Guinea Bissau and Guinea Conakry

Africa-Guinea Bissau-Bissau  Getting a flight to Guinea Bissau is not very  easy as they change a lot. So the best way was to get a direct flight from Lisbon. The centre of the city Bissau had seen better days. I was surprised to find most people speaking French instead of  Portuguese being a former colony. In most African countries you cannot visit the Presidential Palace. However here it had been already been badly damaged in the many coups that are here. So it was interesting to walk around. The president was now living in a compound near residential houses and not very secure. So only 3 months after I was here the President was killed trying to flee his house. I also went out to visit the islands in the bay of Guinea. Not sure it was such a good idea when I seen that it was a rust bucket. !! Guinea Bissau is one of those countries that when you arrive you go straight to the airline office to make sure you have a seat on the flight you have booked to get out or that the date has not changed. In fact here I had to pay the airline official to top up his personal phone so he could check my departure flight. As half expected it was not operating so I had to get on another flight. 

The staff in the large Post office down town were very helpful. This card has two postmarks. Reason is when there , I was able to postmark the card myself. But it got another in the mail. The Red one is the one I applied. 

Africa-Guinea-Conakry  Guinea Conakry as it is really known , was on edge when I was here. There had been issues with the army. So no photos could be taken anywhere. The hotel was near the Presidential Palace and every time I walked by, the guns were at the ready. This city was not as interesting as Bissau and could not visit outside the main city due to security  issues. On the day I was to leave for the airport the plane got cancelled. So the airline had to put me up for another night and I got out one day late. 

I was quite revealed to find the post office . There was a display of stamps in a cabinet and these were the latest issues as far as I could see.