asmara

after a four hour bus drive through the country we arrived in asmara, the capital of eritrea, which looks more like a city in italy 100 years ago than what you would expect a town in africa to look like. first the trip itself was such an adventure. it was fun and pleasant. the roads were in great condition and there was hardly any traffic at all. we enjoyed the views of the dessert, and the mountains and the two towns we passed by. the entire countryside seemed very poor but clean and beautiful. Asmara itself was extremely clean for a city capital.


it was also full of cafes and restaurants. this trip was a treat to our stomachs. we had a delicious italian lunch (colonial heritage is extremly visible in the food) and right afte some coffee and pastries, only to be followed by fruit juices and later drinks, and then in the next day the same good stuff all over again, and all this great food for very little price. we enjoyed a little inexpensive pension and walked around the city for hours admiring the architecture. it was such an interesting and different trip away from the boat.







we also visited a war graveyard with hundreds of trucks, amphibious and tanks used over the years in the long war with ethiopia. We were amazed of the amount of vehicles piled on top of another making a 10 meter wall for at least a few blocks long. it is quite shocking to see so much evidence of war in the country. we saw it everywhere. on the streets, in buildings and in the people themselves. we had never seen so many handicap people together. We did not ask of course but assumed they were victims of the war.

massawa

the 300 mile stretch from assab to massawa took us a lot longer than expected. we finally met the famous red sea strong head winds. we started sailing less miles per day and tried to find shelter during the nights. the problem is finding the shelter. most of the islands are full of unmarked reefs making it very dangerous to approach during the day and virtually impossible to do so at night. on one ocassion we were happily sailing with the wind from the stern and within 5 minutes the speed decreased to nothing and within another 5 we had very strong winds blowing from our vows. It was night so we could not make any approach into an anchorage and the only option was to bring down all the sails and drift backwards, and so we did for 25 miles. it is really hard to predict the weather here. i guess the only sure thing is that it will be difficult to make progress north. on this leg we stopped in a couple of remote islands along the way and rested while the winds blew hard.


when we finally arrived in massawa we were happily surprised with what we found. the port itself is full of ruins and there is evidence of the long war with ethiopia in every corner and every building. the beautiful old constructions look like they are about to fall down. it is so poor but yet so clean and charming. the town has a great vibe. the streets are full of cafes and restaurants with tables outside each serving delicious pizza and coffee from sophisticated espresso machines.




the places are full of people enjoying themselves. we certainly enjoyed the food and the cheap and tasty local beer, not to mention meeting and talking to some of the locals which we found without exception extremely simple and polite. this was certainly a cool place to stop at.

africa!!!

the convoy stopped in a very remote anchorage in the south of eritrea to celebrate the end of the whole pirate story and that we had made it safely. we celebrated for two days with the other sailors and even with the local fishermen on shore. we also enjoyed the beautiful landscape and the incredible sunsets of africa. After a couple of nights of this beautiful and remote place we oficially parted ways and continued sailing alone. at this time we were so happy to be in africa and finish the convoy that we paid little attention to the challenges the weather had in store for us… supposedly the toughest area of our route according to the guides due to the constant strong head winds… but at least for the first couple of days we had strong winds but from behind and we continued enjoying the peacefulness we felt of being sailing alone once again in pirate free waters.