Third And Fourth Days In Cotonou

My third day was a Sunday.  OK, Sunday is bad. Everything is closed.  It drives me crazy when things are closed on Sunday.  That is a good reason to make sure Sarah Palin never gets anywhere near the White House where she'll try to impose her Biblical theocracy on us and impose that idiotic "keep the sabbath holy" commandment that most people are smart enough to ignore (except the French and Orthodox Jews).

I found I was running low on CFA so I went to three different banks and all of them had out of service ATMs.  Hmmm....  Not good.  I need ATMs that dispense cash, not make excuses.  So I wound up not doing much on Sunday.  I ate at the Roi de Chawarma where I paid CFA 1500 (US$3) for a chawarma.  Other than that, just sort of laid low and rested.

My fourth day, Monday, started out much the same as Sunday.  Le Gerbe d'Or is apparently closed Mondays so no pastry and coffee for me.  The book store I wanted to visit isn't open until Monday afternoon.  But I went downtown and tried the various ATMs multiple times until finally the middle ATM of the three at the Bank of Africa gave me money.  Whew!  That was a relief!  I headed to another bookstore where I got the October 23e Le Point.  There were a few interesting articles on the election and an article about Montpellier--the police there are trying out Segways.

So, Monday means that all the weekend hotel people have checked out.  Time for CNN/internet search part II.  First up, the Hotel Riviera a block from my current cheap hotel with bucket water and fan.  The woman at the desk seems unhappy about me wanting a room for Tuesday night.  It's like she suspects I'm going to do something odd there.  But she takes my name down to reserve a room.  I headed down to the Tramway an told them to cancel my tentative reservation there.

I also made it to the Fondation Zinsou, a very nice little art museum in Cotonou.  They have an exhibit called Benin 2059 which is a set of installations of various artists on what Benin will look like 100 years after independence.  The exhibits on the first floor are pretty grim and pessimistic.  The ones on the second floor are more optimistic though one artist expects Cotonou to be transformed into an African Venice by global warming.  After visiting the museum I went to their nice little cafe and had a Beninoise beer.

So I decided to wait at the Restaurant Romantica (eating there alone despite the name).  The plat du jour--agouti with rice in a tasty tomato sauce.  In Louisiana they called it nutria, I think.  It was CFA 5000 (US$10) which is more than I thought it would be but it was enough to my only meal of the day.  Again, I load low for most of the night since Lonely Planet makes Cotonou soun dangerous from late afternoon.  So it was iPod and Le Démon et Mademoiselle Prym until I fell asleep.

Monday, November 3, 2008 21:00 Benin local time