Dichotel Cotonou

... yelling at you to come and look or to buy their stuff, and the vend**s lit**ally grab you and pull you into their huts. It's really dirty, and located along a dirty riv**. The ground is sand, so it's hard to walk as well. Not fun.

I much pref** the markets in the small** villages. The village I spent most of my time in had a market-day ev**y fourth day. Going to the market was much more enjoyable in this village, as the people w**e less pushy and ...

... the giant holes were along walls that used to be someone's house/courtyard.

Tomorrow, I'm getting my hair "tressed" (French word for “braided” with fake-plastic hair) after church. A local woman who I've become friends, who I refer to as my Aunt, with is extremely excited about the fact that I'm going to wear the dress she made me and I'll have my hair braided. She says I'll be a, "Grande Beninoise."

... vers 5 heures du matin). Ils se lèvent très tôt et après ils
vont à la messe tous les matins. Ils sont catholiques. Nous on a dormi.
Ce
matin nous avons un peu découvert le quartier : c’est très vert. Il y a
beaucoup de palmiers et à côté de la maison il y a une maison en
construction. Ici pas d’échafaudages mais des troncs d’arbres qui font
tenir le toit pendant que les ouvriers travaillent.
Il y a beaucoup
de passage dans la rue. C ...

... ev**yday market. Due to the size of the group we didn't have enough time to visit the Temple Zewa.



Heading north to the bord** passing through the larg** town of Nikki, this bord** post is furth** north than any previous ov**landing truck has gone. This makes it as Chris says "a pione**ing mini-adventure". We bush camped at



Dist. cov. = 332 km



26th - Continued to the bord** town and on to the bord** post in *****ia.

... I have already seen lots of voodoo stuff in most of the markets of West Africa. They contain all the good stuff like monkey skulls or monkey testicles, guess its Africa's version of Viagra.



Slaves and slave trading were also a big part of the history of Benin. We visited the Point of no Return memorial and in fact camped at the memorial for the night, thanks to the local village chief and caretaker of the memorial who allowed us camp for the night.

... distracting, but a delightful trip down memory lane all the same time. Mrs. Ogoudélé and the ladies had prepared lunch: chicken, fried potatoes and plantain, rice and cooked onions and tomatoes. It was very tasty. After the meal I had several sessions of baptismal counseling. I had discussed this with Bonaventure's wife Elisabeth several times before and determined this time that I could baptize her. We'll ...

... going to have to drive to the airport and wanted to have plenty of time for everything. I did some more work on the computer and then repacked and prepared to leave. As I exited the elevator on the ground floor, I noticed a plaque that mentioned that a certain Sherlock Holmes has a history in this hotel, the Hôtel du Louvre. It was here that the spy Hugo Oberstein was trapped by a fake letter from Holmes in the Adventure of the Bruce ...

... deal - hence why they dress up so.   Our flight was on time and I really had no idea what to expect getting off.  I had been warned that the airport would be a shock, and unlike anything I had ever experienced.  I suppose it was.  Essentially, the airport is far too small to accommodate large international flights.  Immediately upon exiting the plane there are just tons of people.  The first room is immigration and there were six immigration ...

... me 1000 Naira, the *****ian currency. Way to go Benin. Dia seguinte, dobrei a tenda e piquei a mula. Andei duas horitas ate que um moto-taxista se aproximou e dizendo que gostava da minha coragem para viajar assim, se propos a avancar-me alguns km. Escusado s**a diz** que o rapaz acabou por avancar, avancar, recusar a minha insistencia em largar-me num sitio qualqu**, avancar um pouco mais, ate esbarrarmos na fronteira, 64 km para la do ponto onde arrancamos ...

... through villages towards bush camp. Barsby making sure he'd gone to the toilet before we left this time - he just might have had to use a bottle earlier on in the day. Ended up pulling off road and finding a camp just before 7 so cook group raced around madly, trying to get dinner served before 9pm. Whilst waiting we discovered our first truck pet... a giggy worm... named Harold... which lives in my toe. At least we think its a giggy worm...