A day at the beach; Kribi

The weekend of Nov 22-23, the Project HOPE team traveled to the beach town of Kribi. The drive is four hours long and included passing through many towns, rest stops, and lots of jungle. I am continually amazed at how lush & green this country is. Thankfully the road to Kribi is well built (by the Germans I believe, from many decades ago). Rules of the road still applied; meaning no rules. It is extremely dangerous, in my opinion, to drive in Cameroon.
We passed a 10km stretch of "Palm Tree plantations", where they grow palm trees to harvest the oil. It went on forever, it was great. Every town we stopped at, our car was swarmed by people trying to sell us their wares. We finally arrived to Kribi and the driver (Bala) and our guard (Yves) immediately bought dried fish. The fish from Kribi is the best, freshest in the country. We checked into the hotel, Hotel du Phare (best in the area) and went straight for the beach.
The beach was very nice, brown sand but not full of seashells/rocks/stuff. We are told the sand at Limbe (other beach resort) is black due to oil pollution and volcanic ash. The water was actually warm, way better than I expected. We hung out at the beach until it was time for dinner. We were invited to go to a family friends' house for a late lunch, then a restaurant in-town for dinner. The town of Kribi is very similar to Yaounde in some aspects. Kribi really starts to set itself apart once you get to the beach.
Dinner was delicious, Sole fish prepared with vegetables, plantains, and fries. I tried the head of the fish for the first time in my life. Its a common thing to eat in Cameroon, and some people prefer the head to the rest of the body. Lets just say, it was my "Andrew Zimmern" moment. I couldn't handle it. The night was spent on the beach with a good book.
The next day we had a wonderful "French" breakfast at the hotel, I had fresh coconut from a local vendor, and we spent the rest of the morning on the beach and purchasing goods. Being a tourist destination, many local vendors bring their items to sell right up to the hotel restaurant. I went for a walk on the beach and jumped in the Atlantic Ocean for a last time.
We left the hotel, which was very nice, and had a late lunch again at the family friends' house. It was delicious fish.
After lunch we went to a famous tourist destination, the Chutes del la Lobe. We took a canoe ride around the bay, saw the nearby fishing village, and went right up to the waterfalls. This is the only waterfall in the world that falls into the Ocean.

Unfortunately we had to leave Kribi after being there only one day. It was definitely a needed respite from continuous work at the hospital, and very nice of the Blaz family to set it up for us. We traveled another four hours back to Yaounde, arriving well after dark.

I want to give another shout-out to Jellybean. Megan sends a shout-out for JC & KMo. Kelly sends a shout-out to no one in particular.