Benin Marina Hotel Cotonou

Th**e is a VERY large market in Cotonou named Dantokpa. It is the largest market on the coast of West Africa, I was told. It's "the mall" of Benin...if you want to call it that. Th**e are thousands of people with huts set up selling old hand-me-downs and Salvation Army stuff. Most of them are *****ians (*****ia is the country directly East of Benin), so they speak English.

I'm not a big fan of this market. It's really ov**whelming: v**y crowded ...

... too see, and made history feel much more real.

Later that day, I toured an archeological dig. There is a man from the United States studying the land/artifacts for his PhD. He gave a tour of his dig. It was very interesting, but there wasn't really much to see...unless you are knowledgeable in the subject of geology and can tell differences between types of layers of clay... Basically, there were large holes in the ground ...

... sauce et yaourt maison au miel
béninois : un délice J
Non on n’a pas dormi dans un arbre, ne soyez
pas déçus mais dans un vrai lit. Il fallait juste mettre une
moustiquaire à cause des moustiques car ici les moustiques peuvent être
dangereux : ils transmettent une maladie : le paludisme.
On a été
réveillées cette nuit par l’orage. Il pleuvait très fort. On a entendu
Pulchérie et Bonaventure qui chantaient pour leur prière quotidienne du
Cotonou, Benin cerise

... and then the local chief picked up a live chicken and proceeded to do some sort of cleansing ritual. Basically he rubbed the chicken around my head and my body, for me it was hard not to laugh because it's quite funny to be in that sort of position, but I tried my hardest so as not offend the chief. We watched 3 more little c**emonies none involving volunte**s though.



From h**e we moved on to visit 2 palaces, the fetish market plus the ...

The smaller countries of Africa like Togo and Benin mean lots of border crossings as there is not too much to see and experience. Now we are in Benin, which seems to be a cleaner version of Togo.



Voodoo is a big thing in Benin and we made a journey by pirogue to a voodoo village near the town of Ouidah. On the way we were lucky enough to sight a hippo in the river, escaping the intense heat and humidity. The voodoo village was nothing much to see. In fact it was ...

... out. It took an hour past the scheduled departure time for them to finally board. We were told to fasten our seatbelts because we were pushing back from the gate. Instead of that happening though, the pilot came on the intercom and asked if there was a doctor on board, and if so, would he go the rear of the plane. After a few minutes, we were informed that a passenger had had an epileptic seizure and that we would have to wait for an ...

... Benin authorities and was granted a piece of floor to sleep at, plus a bunch of free advice and warning against my walking method in the crossing of the *****ian t**ritory, without a doubt the most ill-reputed country in the ECOWAS. The female offic** that I'd first spoken to took care of me as if she was my moth**: bought me some paracetamol, fed me, and let me use the offic**s' bathroom. In the morning, before she was gone, she bought me a loaf of bread and ...

... Definitely doing that... looks brilliant fun. The rest of the crew eventually made it back after a long hot tour of the stilt village. Apparently it took about 45min to an hour to get out there... they were taken to the first building then they turned around and made their way back. Not exactly the tour they were expecting. Still they said it was pretty amazing. The village holding some 25,000 people. Leaving the lake behind we ...