Monrovia to free the Russian pilots trapped in a building next to the American embassy and carry them to Roberts field airport from where they flown all together out of the country. In any case he was back in November for the birth of his precious daughter Julia who is actually living with him in Spain. During year ’99 he moved definitely to Abidjan, in Ivory Coast, where he started his Travel and Tour business. There he organized tours and expeditions throughout Ivory Coast and neighbor countries mainly for UN personnel deployed in the different missions the international body is keeping in Africa ( more than 80,000 souls, as per today ). He still came back to Liberia for some periods of time, especially to organize and run a new airline operating from Ivory Coast to Liberia that was the sole airline linking that devastated country with the outside world. In many occasions, and due to the lack of electricity, he used to land in the night taking as reference one car with the lights on at the beginning of the runway and other one at the end… In Ivory Coast life was treating him fine and travel business prospered and got well known among UN personnel, being Easyticket Ltd. synonymous of quality and responsible service. When UNMIL ( UN Mission in Liberia ) was settled in September ’03, Easyticket Ltd. was awarded as official vendor of air tickets and travel packages for the Mission. The following years he traveled and conducted tours to most of the countries in the Dark Continent including the Arab north of Africa. Beside the office in Abidjan, Easyticket Ltd. opened offices in Accra ( Ghana ), Cairo ( Egypt ), Libreville ( Gabon ) and Dar Es Salaam ( Tanzania ) and contracted Agents in Monrovia ( Liberia ), Freetown ( Sierra Leone ), Lome ( Togo ), Casablanca ( Morocco ), etc. But again T.I.A. Once hailed as a model of stability, Ivory Coast slipped into the kind of internal strife that has plagued many African countries. For more than three decades after independence under the leadership of its first president, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, Ivory Coast was conspicuous for its religious and ethnic harmony and its well-developed economy. All this ended when the late Robert Guei led a coup which toppled Felix Houphouet-Boigny's successor, Henri Bedie, in 1999. An armed rebellion in 2002 split the nation in two. Despite numerous peace deals the main players in the conflict have struggled to find a lasting political solution. On the night from 6 to 7 November ’04 Abidjan is taken by rioters and war resumed after France destroyed the Ivorian air force, in retaliation for one USA peacekeeper and eight French troop deaths. Fernando and his family were caught in the middle of the mess and had to sough refuge at the UN compound at Bvd. de Marseille in Abidjan ( you never get accustomed to that sore in your belly ). They spend there 6 days among other 3,000 ex-pats and finally they are flown out Ivory Coast to Spain by Spanish Air Force aircrafts. Their villa and Easyticket Ltd. office in Abidjan were looted beyond recognizing. That evacuation was the biggest evacuation of white people from Africa from the colonial times. Is estimated that about 80,000 whites flow out of the country. Most of them never return. Not Fernando case... Back in Africa again he settled in Accra ( Ghana ) where his company had the main office in Africa. After a brief period in Ghana he decided to move his residence to Libreville in Gabon and develop a handful of very selective tours to offer world-wide. Something he always wanted to have time to do. In Gabon he start preparing the new tours working along with his country Manager and long time friend Bruno Champigneulle ( French and other ex-pat that may write a couple of books only with his own experiences in Africa ). The decision of organizing the very best of his tours in Gabon was made on the basis of the gorgeous beauty of the country landscapes and exuberant wildlife and the strong political stability of this African nation blessed with loads of crude oil ( let’s cross the fingers this time ). Today Fernando share his time between Africa, mainly in Gabon, and Spain where the company's new main office is being constructed and his small daughter is being raised. He and Bruno, as well as their local staff, run and supervise personally all tours they operate in that fabulous country. |
An African Biography fernandorobleda@yahoo.com fernando@myeasyticket.com Fernando Robleda (Spaniard, sole owner of Easyticket Ltd, the tour operator) was on the phone sometime in the middle of a warm summer night of Ibiza (Balearic Islands - Spain) on 1994. A British friend was at the other end of the line asking him to put some money in a scrap metal business in an African country called Liberia... At 35 and after 18 years living the endless nightlife of the island ( possible cause of his recent divorce…) Fernando though that time to change may arrived so his first step towards Africa was to find where Liberia was on the map… He knew Zaire ( today Democratic Republic of the Congo ). He knew South Africa, Nigeria, Cameroon, Guinea... But Liberia… where the hell it was? Next steep was to buy an air ticket, via Paris-Abidjan, to Monrovia. |
| by globetrotters, |
| for globetrotters |
home
Monrovia he could clearly see from his plane window the airstrip packed with people. He wondered how the plane would manage to land in that crowded strip… Russian pilots, otherwise, calmly landed in the middle of people running off the plane trajectory like disbanded chickens. Once plane stopped the crowd quickly returned and they were literally surrounded for a few thousand of semi-naked human beings shouting, begging, and fighting each other to get closer to the plane.
Should he remain in the plane and get out of that hell of country in that very same plane or should he try?
the walls and scraped cars ridged by bullets. Millions of bullet holes everywhere. And curfew from 6 PM to 6 AM.
you could ever find in Africa. To say nothing of the incredible night-life from 6 PM to 6 AM: No way to leave the bar or the disco due the curfew, so they used to sleep on the spots… Maybe not as sophisticated as Ibiza, but much more intense ( by far…) So, at the beginning at least, the combination of business and love rewards was for him simply astounding. |
Copyright ©2006 myeasyticket.com - All rights reserved.
easyticket ltd
| YOUR HOST BIO |
Easyticket Ltd.- Travel Agency (United Nations) - Kinshasa Av. 28 - East Legon - Accra - Ghana - + 233 244 693 673
MyEasyTicket - Tour Operator (Global) Puerta de las Naciones - Ribera del Loira 46 - Campo de las Naciones - Madrid 28042 - Spain - Phone + 34 654 125 858
MyEasyTicket - Tours - info@myeasyticket.com / Easyticket Ltd. - UN Booking- easyticket2000@yahoo.es
| Then, T.I.A. This Is Africa ( and there neither business, nor love last too long…) On April 6, ’96 ( with that sore in his belly ) he rushed to the American embassy in Monrovia and took refuge from the riots and violent clashes between rebel factions fighting on the streets of Monrovia. After 7 days being sheltered at the embassy among 2,000 ex-pats out of other 40,000 refugees he was evacuated by a SEAL chopper to Freetown ( Sierra Leone ) and from there ( also a country through another bloody civil war ) by a military plane to Dakar ( Senegal ). After a few weeks of relax in Europe he got back to Liberia where he was until September 18, ’98 the day of the Charles Taylor’s Massacre on Camp Johnson Road in Monrovia which eyewitness accounts say, claimed the lives of over 100 persons. |