THis intimate-feeling city (pop. 30,000) is located on the north coast of Bioko siland (though a new capital, called Oyala, is being built on the mainland). Formerly referred to as Santa Isabel during colonial times, Malabo perches on the rim of a volcanic crater along a still fairly wild coastline. The cityscape is a patchwork of Spanish colonial buildings (such as the neo-Gothic Santa Isabel Cathedral (pictured here); typical informal dwellings; and shiny new commercial developments that are the fruit of the oil boom since the 1990s. Visitors to Malabo are likely to be surprised by its new attractive skyline and modern feel in some areas – although in others, dirt roads and that “developing-country” feel are still evident, and city planners continue to wage a constant battle to stop the jungle from encroaching.
It’s all a fascinating city (and country) waiting to be discovered. According to the United Nations, Equatorial Guinea is one of the world’s least visited countries by tourists. There are many reasons for this; many people still have never heard of it – a legacy of a tumultuous post-colonial history, when the government of the day kept the country largely closed off to the outside world. And though this started to change when oil was discovered in the early 1990s, it remained very difficult to get entry visas until 2023, when.it introduced a more streamlined "e-visa".
Read more in our post Malabo, Capital of Equatorial Guinea: Africa With a Spanish Accent.
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