Review of Equatorial Guinea

Highlights and Observations 

1. Playing with the Chimpanzee was the highlight of my trip.
2. Driving along the four lane highway for over a 160k through the middle of the jungle with virtually no other cars was absolutely bizarre.
 3. Another bizarre experience was staying at the 5 Start Grand Djibloho Hotel located in the village Olaya where the president was born. Using the oil wealth of the county, he wanted it to be the next capital of the county. Except the oil wealth that built the 5 Star Grand Djibloho Hotel and numerous surrounding, still vacant, office buildings has evaporated due to lower oil prices.
 4. Another causality of lower oil was the newly built airport in Mengomeyén. It's completely finished and fully operative, but closed due to lack of demands for flights.

Challenges and Improvements 

1. It's very difficult to tour the country. Virtually no tourist industry exists in Equatorial Guinea.
2. The tourism that exists revolves around the wealthy oil industry. Everything associated with it is very expensive.
3. There's clearly a very cheap inexpensive local non-oil economy where most of the inhabitants of Equatorial Guinea live and work, but it's difficult to gain access. The people that live and work in this economy are not familiar with tourism.
 4. Another barrier of entry to the local non-oil economy for me was the language. The official language is Spanish and my Spanish is very limited.