One rural destination was not a disappointment. These striking cascades are the Soumba Waterfall.

After the spaciousness and economic progress of Cabo Verde, it was painful to see the dense poverty and rubbish-packed squalor (not shown below) of Conakry, the capital of Guinea. Income is estimated at a few hundred dollars a year, among the lowest even in Africa.

Guinea is yet another mineral-rich African nation that is poverty stricken. It's not surprising when you look at the past fifty years: After throwing out the French in 1958, the country collapsed under long-time Marxist dictator Sékou Touré, then got a plain vanilla dictator, a military junta, bloody power struggles, some inter-ethnic strife, entrenched corruption, you name it.

Currently, the country is between crises, so I wanted to take a peak.

On the bumper-to-bumper road from Conakry to Dubreka.

One of the times my driver negotiated with and then "tipped" a gendarme so she or he would overlook his failure to post an updated annual license to transport a tourist.

After the slow, hot, two-hour, bumpy car ride, and the slow, hot, one-hour struggle to hire a boat, we took a slow, hot, one-hour, bland boat ride to wade slowly through knee-deep, muddy clay to get to shore to see fish being smoked in an unfriendly, littered village. Somehow on paper it had all seemed like a brilliant idea.

Left: Women waiting for the boat to ferry them home. Right: My guide at the little National Museum.

Obama was still a hero in much of Africa.

Typical city markets and the off-limits Grand Mosque

Amid so much poverty, it seems crass to stay at an expensive, marble-drenched hotel. And yet, many developing countries lack suitable mid-range options. Choices often come down to (a) scary and cheap versus (b) lavish and exorbitant. In Conakry, I splurged and stayed at the new Palm Camayenne Hotel.