Hotel du Port Cotonou

... The bank is one of the nicer buildings. It is professional looking building, with people dressed in Western-style business suits (as opposed to the traditional Beninese style). It has a line of tellers, a loan department, and an area for safety deposit boxes. It's air-conditioned too; it was actually very cold in there!

For lunch, I ate a cheeseburger and fries-Yum! Not exactly ...

... son certificat de
vaccination contre la fièvre jaune, le passeport, et galérer pour
récupérer ses bagages : il n’y avait plus de chariot. Les gens étaient
tous collés contre le tapis roulant qui amène les bagages et on
n’arrivait pas à voir les bagages qui défilaient. Ca a mis un sacré
bout de temps avant le les récupérer. Puis il a fallu passer la douane,
retrouver Bonaventure notre ami et son fils Will et sortir de
l’aéroport. Toute une ...

... in which hundreds of dead animals and sculls - including rats, bats, sheep, monkeys - w**e sold for voodoo c**emonies and rituals. Aft** anoth** quick purchase of colourful mat**ial (one of many from which I hope to make dresses at some point) and a street-stall stop for a lunch of fishhead sauce and rice (cant say I finished it all), it was off toward the bord** with *****ia.

... plate sported the hand painted words: "make your thanksgiving" (not speaking of the North American holiday). An old Peugeot station wagon had cargo piled perilously high up on the roof and spilling out the open back hatch. Never a dull moment.... We started services right away. I gave a news update, tried to explain why it's been so long since my last visit (we have new people coming to us in new ...

... none the worse for wear. There wasn't much of a view of the city since it was very overcast and gray (and chilly); quite a contrast from yesterday. Montmartre is an interesting area historically for several reasons, one of which is because the Paris Commune in effect started here in 1871, after the surrender of France at the end of the Franco-Prussian war. A poorly executed plan by the central government to capture some national guard ...

... and then looking for bribes to give them back.  I'm not sure why mine decided not to subject me to this but I am very grateful. It was several hours before we finally got all the luggage and were loaded into the LandRovers.  I couldn't see much out the window on the ride as it was dark and there are only a few street lights in the city.  On board, we were checked in and I was directed to my room.  Carrying my bag was a struggle as I waddled to ...

... e levou-me para a sua aldeia onde esta a construir um bar e deixem-me que vos diga, o lugar e altamente bonito. Chama-se Grand Popo e fez-me pensar numa mistura de Mussulo minus os casaroes que ja se acotovelam e uma cidade mais modesta no Algarve em construcao. Infelizmente nao pude captar em plenitude a magnificencia do lugar, pois a visita guiada so teve lugar ao final da tarde quando a luz ja nao **a apropriada para a minha camara mendiga captar fosse o ...

... converser au volant de leurs motos arrêtés à un feu rouge. Ou encore de voir des femmes transporter leurs enfants à la sortie des cours. Ici, le port du casque n'est toujours pas obligatoire, mais ce qui importe c'est le temps que l'on sauve. En effet, ils permettent de se faufiler ici et là, sans avoir à attendre dans les interminables ...

... Oliver and I ventured down to the beach for a swim which was lovely and clean but had a sharp rise causing heavy undertow. Not wanting to risk being swept out to sea we admired the waves before returning to the pool. Later on we walked down along the beach, passing big groups of people, to the slave monument where we met up with Clara and Little Kate who were taking a break from the incredibly long and hot walk home. We spent the ...

... evident with our journey today. After getting really bad vibes last night from the taxi guy who promised that we'd be leaving early early this morning, we decided to stiff him this morning since he hadn't shown up by 8:30am (when one usually leaves at 6AM) and go visit our host family in the south for Christmas. It was such a relief to finally be on the road. Traveling in the south is so much easier than going up north where we used to live. We just jumped off our ...