I was probably the first white guy to ever show up on their beach. I met the owner, the manager, the head security guy, and everyone else. They were all very nice, and after some talking agreed to let me take pictures as long as I used them to show people how hard they are working here in Liberia. And they are working very hard. These guys are out here in the sun throwing shovel’s full of sand into dump trucks 14 feet in the air non-stop.  They asked me to appeal to the international community for assistance. They’d like a back hoe. I think it’s just awesome that they have jobs and are working so hard. Others in Liberia turn to less honest means, and even more just sit around a do nothing. So here’s to these guys for being motivated.

And on a slightly related note check me out on this wave at Robertsport from the swell that rolled through three weeks ago. Needless to say it was awesome. And yeah, my stance needs some work.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/06/09/Liberia/

I’ll be taking over for John today to provide a different perspective and give John a little break.

Some days start off better than others.  We were due for a stretch of bad luck since John embraced the local superstition and rubbed the gold dog on St. Charles bridge expecting good luck.  Those things never work.  So, against all logic, reason, experience and advice, we took the Smart Car into town again.  And what would have been a 10 minute tram ride turned into an hour drive.  As I tried to navigate us to a large American style breakfast we ended up on a pedestrian only street.  We passed a cop going the other way and when he didn’t flag us down we hoped we were safe.  Not so.  There were a couple cops on foot that pulled us over on the other end of the square.  1000 Kč later we finally found some parking and got breakfast served by a nice Czech woman doing a terrible Irish accent.

That’s the last time we drive in Prague.

After breakfast we drove out to the amazing Czech countryside.  Its tough to still be irritated about a traffic fine while cruising down tiny tree lined back roads through towns untouched by tourists.

We ended up at Konopiste, the home of Archduke Franz Ferdinand before his famous assassination.  The archduke was an avid hunter and had over 100,000 mounts lining the halls and rooms of his castle.  The only way to see the inside is on a guided tour and the only guided tours were in Czech.  So I am sure there are many interesting facts about the duke or the castle, but we don’t know what they are.  It was worth it to see the huge collection of trophys and weapons.

From there we set out again across the country side to Sedlec Ossuary.  Over 40,000 people unknowingly contributed to the macabre art within.  The small chapel was filled with pyramids, banners and a chandelier all made exclusively from human bones.  It was hard for me to connect these intricate displays with the idea that these bones once had names, parents, and dreams.  The poorly translated info guide had a surprisingly evangelical tone, which seemed out of place in a town with many lingering affects from the decades of communism. 

As we made our way back to Prague we stopped in Kutna Hora for some groceries and beer.  John really needed some dark beer and it’d been a few days since I’d sampled some local blue cheese.  You have to rent grocery carts just like the lugage trolleys at cheap airports.

After getting completely lost on the way back into town, we finally made it to Natalie’s apartment to hang out, watch the UEFA championship and just relax.

So the back ground story, Adam McQueen, college friend, and I agreed to spend two weeks traveling Europe together, and most of that hanging out in Prague where I know Ms. Natalie Van Hoose, who teaches English there, and kindly agreed to put us up.

Both Adam and I knew that we were too busy with our lives to plan for this trip. So when I flew into BRU at 5:00am that’s when we started planning. Adam had seen a rental car shop advertise a Smart Car for 10 Euros a day. This is what I like about Adam, he sees a good idea and goes with it. Needless to say we waited till the rental agency opened up and reserved a smart car for two weeks for 525 euros.

The lady at the rental place was super helpful and told us if we took the train to Antwerpen we wouldn’t have to pay the 100euro airport fee. so we took the train to Antwerpen, then a bus, but then ended up 5km in the wrong direction. Adam stuck out his thumb and in 30 seconds we were picked up by the first passer by who loved that Adam was an American from TX.

We get to the car place and they didn’t have the keys for the car. So they talked to the airport office who paid for a taxi to take us back to the airport where we got out smart car, minus the airport service fee. Such customer service just doesn’t exist where I come from. Thanks Sixt Rentals!!

Then we drove around Brussels, got lost, probably broke some traffic laws, and saw all the important sites in Brussels, whcih aren’t many. Then we hit the road trying to make it to Germany. We soon realized that we were both exhausted from our travels and ended up heading to Huy, Belgium to stay with some friends of Adams, Clay and Megan.

Huy is awesome. It’s the small little town that’s so perfect, no tourist, no gimmiks just small town europe. After being in Monovia where there’s effectively no tourism, seeing all the manufactured restaurants and shops in Brussels made me a little sick, but Huy is perfect. It’s so laid back, the beer is amazing the food is good and the feel is incredible. Check out this amazing view from Clay and Megan’s apartment.

And that’s all for today. Join us tomorrow when we head to Germany.  If you want a preview of what’s to come check out our

tenative route.

In freetown I hooked up with a couple Freetown based expats who took me surfing at Bureh Beach. On the ride to the beach I just hung my head out the window and soaked in the beauty of the Sierra Leonean country side, so I don’t really know how we got there.  It was about an hour east of Freetown. But we were here N8.20739, W13.15552. On a side note, I noticed Google maps seems to place the coordinates several hundred meters away from where I think they should be, so either Google Maps isn’t super accurate for West Africa, or my GPS was pretty far off. Anyway…

Bureh was gorgeous. After getting out of the car we passed a few huts and signs of human existence, but by and large the place was totally pristine. It reminded me a lot of Robertsport, Liberia. Bureh is a beach break, though sometimes the waves would break along the rocks at the far right of the beach making some left handed rides. On bigger swells a nice line would form and even a few small barrels. The guys I was with told me that the waves were a lot bigger and nicer the day before. Too bad I missed it. I still really enjoyed it. I had a quite a few nice little runs and enjoyed getting out.

John

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Shirley’s Restaurant serves local food but with more refinement than you’ll find at most local dining establishments. Located on 10th Street, beach side in Sinkor, Shirley serves cabbage salad, potato salad, and my favorite, fried rice, in addition to local rice dishes. I like the food for the following reasons: the pepper is put on the side; the meat is served as one big piece, thus there are no little bones to pick-out; the presentation is quite nice, and it tastes good. A plate of food will run you $150 Liberian dollars. Meals include a small cabbage salad with a “zesty” mayonnaise and spices dressing. Not a bad for two and a half bucks.

In addition to cooking at her restaurant, Shirley also bakes. She’s made many a wedding cake, and

she’ll be more than happy to pull out her rather impressive scrapbook of cakes she’s made to showcase her abilities.
The service at Shirley’s is also prompt and courteous. Compared to other local places I’ve been, Shirley is downright speedy. She also has meals well into the day for those of us who can’t pull away from work at the stroke of noon.

On the whole, Shirley’s is a great place with good food and friendly people, and it is relatively inexpensive. What more could you want from a lunch spot?

I stopped by the Cellcom store the other day to have my SIM card activated and get the access point information.

They set the access point to: web.cellcomnet.net

As of yet I haven’t been able to get this to work. I don’t even see the EDGE icon on my cellphone (Samsung Blackjack). Back when I was in the states I had T-Mobile and the EDGE icon was always on my screen. So I assume it’s an issue with the network. But maybe my SIM card was never properly activated or something?

At any rate, I just thought I’d let the world know that the access point for Cellcom Liberia’s EDGE network is: web.cellcomnet.net

John
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Once we made it to Robertsport we put the 4Runner in 4wd and cruised the beach till we found a suitable spot for camping. We found a lovely camp site underneath and old cotton tree. We setup the tent and had a fire going just as it got dark. We had a little trouble with the fire since everything was wet from the rains. Kate and Adam are both British, and they had purchased our food supplies so we had proper meals at all times. For dinner we had toasted bread and bacon or sardines and matubal. For breakfast we had toast, eggs, and tea.

We also had marshmallows after dinner. I haven’t done that in a while. We also went down to the beach and look for phosphorescence every so often we could see a little spec of light. The seas were rough so it was hard to make anything out in all the foam. We also met some very drunk South Africans who had built a small bar on the beach. The bar was empty, but they had plenty of beer. They invited us for a sit so we hung out with them for a while. They have plans to build a hotel on the beach. I think I’d rather the beach stay remote and natural. When we woke-up, they had already started drinking again. One of the guys was like a big kid, half of me was like, “this guy is ridiculous” and half of me was like, “That’s what I wana be like when i grow up.”

After packing up we started up the car to drive down to where the surf is. We made it about 10 yards before the car stalled. (To make things worse I could even get the key out of the ignition. After a little prayer I realized the car was in neutral and wouldn’t let the key out till it was in park… oops) We spent 3 hours trying to figure out what was wrong. While waiting we played with some of the kids on the beach. At one point we had a local mechanic come and look at the 4Runner.

The battery was fine so he figured it must be a fuel problem. This is logical. So we checked the fuel line under the car, it was a little loose, but nothing sever. Then we checked the fuel line in the engine. The mechanic wanted to take off the air intake hose and put some gas right into the carburetor. This would be fine, except that the truck is fuel injected. So there is no carburetor, just fuel injectors that precisely and efficiently inject gas right into the cylinder. I asked if he knew about fuel injected engines. He said yes, but then he kept trying to tell me that this little rubber vacuum hose that led into the throttle body was the fuel line. I tried to explain to him that there’s a metal fuel rail on a fuel injected engine, and that’s where the gas enters the fuel injectors . The fuel pressure would be too great for the little rubber hose he found. It was at this point that I realized we were in trouble.

Thankfully, an UNMIL staff member who was near by suggested we check the fuses. We checked them and sure enough, one had been blown. Not only had it been blown, but someone had already wrapped some wire around the fuse to short it out. This wire had fallen loose and caused our problems. We refitted the wire and the cart started fine. I was a little worried about this since fuses are there for a reason, and something at some point had blown it. So I decided to take the truck to a mechanic when I got back to Monrovia.

In the meantime we went surfing. The waves were great. I wish I had pictures but the surfing beach is a hike from where the cars go and we didn’t want to bring valuables with us. The biggest waves were about 6′ high. It was easy to get out and a lot of fun. I even caught a little wave. My only complaint was that it was a little crowded with 5 other surfers in the water at one break, and they were all better than me. So they’d catch a wave before I could and I’d get out of their way so my board wouldn’t get ran over again.

On the whole it was a fun trip with a little excitement. We made it back to Monrovia just fine. We didn’t even get stopped by immigration. The next day I went to the Toyota dealership. I figured they’d have the diagnostic computer for the engine. I wanted to make sure the hack job on the blown fuse hadn’t damaged the engine control unit (ECU). But they didn’t have the diagnostic computer! They only had the one for diesel engines. I asked if anyone in the whole country had it and they told me No Lemon did.

So I went to No Lemon. This place was awesome. It even smelled like a garage in the States. In 3 hours they replaced the blown fuses, tested the ECU, found that the wrong sparks plugs were in the truck, and that the fuel filter had been put on backwards. They fixed it all and then washed the car, all for $125.00. Not too bad. The guy I bought the car from had boasted about how he had only used genuine Toyota spark plugs, he even showed me the receipts. So either he went to great lengths to decieve me, or his mechanic was ripping him off. I imagine it’s the latter.

And special thanks to Kate for taking all these pictures and documenting our adventure.

John
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