Yaounde Entry Requirements

Yaounde announces itself before the wheels touch down. The cabin fills with humid equatorial air laced with the iron scent of red laterite and the honeyed perfume of jacarandas in bloom. Nsimalen International Airport welcomes you with a wall of sound, French, English, Eton, Fulfulde, bouncing off corrugated metal while suitcase wheels clatter across chipped tile. Khaki-clad immigration officers lean over your passport beneath flickering tubes that throw long shadows across the hall, and through the glass doors the smoky sweetness of roadside plantain drifts in from the parking lot. Cameroon's single visa covers the entire country, including this capital draped over seven hills. Most visitors join the shuffle toward the immigration counters where officers thump purple ink that still smells of alcohol onto the page. Ceiling fans fight a losing battle against the afternoon heat. Expect 20, 45 minutes, longer if you land at dusk when the setting sun turns the western windows into sheets of molten amber.