It is 9am Sunday morning, Aptil13. Today will be my last Lagos ride for 2025 I turn the bike in at 4pm and take the bus to Lisboa Monday morning and fly to Boston Tuesday morning.
It has been a successful if not exceptional trip. I really plan to return in the same end of March and first 2 weeks of April in 2026 time frame. So what has worked and what has not? I did not get sick as I did last year. I rode all but 2 days? Really the main evaluative factor for me is the social. I can ride many places. But if I am to be alone, I will not be very happy unless I have a social support group. The daily calls to Kim are essential but not sufficient. Jimbo’s presence at Shaker has been a bed rock as it has been the last 2 years. 2023 we had a real group of 3+ and Karley was on the bar. Last year the attendance was sparcer? In 2025 we had two other old men, Frank and Mike. And the women played more of a role. And by that I mean a role in talking to me.
Pinky is a social force of nature. I only really interacted with her a couple days but her energy really makes a difference. I will see if I have a picture. I do not have a name for the women who arrived the second week and is building a home in Lagos. We will call her Alter, as part of the roman ruins they have found in her ceiler hole involve a church alter. I thought for a number of days that Jim, not Jimbo, was her husband as they went off to dinner together but then Jim’s real wife, whose name I do not know, showed up.
My hostel, Lagos Central Hostel, started out with a bang and faded badly. It was not bad. It produced NO social contacts that I can remember from 2024 except the young Indian girls working the desk that I could chat up, but only in place. This year I went out twice with Eve and in the same time frame, early, 2 other girls and a guy joined me. But after those first few days, nothing. I seriously have thought about trying another hostel. Clearly a hostel is the best social solution, unless I could find a guest house that had the desired clientele. I even have ruminated on having rooms in two hostels and just choosing my residence based on residents. I can afford it. I am way overpaying for Central at like 80$ a night. It should be more like 50 or 60.
It is 9:20. I really have to stop posting at 9:30 and start the Sunday routine. I need to eat breakfast, a banana? I need to see if there is an easy way to contact the bike pick up man. He either texted or called me on the dropoff so I should be able to find a number for him in the recent phone log. I do not really need to leave at 10am as I am only going what I think is 1 hour to Barrio st Jaoa. It is possible that I will find VERY little open for lunch. My primary, that I have used twice in 2025, is closed on weekends.