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Have you been in Benin? (I have just been.)

We spent the last week-and-a-half in Benin, which is absolutely beautiful, by the way. The bus ride was not as wonderful, lasting fifteen hours on the first day and ten on the second. We tried to keep ourselves busy, though, as evidenced by Rumanatu and her birthday champagne: When we...

permalink written by  The Boston Wanderer on November 9, 2008 from Cotonou, Benin
from the travel blog: Sandstorms



Africa

National Geographic magazine opened my eyes to Africa as a kid and that INFECTION has been a gentle nudge in the back of my mind ever since. It’s a common problem, there is no known cure and I’ve heard the more serious condition referred to as Mal d’Afrique. When I was 19 years old and...

permalink written by  roel krabbendam on March 9, 2007 from Cotonou, Benin
from the travel blog: Harmattan



Water

I was a bleary mess when Casimo showed up at 9, just my luck to meet the one punctual guy in town. I treated him to breakfast, we agreed to 5000Cfa for the day plus gas, and we got on the road. We drove 15 Km north to Calavi, hired a pirogue, and spent 4 hours out on Lake Nokoue. Ganvie was...

permalink written by  roel krabbendam on March 4, 2007 from Ganvie, Benin
from the travel blog: Harmattan



Tour

Cotonou squats on the ocean at the mouth of the Lagune de Cotonou, under the voodoo forest of Benin. The sky is grey or Orange in March, the sun just a glimmering disk, the heat tolerable. The humidity will suck the life from you, however. This is the scene of Robert Wilson’s great detective...

permalink written by  roel krabbendam on March 3, 2007 from Cotonou, Benin
from the travel blog: Harmattan



Bonsoir, Pussycat

I expected to arrive at L’Etoile Rouge not far from the airport, assemble my bicycle, and head for the Sheraton: on the map, easy to find, internet access, air conditioning, outrageously expensive. Instead, I met Salissoutour Kassinou. Kassinou decided I should NOT pay the outrageous...

permalink written by  roel krabbendam on February 28, 2007 from Cotonou, Benin
from the travel blog: Harmattan



Kids

Unquestionably the most inspiring people I met on this trip were the kids, and I sat next to a wonderful French woman on the bus to Cotonou here to adopt two of them. She felt a little too old to deal with diapers, and understands that 3 to 4 year olds adapt easily, so that is the age of the...

permalink written by  roel krabbendam on February 26, 2007 from Bohicon, Benin
from the travel blog: Harmattan



Gris-Gris

I had planned a more heroic ending to this trip, but here’s what really happened; perhaps it’s more befitting anyway: I was unwell when I arrived in N’Dali, the room I got was in a concrete building that slowly roasted me all night so that I did not sleep, and I could barely stay on my bike...

permalink written by  roel krabbendam on February 24, 2007 from Parakou, Benin
from the travel blog: Harmattan



Beauty

I got no more than 10 kilometers when a pothole popped my left trailer tire just outside a schoolhouse. As if I had stepped on a beehive, the kids came swarming out to greet me, clustering around me in a dense ring and touching and prodding and shoving to get a view. Teachers appeared, order...

permalink written by  roel krabbendam on February 23, 2007 from Ndali, Benin
from the travel blog: Harmattan



Football

Benin is a forest, denser and denser as you head south. The towns all have big shady mango trees, each with benches and gas stations and women selling baskets of food under them. A gas station is a wooden stand with beautiful bottles of different sizes containing what I thought was tea but...

permalink written by  roel krabbendam on February 22, 2007 from Gberouboue, Benin
from the travel blog: Harmattan



The River

The Niger is beautiful and wide and green at the banks between Gaya, Niger and Malanville, Benin, with here and there birds and small boats and people doing laundry or washing. So much water was very…soothing. People like Mungo Park died finding and charting it's course it is said, but when...

permalink written by  roel krabbendam on February 19, 2007 from Malanville, Benin
from the travel blog: Harmattan



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