Porto Novo To Abomey

I got up late in Porto Novo and headed to the gare routière which is close to the Hotel Détente. I asked about the car to Abomey and they told me I have to show up 5am or 6am to get a car to Abomey. If I want to get to Abomey, I would have to go to Cotonou and get a car to Abomey there. OK. So I returned to the hotel, packed up, and headed out.

The car to Cotonou was a 6 person car, but since I was the first, I had the option of buying both front seat tickets for CFA 1400 instead of one for CFA 700. It would be more comfortable, we'd have one less person to wait for, and it's only US$1.40 more. Besides, these guys weren't charging me for my luggage. So I agreed. The wait wasn't that long except that the beggars all came up to me asking for money. I gave some to a few of them and then more came and I stopped. The beggars didn't stop. Finally, we drove away. About an hour later we were at the Marché Dantokpa in Cotonou. My fear was that I'd have to find another gare (Gare Misébo) for the cars to Abomey, but they had cars to Abomey right there. A guy led to me them and was delighted with the CFA 500 coin I gave him. Now I just had wait for one more person. And it was a long wait. About an hour.

I chatted with a guy named Benjamin for most of that hour. He is Beninois but lives in Port Harcourt Nigeria in the canteen for GE. It was fun to talk to him. He's a nice guy. He doesn't understand why white people do trips like this. He also doesn't my no sex in Africa policy. He thinks I should partake of the local ladies.

He was waiting for a friend coming from Abomey and his friend arrived so we said goodbye and then soon my car was ready to go. The road to Abomey is half bad and half under construction. It took about 3 hours to get there. Once there, I got a moto-taxi to go the hotel I chose--Vulcain. It's pretty basic. CFA 5500 (US$11) per night gets you a room with a concrete floor, shower with a bucket, a fan, mosquito net, and a desk. The toilet is a small room in another building with a 20cm x 20cm square hole in the floor. As it is a bar, I asked for a water and a beer, but it took a long time for them to come and when they did, they weren't very cold. So I went out to find another place. There is a place just to the north. I asked if he had cold beer. My suspicion was that the Vulcain people came here to get the beer and water so maybe it wouldn't be cold here either. I asked if I could touch the bottle. It was cold. So I stayed. I had a couple while an old man came and sat with me. He had these huge red glasses that didn't fit his face at all. I suspect they are a pair of old glasses donated by a woman to poor countries--probably not long after Sally Jesse Raphael went off the air. I didn't understand much of what he said, but we managed to communicate a little bit. He had a Coca-Cola. Three school girls--maybe late teens--were at a table behind me listening to our conversation. I suspect that not many white people wind up at this particular establishment. I noticed that there were a lot of school girls. They all wear these beige uniforms. Education seems to a priority in Abomey. Finally it was getting dark, so I headed to the restaurant of the Motel d'Abomey where I had chicken curry. I was the only customer for a while, but at the end, people started coming in. When I left, it was dark, so I kept a lookout for holes in the ground as I had seen a couple on the way over. I avoided them and made it back safely.

Saturday, November 8, 2008 10:12 Benin local time