Rio Muni - Equatorial Guinea

Africa-Equatorial Guinea-Rio Muni-Bata The Giraffe is the national animal of Equatorial Guinea. Though I did not see any. In Bata there is very little upscale developments compared to the island Malabo is on. 

As per the previous posting , this was postmarked at the Bata post office. 

Bata Equatorial Guinea

Africa-Equatorial Guinea-Rio Muni-Bata This is the central part of Equatorial Guinea in mainland Africa. The capital is in Malabo in Bioko an Island. I had visited there before . My previous stop here was just a aircraft stop . I did give a postcard to an airport employee to mail for me.. I am still waiting .... lol  So this was a 3 day stay here. To be honest hard to find much to do. It is rather run down and uncared for , compared to the capital and the surrounds. 

I had discovered before coming here that the Post office was not in operation.But fingers crossed. First of all the hotel the Ibis in Bata was not aware of any post office !! Everyone I asked no one knew were the Post office was. Luckily for me a friend had been a few years ago and e sent me a whats app with directions. It was about a 15 min walk from the hotel. Near the famous roundabout with the revolving restaurant. But I have to say it was in one of the worst conditions I have ever seen for a post office. I did manage to find an employee. She told me there was no international Postal service. Only to Malabo. But she did have stamps. They were stored in her handbag ! . And she postmarked this postcard for me. It did not go in the mail as there is no service. At least you can see Bata in the postmark. 

Equatorial Guinea ( Rio Muni) and Annobon Island

Africa-Equatorial Guinea (Rio Muni)-Bata  Not very easy to find a card in Bata but here is one. I had been to Bata airport only on the way to Annobon Island flying from Malabo the capital of Equatorial Guinea. This was in 2007. 

This card as you can see is unusual in my collection. It was posted in Bata in March 2015 in Bata. As I said I had been there briefly and had in fact given a airport worker some postcards with stamps to post and extra dollars as a gift. Needless to say the postcards never arrived. So when a good friend of mine was visiting there early this year I asked for a postcard and here it is. In fact he told me the Post office in Bata had no stamps or postcards. He got the Postcard in a stationary shop and a office near the Post office had some stamps  in a drawer and so I was  extra lucky to get any postcard let alone one with a stamp that arrived back in Ireland. 

Here I am at Bata Airport with Christine a great fellow traveller from New York. This was the last time I seen my Bata Postcards !!!

Here is a statue of the President of Equatorial Guinea. I later found out on the way home that you can be arrested for taking photos of this statue....

Here is the Island of Annobon. At the time not easy to get too. But a very interesting Island to visit. No Post office here at that time. 

These are some photos from Annobon Island. Spend the day here and had lunch with the Pilots on the flight. The hotel was owned by the President and a few years later where was some sort of bad weather and the hotel "Fell into the Sea" Glad I was not having lunch then lol.. The last photo is Christine and me at Annobon airport - as you can see it is just a check in desk and a chair near the runway.
Some other info on Equatorial Guinea. One of the hardest visa's to get from my point of view. Tourism was not encouraged due to the many coups that were always about to happen. It was very poor despite the fact that it has oil and a booming increase in GDP. I hear since this trip in 2007 it has changed a lot.