 - Week 24 & 25 (9th April 2007 to 21st April 2007)
Our next week in Luanda would see us pulling our remaining hair out in the attempt to secure an extension on our already expired visas. By all accounts that we received - it is usually more fun to stick pins in your eye balls rather than getting any joy from Angolan Immigration.
Our 5 day Transit visa that we received in Matadi / DRC managed to just get us to Luanda- and being Easter weekend when we arrived - all that was official was closed. So until Monday we waited -not holding a lot of hope for a quick reprieve from this never ending saga .
With fresh food and supplies being of limited or non existent availability on most of our drives lately - or just way too expensive to bother - our floor food stocks had been getting quite a heavy handed beating. Also the necessity to keep our budget to a minimum (after our extended stay in P.Noire) has meant that our stockpile of tins and bulk food slowly but surely dwindling. Cook groups all doing the best to keep meals interesting and tasty - success has been achieved on all occasions. Another little challenge successfully tackled.
Now accustomed to such delights as Luncheon Meat (renamed by us as dog roll) in the form of burgers, bolognaise, fritters etc - Mmmmmm..... Get us to Namibia quick as our carnivorous appetites await all the culinary goodies that we have missed in the last few weeks. In saying this -some waistlines continue to expand (the famed Africa diet is not quite working for some) while others have managed to trim down a size or two.
On whatever budget - the African culinary delicacies continue to tempt us. Streetfood as we know it will be a thing of the past once we reach Southern Africa. Everything will become that little bit more westernized and sanitary and expensive.
Most of the week was spent bashing our heads against the brick wall that takes on the form of the Angolan Immigration Services. For an average of 7 hrs a day for the entire week - we waited and lined up and pushed our way forward as much as we could. We filled in tree loads of applications that would get dumped in a room somewhere - while our passports would disappear into another room - with threats from the authorities that we would not be re-united with them for up to 2 weeks !!!!! WHAT !!!!!!!! What is it with admin in this country and its ambassadors in neighbouring countries. Firstly all they issue us with is a 5 day transit visa when they fully know we would never be able to traverse the 1500 km + of torturous potholed roads throughout the length of the country. And then we are expected to wait 2 weeks for what is only a simple stamp and signature - which they then charge us $20 usd pp for this "service". Let alone we have already paid in the region of $200 USD pp in visas and misc costs to travel through Angola.
Eventually our luck turned to greet us with open arms. Meeting the head chief of Immigration was all that was needed to speed up the painful process - one which his sub ordinates probably create without his knowledge. Still keeping to inefficient systems and protocol practised through 30 years of war. Parts of the infrastructure and roads in the country show minor signs of progress - but even from the views of the locals we spoke to - Admin and Government institutions have not yet followed suit, with the Dept. of Immigration being the worst offender. Any process to do with Immigration is feared by all that need to deal with it.
In the week that we were there - we could see a string of the same people all bashing their heads on the same brick wall .These people must have to take off a whole week or two from work or other obligations in order to tackle this demon - with no guarantee of success. So many times you think all is sorted and progressing through the next channel - but then you get a kick in the goolies. Like the argument we had with an officer because he did not like that we had cut to size photocopies of our passport photo page. He claimed that it was "essential" that it was on an A4 paper. This is the sort of time wasting crap you constantly deal with - and all in Portuguese / Spanish - you would be hard pressed to find somebody that spoke English here.
And while we wait in the hot, stinky room watching many examples of this inefficiency - the supposed servers of the people (people who are mostly locals - all of which could calculate to be hundreds at one time, all poking and prodding and pushing to get their arm into the firing line) seem to only be friendly and jovial to each other. The constant shaking of hands and holding of bellies after a good joke - is mostly all that happens behind the desks. And this is repeated every few minutes all through the day. Let alone forgetting who they have just greeted previously - so then the whole process is repeated all over again ...Meanwhile the applications pile up, the room empties and fills periodically but lunch hours for the officials are never hindered by growing workloads or queues - NEVER !!! So (on the last day out of 5) after waiting from 9am - we receive our passports back at 6.30 pm (and this was just 1 day of waiting in the line ups - hopefully causing the officials to get sick of seeing our faces and also to make them do something about getting you out of their sight.) Passports back and while we checked all was correct - we notice that it was far from OK. Our supposed 30 day extension was issued only for another 5 days !!!! and just to add fuel to the fire, the starting date of the extension began 2 days ago when our applications were lodged!!!!! At this point - there was a very fine line between patience and punching. So - back in the next day to get it all re sorted with the chief (now we knew where his office was and could bypass the hundreds of other cases) who ended up giving us 45 days in total instead !!!! From one extreme to another. With all the delays and screw ups dealing with all the visas and extensions for Angola - we did not have the time to actually see or enjoy the country at a relaxed pace. With all of the advertising we had seen targeting tourism - it is hard to think why every Angolan department we had encountered in and out of the country - would make things so hard for us ???
Anyways - in the meantime, some of the guys filled in time by visiting local markets in the favela areas (guided by locals that befriended them) or relaxing at the beach. We left Luanda with heavy heads - but in readiness for the arduous weeks driving to the border and Namibia.
All in all - beautiful country and scenery, people are amazing and friendly (especially the guys at the yacht club who helped us translate tree loads of applications and gave us info on good/bad roads). Hopefully the bureaucrats can one day prioritize and align all that's official to match the general hospitality of the their people.
We were finally on our way out of Angola. Jeff had worked his magic (thanks again for that) and we had our 30 day visa extension. We camped that night at a power station just off the main road where the guards allowed us to sleep inside for the price of dinner, which I don't think they actually enjoyed. Almost as soon as they got their bowls of pasta they mysteriously disappeared into the night only to bring back empty bowls. Because we had a lot of time to catch up on we would start driving at 7am until about 6pm, bush camping, and doing the same the next day. We stopped for a few hours in the towns of Lobito and Lubango to do some quick shops, but were on a mission to get out of Angola (and also for the fact that we had to meet some new blood in Cape Town)
We made really good time getting to Lubango, allowing us some time to take the scenic drive to the coastal town of Namibe, where we stayed at the Angola Adventure Safari campsite. This was the company that had given us a letter of invitation into Angola to help get the visa's in Kinshasa, so we thought we should stop by to say thanks by paying a nights accommodation. On the way we stopped for lunch at the amazing Leba Mt. view point where we overlook the winding serpentine road down the mountainside as well as a nice waterfall. One of our better lunch stops really. We got to Namibe on the and eventually made it out to the rustic beach camp . It was a sandy road and we had to use the sandmats a few times to get through. But it was well worth it, camped right on the ocean camping on the ocean made it all worth it. The South African guys running the place generously brought us some fresh fish for dinner, and I think that we were all glad to not have to open any tins.
We reluctantly left the next afternoon and ended up camping at the same waterfall that we had stopped at earlier. The next few days were a blur of getting up early, driving all day, and bush camping. Angola had been a bit of a struggle, but it was an amazing country to see, considering that it has only been open to tourists for such a short time. In the end, despite the long waits and frustrating days, Angola was worth it.
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