The famous MBOLO center, providing Libreville with all of its imported luxury goods.
First thing in the morning, we went straight to the Cameroonian Embassy to requests our visas. With the large expat community in Gabon, there is a large, fancy market to suit their needs. In Libreville it is the Géant Casino Mbolo that sells the imported cheeses, meats, and various other palate pleasing goodies.
Since our flat tire incident leaving the Siat Ranch, we’ve been carrying around a bad spare. So it seemed fitting that we make arrangements to patch the tire and get some balancing done while we are at it. I approached one of the many foreigners at the market and asked if he knew where we could get our tires fixed.
The nice gentleman, a Polish forestry worker here, not only told us but drove ahead to make sure we found the place alright. The garage was Lebanese owned and run and charged Western prices but also carried quality goods. They managed to fix the tire with no problems but spent quite a lot of time attempting to balance the tires. We literally sat there for hours. The owner in the end gave us a discount since they were having such difficulties. I guess it is not a common service in Gabon.
Everybody was starving after the long wait at the garage so we went to one of the restaurants (also filled with expats) on the waterfront. It was an authentic Italian restaurant and fantastic (they charge for it also).
After lunch, our visas were ready and we left straight away for Cap Esterias to have a bit more peace and quiet. We arrived just in time for yet another stunning African sunset over the Atlantic.
