When we woke up the next morning, we found a town of stunning beauty. Varela is not only surrounded by fields and forest, most of the town itself is field and forest. Less than 200 people live there in scattered houses tucked under trees off of winding paths. 

Varela was very quiet, and the only sounds we heard were birds, insects, and very occasionally someone’s voice. Our own voices grew quieter, and our walking pace slowed down. Time became irrelevant. It was a great way to relax.

Most of the houses were made of mud and brick with thatched roofs. People relied on well-water, and there was no electricity. Our hotel seemed to have the only generator in town.

A walk around the village gave us an idea of what people did for a living. One man in a peanut field invited us to try some raw peanuts. This man showed us how he used sand to make bricks.

The town movie theater. We never found out what was playing.

Guinea Bissau has been very unstable since its independence from Portugal in 1974. Things got really bad in a civil conflict in 1998-1999, and it’s had ups and downs since then. The country’s economy is a disaster, and we saw a lot of abandoned buildings in Varela.