My sister had arranged for us to go camping with her BaAka (pygmies) workers in the jungle for a couple of nights. She couldn’t stay the whole time so she was going to head back after the first evening. In all it was going to be the 9 guys who worked for her, 4 of their wives, and 8 kids. We packed our stuff and walked about 5km to Mossapola one of the BaAka villages to meet up with some of her workers. Some people were going to meet up with us later so a few of us headed out it [View Full Entry]

---

---

This was a some what of a spur of the moment trip. My friend the lonely planet writer wanted to head down to the Congo to continue the rest of his trip through central Africa via the Sangha River which runs along the borders of the Central African Republic, Cameroon, and Congo. He asked if I wanted to go with him down to the Congo. The plan was that that we would hire a pirogue and head to Bomassa in the Congo, which is about 80 km away. (A pirogue is nothing more than a hollowed out tree that has been [View Full Entry]

---

---

Elephants One of the few tourist attractions in the Central African Republic is located down near Bayanga. Where there is a national park that has elephants and habituated gorillas (habituated means that after years of work researchers have been able to get one family of gorillas used to people enough so that you can get close to them). There is a big watering hole called Dzanga Bai where all the elephants come to drink because the area is rich in mineral salts. The place is more of a giant mud pit than anything else, surrounded by a dense jungle. To get [View Full Entry]

---

---

Bayanga Bayanga is a small town sitting on the banks of the Sangha River in the southern most part of the Central African Republic near the border of Cameroon and the Congo. There are several thousand people living here. Most came for to work for a logging company, which has closed leaving a lot of people with out jobs. Most of the buildings are made from wood with bamboo leafs for roofs, but here are a few concrete buildings. Outside of town is where a lot of the BaAka (pygmies) live. Their homes are often constructed from sticks and bamboo leaves [View Full Entry]

---

---

Traveling from Bangui to Bayanga The drive from Bangui to Bayanga felt like you were in a movie, which had nothing to do with the fact that I got to ride down with the movie producer in his land cruiser. I guess this was because I was still not used to how different everything is here that it did not really sink in that this was real life. The distance we had to travel was about 250 miles and that took us about 12 hours. Only about 40 miles was on paved road. I did find it rather amusing that where [View Full Entry]

---

---

I have been on lots of planes before where you get off on the tarmac and walk to the airport, but it feels a bit strange when you are on something equivalent to a 747 and doing this. The next thing was customs. Fortunately I had some advance advice on this from previous travelers and the guy next to me on the plane. There are only a couple of unmarked desks where you are supposed to do some stuff. The problem is there are about 200 people trying to do the same thing at the same time. After about and hour [View Full Entry]

---

---

Travel Blog 6-15-09 to 6-24-09 Munzu in Africa You know you are in a remote place when the Lonely Planet Travel Guide writer comes looking for you to see about transportation to the village where you are heading. Here is excerpt from the whole 8 pages the Africa Lonely Planet book has on the Central African Republic (CAR): If it’s the ‘real’ Africa you’re looking for, Central African Republic (CAR) may be it. A country of staggering rare natural beauty, with some of the world’s most amazing wildlife, it nonetheless remains underdeveloped, fra [View Full Entry]

---

---