Guinea is in an interesting place in its history right now. There was a coup in 2021, and they’re still figuring out what the new government is going to look like. There’s talk that it might look closer to Mali or Burkina Faso, compared to its other neighbors in West Africa. It’s had a somewhat tumultuous political history, only holding its first democratic elections in 2010 after a long history of coups. I’m curious to see where they land in the next couple of years (and yes, I could also say that about the US at the moment).
As I mentioned in an earlier post on the region, Guinea (or Guinea-Conakry) was formerly a French colony. They were one of the earliest countries in Africa to gain their independence, in 1958. This was in a transition of all of the French colonial lands. France held a referendum, in which pretty much all of their colonies either agreed to become “states of the French Community” or were strongly encouraged to do so. Guinea was the lone country that overwhelmingly rejected France in this measure. They refused the French constitution and took their independence. It was a very brave move, because France was super pissed about their choice. They not only left Guinea, but they actually took the time to dismantle as much of Guinea’s infrastructure as they could, to the level of unscrewing lightbulbs and burning medicine rather than leave anything for the Guineans. They even tried to destabilize Guinea with a covert operation called Opération Persil, where they attempted to flood Guinea with forged banknotes in an attempt to cause hyperinflation and economic collapse.
All of this to say – yes, the roads in Guinea kind of sucked, but I’m willing to give them a lot of grace on their lack of development. Their current political situation didn’t impact our visit, probably because we stayed out in the highlands and didn’t head to Conakry. I loved our time in Guinea, and it had my single favorite day of the trip, when we went to the waterfall.
The landscapes of Guinea were gorgeous. We would stop on the side of the road for car trouble or bathroom breaks, and the view would almost make you forget you had a flat tire.
A big highlight of the whole trip for me was the Kambadaga Waterfall. It was unreal to have this to ourselves – we didn’t see a single other tourist, and we were able visit multiple lookouts, go swimming in the river, and stand at the very edge of the falls.
It was such a fun day out, especially in the midst of long driving days through some of the worst roads I’ve ever been on. (On that note, big shoutout to anyone who drives a commercial vehicle through those passes? We saw trucks driving alongside us, and all I can say is, how?)
We visited a market in a town called Koundara, which was interesting but also oppressively hot. We tried and failed to find a shop that sold cold drinks and changed our money into Guinean francs.
We also spent a morning in Kindia visiting their market. The strongest members of our group challenged some of the Guineans at arm wrestling, which made for a fun spectacle.
Fun fact, in Kindia, I rode on a motorcycle for the first time! We took mototaxis back to our hotel from the city center. My guy had to get a little more gas and promptly lost the group, which made me very nervous that we wouldn’t actually know how to get to our final location, but as it turns out, there aren’t a lot of large groups of tourists in Kindia and every passerby on the street could point us in the direction that we needed to go to catch back up.
Guinea is not for every traveler. But for the ones who are willing to forgo some of the traditional comforts, it can be rewarding. Some of my favorite memories of the trip were from this section, despite or even because of the challenges. And when we got to our nicer hotel in Freetown the next day, I appreciated it way more!