Review of the trip to Nigeria part I

  

In front of the Limbe Botanical Gardens, there is a taxi rank for Idenau. They leave when they are full. I waited about 30 minutes. The journey costs 1,500 CFA and lasts less than 1 hour.

The paved road is in good condition. There is a police checkpoint, where I had to go down. There they checked my passport, asked me some questions, but they didn't ask me for money.

The aforementioned collective taxi has finished its journey in the Taxi Car Park, located 2 km south of the center of Idenau.

From there I took a motobike taxi for 200 CFA, which took me to the port of Idenau.

Keep in mind that as of today, due to the Civil War species in progress in the English-speaking territories of southwestern Cameroon, the land border post of Ekok, between Cameroon and Nigeria, remains closed to foreigners and therefore the best choice for going to Nigeria from the Cameroon is to take a boat from Idenau.

From the port of Idenau, several boats leave for Oron and Calabar in Nigeria every day. There are several companies that offer this service, but I relied on Big J Shipping Service, at a cost of 18,000 CFA. The ideal is to leave early in the morning, but I showed up at 1:00 pm and then I had to travel in a boat full of goods with rain pouring down.

Before leaving the employee of the Big J Shipping Service Company, he accompanied me on foot to the Immenau Immigration Office, located on the main street at 150 mt. from the port, where I easily got the exit stamp from Cameroon on my Passport.

Then, before getting on the boat, I had to submit my passport to a further successful check.

The boat trip from Idenau (Cameroon) to Oron (Nigeria) lasted about 3 hours.

Time zone: same time as in Italy, -1h when Italy has daylight saving time.

To enter Nigeria, an entry visa is required for tourism, to be requested at the Embassy of Nigeria in Rome, or by relying on a travel agency that delivers the file for you. I entrusted myself to Mr. Robero of the Agenzia Vistonline, based in Via di San Romano n. 24-26 - 00159 Rome, Telephone: 06-40801108 06-43598913, Fax 06-43562756, e-mail: roberto@vistonline.it, website: www.vistonline.it, to which I sent the following documents:

· Completed and signed Nigeria form;

· Original passport valid for over 6 months with more than 2 consecutive free pages;

· Photocopy of the passport;

· 2 passport photos;

· Hotel bookings to cover the entire trip, made through the site "Bookinh.com";

· Flight plan;

· Letter addressed to the Embassy written in English where I declared to go to Nigeria only for tourist reasons and to have no relationship with Nigerian people on the spot;

· Bank account statement for the last 3 months;

· Photocopy of vaccination against yellow fever;

· Receipt of the payment of online consular fees of 108 USD obtained by completing the form directly on the Consulate's website http://www.immigration.gov.ng

· Subscribed PRIVACY form;

· Request form filled in and signed;

Keep in mind that although on the site of the Nigerian Embassy in Rome, it is written that to obtain a tourist visa, it is necessary to go personally to the Embassy in Rome to take fingerprints, I got it without going to Rome to take fingerprints .

The copy of the Bank Transfer of the amount of Euro 143.00 including VAT (80 Euro of Consular rates + 61 Euro for the competences of the Agency Vistonline + 2 Euro of Bollo), I executed it and sent it by e-mail before receive a passport with a tourist visa by mail.

I must say that the aforementioned agency did a great job and in 10 days I got a valid entry visa for 90 days from the date on which the Nigerian Embassy in Rome released it, but which allows a stay in the country of 30 days. For the courier I arranged myself, entrusting myself to the online Courier "Spedire.com", at a price of 6.98 euros each way, although it must be said that if we wanted the Agency also provided the Courier but at a higher price than I paid for it. The tourist visa, occupies a page of the Passport.

Languages: English, Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo and others.

Religions: Muslims (just over 50%), Christians (just under 50%), the influence of local traditional cults remains in the southern and central parts of the country.

The description of the trip complete with the map, photographs and videos is available at this link: https://vivendosalendo.blogspot.com/2019/07/vi