Jos is a Cold, Dusty, Barren City And I Absolutely Love It

By Justin Irabor

13 September 2016

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(Full disclosure: the featured image is not of Jos. Everything else in this post is.)

Jos is as Jos does, I should warn you.

If you want to stare at rock formations for hours on end until you are sick to your stomach, this should absolutely be your stop.

I mean. Look at this guy.

I'd heard stories about Jos before I visited, so I knew what to expect, but here's the thing: no matter how many times you have been told, if you have never experienced anything like Jos, you can never be prepared enough.

I had my camera on hand as soon my genial driver (who also doubled as a makeshift tour guide) announced that we had now turned into Jos. Although I was not to know it at the time, we passed right by the airport and made it into Heipang at a very comfortable breeze. This is noteworthy because when I made my return from Zaragamanda to Heipang, I began to appreciate the sheer square meters between any two places in Jos. In a nutshell, Jos is huge. Hot damn.

I continued to take as many mountain shots as I could (most of them were ruined on account of the camera and the general shakiness of my hand.)

Panorama shot!

I arrived soon enough, hot, dusty, harassed and tired (I'd taken an ill-advised road trip from Lagos to Abuja to Port Harcourt and my body was cursing me repeatedly for it.)

In Abuja, I pre-booked my room at the Hilltop Hotel (good budget hotel, that), which put me in a room in Zaragamanda. It only took me, what, three tries to locate the place.

It was immediately after my bath that it hit me: the freeze! Nothing could have prepared me for the sudden temperature dip - I felt like Jack from the Titanic on the seconds before his death. I rubbed as much Vaseline as I could find and made a mental to buy a cardigan the next day.

(Side note: I bought TWO.)

The Next Morning in Jos

The next morning I went out for a walk, which meant more hills, of course.

I went to this really fascinating supermarket (which is the pride and joy of the city, I found out) called Onigbinde stores.

I was with a companion and we went grocery shopping!

And bread shopping-

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