June 14 – Cotonou, Benin

Weather – 29º and rain and I mean RAIN

Steps – 4,655

Amazon sculpture

Humidity – 78%

Country #98!

We always check the weather forecast for the upcoming ports, so we expected rain, but wow…rain! It certainly wasn’t cold, like we are conditioned to expect from rain, this is not Calgary rain. Other than being a bit wet today, I wasn’t once uncomfortable – not stinking hot and sweaty.

welcoming committee

We considered for a brief moment bailing on today’s tour, but in the end went. When

will we be in Benin (pop 13.7 mil, main language is French) again? I am soooooo glad we did!

part of the 3km mural

Another group of African singers, drummers, and dancers greeted us as we exited the ship – I love

another part of the mural

these welcoming committees. We could hear them but not see them from our balcony. The rain let up for just enough time for us to the bus.

Today’s tour was awesome! My spirits were dampened (or drenched) at first, but WOW, what an experience.

street scene showing lots of rain

hurling the net

Our first stop was to see the 30-meter-tall statue (built in 2022) of Tassi Hangbe. Hangbe led the all women army of Dahomey Amazons. This military operated from 1700 till 1904. Their actual name was Agojie, but Western Europeans thought they resembled what they thought Amazon women from Greek Mythology would look like and the name stuck. My picture doesn’t give a good impression of how huge she is. Had it not been pouring I would have stood next to her for some idea of scale.

We were scheduled for a 25-minute photo stop in the plaza where she stands, but because of the deluge, we ran out, got a photo, ran back, and sat on the bus

fishing

listening to the guide until our scheduled time to leave. We didn’t even bother to go as far as to get a shot from the front of her, we settled for somewhat of a side shot…it was coming down in buckets!

nets and sticks and stilt houses

Lake Nokoué was a 50-minute drive from Cotonou, the main city and where we were docked. Along the way the guide (didn’t get his name) told us all about Benin – unfortunately this was a bus without a mic. We heard about ¾ of what he had to say. Luckily for us, we sat in seats that the rain wasn’t coming in on.

Some people were significantly dripped on – there was plenty of space so moving wasn’t a problem, only about 20 of on the coach.

fishing and stilt houses

stilt houses

We spent a lot of time driving slowly past a 3km mural, Africa’s longest graffiti wall. 40 graffiti artists from Africa and abroad contributed to the mural celebrating Beninese history and present.

As soon as we made it to Lake Nokoué for our visit to the Ganvie Village on Stilts. We all needed the facilities. They were OK porta-potties, even had toilet paper! Then we were handed over to a new guide, Justin, and boarding a moto

canoe – a small, simple wooden boat with an outboard motor. 10 of us fit on the 2 wooden plants on either side of the boat.

welcoming committee

La Beninoise

The short distance to the boat dock was PACKED with locals. My first instinct was to be cautions and even worried about this sea of humanity. Although the people were somewhat interested in us, they weren’t trying to sell or beg. On the bus our guide told us the locals would be calling us yovo – in Fon (local language) to mean foreigner or white person, they did. This lake is no tourist-trap, this is local life here. The boats we used are usually used by locals.

performance

local beer!!!

Along the way we saw many people fishing with nets
– either thrown or placed in the water. In one part of the lake, a net was placed around a large area, and sticks/twigs were placed in the water. When the sticks disintegrate, they feed the fish – super interesting.

The lake is only about a metre deep, so no lifejackets. We passed many fishing boats (dugout canoes, made from tree trunks) moved through the water by the operator pushing a long stick into the bottom of the lake – kind of like propelling gondolas.

staying a kind of dry

The trip to Ganvie was about 15 minutes. A few welcoming committees of drummers and dancers met us on our route.

Once we got to the village, we saw the local Tofinu people going about their daily lives. We saw a church, a hotel, a grocery store, and many homes. All of the buildings are built almost entirely on stilts.

fishing

We disembarked at a bit of a sand pit/land where there was a souvenir shop and a place to buy local

beer (La Beninoise). We looked at the souvenirs but bought beer - $2USD. Now this is a reasonable price. They took USD – no problem.

While we sipped, (we tried to stay dry-ish, there was a bit of covering and we had an umbrella) we were treated to another dancing/drumming/singing group.

fishing nets

At this point I didn’t really care about getting wet, we specifically wore Teva sandals so wet shoes and socks wouldn’t be a problem. I had a hat and a jacket, but eventually I abandoned the jacket. It wasn’t cold and I didn’t care.

fishing

The boat we were on to the village was covered and had side covers too, so I were pretty dry until I took Justin up on his offer to sit at the front for good pictures. My derriere was soaked, but I didn’t care – we were having a blast, and the pictures were worth it. We actually had towels we brought from the ship, but the seat swap happened fast. We used the towels to dry the bench and sit on on the way back. The 2 of

shows how rainy it was

us only needed one so we offered our

guy selling windshield wipers - brilliant!

other one to one of our handlers – he didn’t really speak English, but made sure to have Justin tell us how kind we were…how sweet of him, it really wasn’t a sacrifice…Chris and I easily used just one – obviously we haven’t gained that much weight on this trip!

Back well after lunch...we ordered a burger from room service to split

where we are

One other interesting thing that happened was when coming and going from the boat dock area, the busses were too high, so some guy took a wooden pole and pushed the wires out of our way. On the way out we weren’t past before he let them go…slap! Down they came on the bus…no problem though.

There were rains down in Africa today, not sure I blessed them…it was a fantastic day though, so maybe someone did!