May 10th, 2021 Accra, Ghana to London, United Kingdom, Dallas, Texas and San Francisco, California

 6AM I woke and got a transit service person to take me to the departure gates. Eventually they let me go.

9:55PM I hopped three lounges there and eventually left at 9:55PM. I arrived at the London the following morning and left for DFW at 

Maame Asant from TAP Air Portugal

8:40AM At this local time the next day. I arrived a little after noon in Dallas. My 3PM flight to San Francisco was delayed to 5PM, then to 5:55PM, 6:27PM. It was cancelled. I really showed my experience here when I saw the line asking for the refund at the American Airline terminal. It was literally going to take 4 hours with hundreds of people, no less than 400. I hopped on the train to the other terminal and found this 60 person line and queued myself. I called American Airlines on the phone also to look for another way to get to San Francisco. My original destination was to SFO with an ensuing flight that was independent to PHX. The DFW to SFO cancellation meant that I would miss my SFO to PHX flight. The phone agent put me on the DFW to PHX to SFO flight the next day. Why would I do that? I would have to book another SFO to PHX flight! When I got to the counter, I just asked for a  path to Phoenix. The pregnant agent was very kind to just change my DFW to SFO through PHX flight to DFW to PHX only. That worked out for both parties and I found out later that I could potentially get the DFW to SFO flight back since British Airways cancelled it!

May 9th, 2021 Sao Tome, Sao Tome and Principe

10AM I woke and the hosts made me some breakfast omelet and fruit juice. They gave me a 2 liter bottle of water, which I needed in this heat. I started walking to town. It was a 3 kilometer walk.

Our Lady of Grace Cathedral

São Sebastião Museum

11AM There was the cathedral and Sunday service. I then walked to the fort, which was closed on the weekend. I jumped into the water without realizing I was going in with my wallet and phone. One of the kids noticed and I jumped out immediately. Though I thought my phone suffered no damages, the screen would give out on the same night with cracks and lose mobile service.

2PM I had grouper and Sumol soda at Papa Figo. It was hard to decide between that, Filomar and O Pirata. I went with Papa Figo because of the number of reviews and how sure the host lady sounded. The grouper was good but nowhere nearly as good as the Ghanaian Village seafood platter.

Downtown, Sao Tome

Street food

3PM I exchanged some money with men on the street corner. They were giving me 25 and 20 STN per EUR and USD, respectively. It was better than bank rates. I exchanged 20 EUR and 10 USD for 705 STN so I could pay Luis.

4PM I paid a motorbike driver 20 STN to return to Casa Luis. I took a shower and the other Portuguese guy at the house gave me a ride to the airport.

5PM Someone gave me 100 STN and I exchanged my 25 STN change for 1 EUR. I waited for another 2 hours before boarding for Accra, Ghana at 7:30PM.

10:30PM I arrived at Accra but the transit agent was the same as the one two nights ago. She was being difficult and didn’t let me into departure areas. I ended up sleeping on the cold metal chairs in the transit area.

May 8th, 2021 Accra, Ghana to Sao Tome, Sao Tome and Principe

7:30AM I woke and had the breakfast omelet before taking a taxi to the COVID testing center located in the airport carpark 4. The weather was nice today, Temperature was about 27 degrees Celsius since it just rained. I now can be convinced to be a believer in that rainy season could be a good thing, as long as it doesn’t rain all day.

11AM I got the negative testing result and walked over to check in. The TAP Air manager told me to try to check in with British Airways when I return in order to get a boarding pass so that it would be possible for me get to departure. Otherwise, I would be stuck in the small transit zone without food or water for one full day.

3PM I sat in the Sanbra Lounge until the plane took off for Sao Tome at 3:30PM. I spoke to an English girl, Rachel Bowers, who was working at Ghana. She is here on vacation with her housemates. She is a statistician.

5PM We arrived at Sao Tome. The customs didn’t give me a hard time but I made sure to speak to several agents from TAP Air to make sure that I wouldn’t need another COVID test done at Sao Tome. The TAP manager there assured me so.

8PM I started walking toward Casa Luis. I hitched a motorbike for most of the way and walked the rest, which was unpaved. The hosts were not there yet. A Frenchman let me into one of the room. Right after I took a shower, the host came back and led me into a nicer room. They even invited me for dinner. I tried some sailfish. They had a very quaint house with a pool. The only complaint was that power was often cut out in the middle of the night. Apparently this occurs pretty frequently here in Sao Tome.

May 7th, 2021 Accra, Ghana

10AM I woke to see Accra. After getting breakfast just a few minutes before they closed at 10AM, I took a taxi to get to Black Star Gate. The security guards were not so friendly. I left after a few pictures. There was a stadium or the Black Star Park that was nearby. I then walked 20 minutes to the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park. He was the first president of Ghana. There was no communist mausoleum though, just his tomb and that of his wife.

Black Star Park

 Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park

1PM I took a bus for 2 GHS to Ghanaian Village Restaurant. I spoke to some German girls for an hour or so. The seafood platter was excellent. I even got the recipe from the chef. The black sauce is a combination of ginger, green pepper, garlic, shrimp powder oil. I will update this blog once I figure it out in real life.

Ghanaian Village Restaurant

4PM I took a taxi back to Sleepy Hippo Hotel at Kokomlemle. I had a haircut nearby for 20 GHS.

7PM I had a couple of sodas. One is Okay Juice and then I went to bed.

May 6th, 2021 Accra, Ghana

8AM I woke up to go to the airport. I met Maame at Air Portugal, who suggested that I get a COVID test at the carpark clinic rather than the airport clinic. It was 500 GHS at the airport clinic versus 300 GHS at the carpark, both same day 3 hour service. I was to go there on May 8^th, the day of my flight to Sao Tome and wait 3 hours before checking in. After confirming these information at both locations, I got a ride from Hertz to their location off site. I then received the vehicle form them and started driving to Cape Castle.

5PM The drive was quite long. I almost go into the hairy one when I took the path with unpaved roads.  I stopped to ask a couple of girls. They got into the car led me out if it to continue on the main road N1. I was also stopped for speeding at 76 KPH. The higher limits are 80 KPH and 50 KPH. I was stopped at the 50 KPH part of the road. Though I was let go after a minute, another one gave me a ticket for not having an international license. I arrived Cape Castle at 5:30PM and left an hour later.

10:10PM I was stopped several times and had Maame help me talking to the policemen. I eventually paid 3 times, being stopped by the checkpoint guards almost every 5 minutes. Once I got closer to Accra, there were fewer checkpoints. I added gasoline at Kasoa. I got off the phone with Maame and was finally home 10 minutes after 10PM. There were meetings starting at 1:30AM and I didn’t get to bed until 5AM.

May 4th, 2021 Leaving San Francisco, California for Miami, Florida and London, United Kingdom

5AM I arrived at the airport and spent 1 hour to check in at SFO. The check in attendant was excessively thorough. My flight arrived at Miami at 4PM. The next flight left just before 8PM for London. The flight was quite empty. I sat in the plus section by accident. It had very expansive leg room. I should consider getting a plus seat next time on British Airways if the flight isn't so empty that you can get your own role of 4 seats to lie down flat.

Premium economy seats on British Airways

May 5th, 2021 London, United Kingdom to Accra, Ghana

10AM I arrived at London. The bus took 30 minutes to get from terminal 5 to terminal 2, where the Plaza Premium Lounge was.  I had about 4 hours and stayed there for about 2 hours before heading back to terminal 5. The next flight left at 2PM.

Plaza Premium Lounge

8PM I arrived at Accra. I spent 2 hours with transit to try to figure out whether I needed another visa or another COVID test. The COVID test was paid for prior at 150 USD. I took an Uber to Sleepy Hippo Hotel and went to bed at midnight.

   COVID 19 testing site at Accra Airport

June 21st, 2021 East Africa

 

The trip was definitely one of the worst I have had. I attribute it mostly to the horrific experience I had at Somalia Airport. I almost have to visit again. I would definitely not recommend any of these places, with the exception of the Pyramids of Meroe , which still may be skipped unless you really want to visit every place.

June 21st, 2021 Financials

 

I spent 2536.86 USD on this trip. Most of it went to airfare. I was fortunate to receive reimbursements for all the COVID tests that I took. I would not count Somalia as one of the countries that I have been to, which makes this a pretty expensive trip for just 3 countries in East Africa.