Bissau Brothels

Once the visa's were issued we set off for something to eat and to find accomodation.

Initially we dropped into Casa Creola, but at 15,000CFA for the room we felt that we could get cheaper elsewhere, so we moved onto a small restaurant next door and had our first meal of the day. Moving on we explored a few opportunities; 'the auberge with no name' on a street to the right of the restaurant wanted 20,000CFA - the Portuguese guy in the yard wasn't particularly friendly and we had the feeling he wasn't all that keen on renting out his rooms! We'd heard about a hotel being renovated on the roundabout, met the guardian and he showed us the rooms; exquisite bathrooms - only then did we find out that Bissau doesn't have water or electricity. A lot cheaper at 10,000CFA we were very unsure about the security as most of the doors didn't fit or weren't in place. It will be a wonderful place to stay when it's finished I'm sure.
Back to the guide book; the LP came out of my day pack and we saw two places mentioned in the Caracol area of town, one 'Chez Jeanne' I think it was called sounded dubious as the rooms were usually rented on a half hourly basis. Getting into a taxi we headed over and after a bit of asking around found the other, Hotel Caracol for 8,500CFA. The young brothers of 15 or so showed us a room, not wonderful but for somewhere to put your head down for the night, it would do. They went off to the market and bought a new sheet for the bed; well, they were certainly making an effort on our behalf!We ordered a beer each and contemplated what to do next. Suddenly a guy came through and introduced himself, Steve, another Irish traveller ... we sat and chatted together before going out to find supper. There was a bar down the road, as soon as we got there we were in trouble, a guy wanted a cigarette and Gianni didn't have any. The situation soon got a little flared whilst Steve was inside trying to ask for a menu; I had a tap on my shoulder and behind me was Douad again, appeared from nowhere and helped us out of the situation. Dinner came from the shop eventually in the form of a couple of baguettes, a can of tuna and some mayonnaise!
The four of us returned to Hotel Caracol and the front of it had suddenly become a disco; there were Nigerian women everywhere ... Munching on tuna filled baguettes, I was getting a lot of dirty looks and then we noticed that the corridor leading to our rooms had a table in it and the prostitutes were going through to the rooms which the four of us found quite funny!!! I went to bed early, locked the door and slept well, to be woken up by the stench coming from the en-suite (which I wasn't keen to use!).

I got up and went out to the courtyard to see the debris from the night before; three of the women suddenly started yelling and spitting at me .. I worked out that they were rather upset that I appeared to have stolen some business in the form of Gianni & Steve - we had the last laugh!!! Steve has sent me a photo of one of the rooms, the morning after; not a pretty sight!