After approximately 30 hours of travel (not including layovers) by plane and bus from January 16-18, we made it to Bouake, Cote d’Ivoire. After 8 more hours of travel on a bus, we made it from Bouake to San Pedro, Cote d’Ivoire on January 28. We are becoming experienced travelers rather quickly. And yes, that means I have moved from Bouake to San Pedro!
We sat in airports in the early morning and took time explain to those checking us in on flights that there are 35 of us. It’s typically overwhelming for them, and we do our best to try to help streamline the process (even though that’s not always the case). While waiting for flights, we bust out guitars, books, hacky sacks, pillows, phones (’cause we have wifi at airports), movies, snacks, etc. We sleep and play games on planes, eat if they feed us, watch movies cause they’re available on most international flights, talk and laugh, and wait for the bathroom. We cram into parts of airports to try to stay out of the way. We wait at bus stations, hoping we don’t miss our bus due to the lack of understanding the language; however, finding out that most of the time the workers are hospitable and help us out and that our hosts rarely ditch us in those situations. We utilize hunting knives to put nutella on bread while traveling on the bus because it’s what is available (this seriously happened).
My body took some time to recover. Jet lag took over and all I wanted to do was sleep. Not to mention I had some serious “cankle” action. For those who don’t know, cankles are where your ankles and calves look like one large part of your body, aka swelling. The climate changes dried out our skin and then moisturized it again. Most of us tried to not drink much on travel days, especially by bus, because we’re concerned about the restroom situations that we may or may not encounter, which creates entirely different issues. My feet took a week to recover (see picture series in video below for proof….)
Since our recent experiences have lended us a little bit of knowledge, we’ve decided to pass some of it along to y’all. These are tips, suggestions, and information from my team and me.
Travel days provide opportunities for people watching (if you’re into that), air conditioning (generally in airplanes, airports, and busses), lots of food and snacking, learning how to actually travel well, learning about different cultures, some rest if you utilize it.
Essentials needed on travel days: Ziploc bag, passport, snacks, change of clothes, toothbrush/toothpaste/gum, medicine, deodorant, toilet paper, hand sanitizer, pillow.
Fun things to bring (not necessarily essential but make the day better): games, headphones, books/kindle, musical instrument if possible, speakers and music.
Things NOT to do on travel days: over-pack, not be hands-free, not organize your day-pack for easy location of items, not ask enough questions at airports and bus stations to know if you need to change tickets or other things the first time around.
Strong suggestions for travel days: try to sleep according to the timezone you’ll end up in, pack everything sooner rather than later, make sure everyone understands the plan for the day/days, be kind, & have fun!
Safe travels,
Kim
