Limbe, Cameroon Saturday 12 March 2011

We were going to go to Equatorial Guinea but were advised by the US Consul that we weren't welcome there and he strongly advised against our trying to dock.   We, therefore, spent two days at Limbe.

I got a great shot today of Mount Cameroon, the houses on the mountain side and the small island just offshore.

This is one of the many churches in Limbe - I took this photo from the ship.

This is a nice view of part of the town - and one of the local small boats.

On our way to our first stop we got to see the town on a weekend - this is where the huge market sets up during the week. Not your average flea market...

Here's one of the local outdoor cafes.

Our trip was to a banana plantation and packing station - this sign greeted us.

Here's a view of the plantation. The bananas are wrapped in blue plastic to protect the fruit from damage and from the pesticides they spray the plants with.

This is a conveyor belt - you can see on the map on the sign where it is centrally located in the plantation. They hang the huge bunches of bananas on the hooks and they're taken to the processing plant.

When they arrive at the plant, they are first sprayed with pesticides to kill any spiders and other bugs that may be living in the stalk.

The bananas are then cut of the stalk into groups of 8 or so and tossed in a bath of water.

DO YOU KNOW that bananas are not grown on trees but on fruit plants - corms. I learned a lot about banana plants - it's extremely interesting. Why don't you Wikipedia 'banana plants" - you'll be surprised.

Here's the big baths of water which washes off the pesticides and anything else that was on the fruit.

After the bath, they are placed in trays, curve side up.

The trays are conveyed into this box-like contraption which (I think) dries them.

The trays are then conveyed to the final stop where they are packed into boxes for shipment. They are packed curve-side down in 2 layers with paper between them - they are still damp at this point.

The boxes are on a conveyor system also - people upstairs assemble them and send them down to the packers.
The boxes of bananas have to be store in refrigerators so they don't ripen too soon. If they are shipped far away, they will be stored in rooms with ethylene gas so they ripen - and then shipped to the stores for sale.

This sign was hanging up over the water baths. I thought it was rather impressive.

Bananas that were blemished in any way (sometimes I couldn't see a thing on them) were cast aside then shipped to the local towns for the residents to buy.

We left the plantation and drove back to town for lunch. We passed this river which apparently is a popular 'laundromat'.

The river is apparently also a place where residents get their water.

A street scene.

Another street scene.

The Michelin man is there too.

Here's a local markt - you can see the reject bananas on the ground and stalls in the background.

All kinds of footware and clothing can be purchased from street stalls.

Here's a strip mall.

We drove through the old native township where the houses all had a small parcel of land. This is one of the nicer houses there.

We stopped at a beekeepers meeting place and saw these hives hanging in the trees - but because we were delayed getting there, the gentleman who was going to talk to us had left and the hives were empty.

The only thing that looked remotely like anything to do with bees, was this old honeycomb.

One of the old tribal houses - lots of children everywhere.

In town we drove by the JET SET PLAZA - what a shame we didn't stop!

We also passed the LAS VEGAS BAR & RESTAURANT ... no neon lights?

We passed several local nurseries whose plants were displayed along the side of the road - this is one of the larger, more organized nurseries.

A street scene.

These are houses which are provided to the workers of a local palm plantation.

We opted out of the afternoon tour to a lava flow (having seen Hawaii's, we didn't think it could be any better) and took the Zodiac back to our ship. Finally I got to see the hole in this large rock - I had seen it yesterday but was too far away and the sea was too rough to take a photo.