Benin

Togo – Aného, Lake Togo, Agbodrafo, Vogan and Kpalimé

Aného is a very scenic area where the river meets the sea. There is a Catholic church were the children were singing in a quite enchanted manner that could be heard from the road. (this is possibly the 19th century Aného Peter and Paul Church just off the bay) A description of the performance is not possible, however having peaked my head in for a song, it is worth the stop if in Aného.

Lake Togo and Agbodrafo are on the coastal route to Bénin before you get to Aného. In Agbodrafo, there is an old rail bridge that cross the lake and can take you to the Togoville area if one preferred to walk.

Kpalimé is a tourist stop which is marketed but other than the mountains and views of Ghana set in a more lush and cooler setting it is a take it or leave it stop.

Outside of Kpalimé is the Abbaye de l` Ascension Danyi, located in Dzoybegan. It is a monastery where travellers are welcomed complete with guestrooms, gift shop; and tours of the farm. The monastery has a seven sided open air chapel with simplistic but very outstanding fixtures such as the alter candle holder, the pulpit made from root wood, and very classic wood chairs. One of the items that seemed to work very well was the pivotal wooden windows that lined the perimeter and a built in stone bench. You can get ginger syrup as well as Togo coffee, soap, honey, post cards at the gift shop although most of the items can be found in the Lomé stores.



Cotonou, Bénin

After obtaining a 48 hour VISA at the border of Togo and Bénin which by the way was quite orderly compared to other crossings. At the border there was a calendar for the West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP) which was intriguing since I had not seen or heard anything about the project since a discussion in Dakar.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/wagp.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_African_Gas_Pipeline




As for the positives or negatives of the pipeline one can only guess however the black market fuel merchants are quite an interesting phenomenon as they are able to price at almost 35% lower.

There did not appear to be direct bus service offered by STIF between Lomé and Cotonou. The extension procedure was also quite orderly and included a receipt for the VISA after submission of the form, passport, etc.

Sending a post card via the poste costs roughly two dollars (US) with an expected delivery date of two weeks. In Togo they mentioned that stamps were taken from the letters and packages opened and emptied. We shall see if the post card makes it.

As for food, due to some bad stew in Togo, my ability to eat the street vendor food has been limited. A Lebanese butcher restaurant near the Mayfair supermarket (see below) had fairly good food as well as a place called Baja near the port. ATMs dispense money using the VISA system at the Bank of Africa. After learning a lesson about the ridiculous fees charged by the bank for cash advances using VISA in Sierra Leone, finding an ATM that works is a valued asset. A sign at one of the banks listed SMS banking however I can only guess on what this works and what one needs to conduct a transaction.

The drive along the coast from the Togo border to about 40km into Bénin looked quite inviting for all sorts of outdoor water activities. The landscape was very green and lush and although it appeared that electrical wires were not pulled for some of the stretch, there were many signs for hotels and such.

The port, Terminal Port – fishing Zone 3, was quite the hodge podge of shipping and fishing vessels. There were six old school fishing boats tied to the port four of which were flying the Cameroon flag originating from as far away as Russia. After talking with a crew member of the Lagos boat, he mentioned that they go out for 47 days to check assorted shrimp. The port appeared to be less accommodating for larger ships than Lomé although large petroleum tanks are also installed at the port.


Art and such:

Malick Sidibé

There is a gallery show for Malick Sidibé, an African photographer in Cotonou which is a fairly nice exhibit of his work. Born in 1935 in Mali the artist has quite a showing of various African cultures with a concentration of the 1960-70 complete with music influences. The show has been extended to August and is supported by the Fondation Zinsou.

www.fondation-zinsou.org


A favourite: Yokoro – 1970



Taken from: www.kunstmarkt.com

http://www.kunstmarkt.com/pagesprz/malick_sidibe/_i70594_d662_r70609-/show_praesenz.html?&?&lang=en





Supermarket:

Mayfair – Carré 32 Avenue Delome – tel 31-00-64

The Mayfair store was a very reasonably priced store that contained a wide range of items one might require. Mosquito lotion was five times as less as the one sold in the Lomé pharmacy. Many kinds of coffee, jams, nice to haves – including Old El Paso Mexican foods, diabetic jams and coffee filters can be found.

Togo

Lomé, Togo

The boarder crossing at Aflao, Ghana and Lomé, Togo is a great place to get scammed. Still not sure what was supposed to occur and what was paid for. Getting a travel Visa at the boarder was not a big deal, but the confusion on how to proceed to the next stage was only exasperated by a scam artist and a quote taxi driver. You could walk on the beach from it is that close but all in all if you happen to be crossing take your time and don’t pay for additional services, even though it may appear that you are in need of them.

The scene along the beach road in Lomé is quite nice, lined in some cases by statue-like buildings that are abandoned or seriously neglected. (I hesitate to use the word abandoned as it was explained to me in Freetown, Sierra Leone that projects have a long development period due to ownership and funding types) The Presidential Place is quite nice and I need to work on getting a tour if possible, my guess is there will be nothing else on this one. Watching the hauling in of the large fishing net is quite an interesting occurrence. A collective effort of about 50-100 residents results in an hour long return of the net. How and who the fish are distributed to are great questions as well as the amount of effort for the haul. That said, once you get past the logic of it, the result is worth watching once.

On the administrative note a few items: the conversion of the border travel VISA to a longer VISA is a one to three event and depending on what is said and who you are with, it might not be that bad. It is always a bit discomforting handing over your passport to an operation that is a bit outdated a best and not receiving any type of claim ticket. That said, it worked and I am sure the next country will be a different experience. The central bank that has three ATM that accept VISA has strange dispensing times, the display reads 24/7 however the gas station attendant said there are certain hours and two of the machines were out of order which resulted in me watching multiples of people attempting to withdraw money and receiving a generic error. As this is the head location, it would follow that the ATMs would be in normal working order. End to the note – the same bank branch 8km out of time worked just fine. The port of Lomé is a wonder in itself in that anything is able to come through. Containers, trucks; equipment; livestock all seem to defy the maze of confusion. The "fishing port" next door is worth a visit as pirate ships (my term – not verified) are next to traditional wooden boats next to everything else. The central fish market area is another sight that a visit can only describe.

As Togo is a dumping ground for used items of all sorts – I had the occasion to tour a heavy equipment lot where trucks, tractors, cranes, etc where housed for used brokerage to West Africa. A very interesting business. One fascinating item was the amount of customization that occurs when a buyer wants to change out the various components on a particular machine. As this are used machines it is hard to get past the operational condition let alone the retrofits. Supposedly it is a lucrative business and the sales person from Niger was kind enough to share that Niger is rich in oil and uranium – two resources that anyone looking for heavy machinery would be very interested in. The one take away was an old compound previously used by SOTOMA oil on the main road across from the port. Could be a very desirable site if one was conducting business in Togo.

As for fishing – having gone out in a sea canoe twice in one day (in the morning and again at night) and not catching anything bigger than a common goldfish put a bit of salt in my fishing eyes. Having attempted to fish from the reef off the coast (see the Avéposo note for location) I was assaulted or mugged by the incredible surf and what turned out to be Sea Urchins. The Sea Urchins resulted in barbed ¼ inch thorns lodged in my foot, hand, and hip. Once I got past the pain, the uncertainty of toxicity kicked in and after about six hours I came to the conclusion that it was the equivalent of 100 slivers, although removal has become a combination of time and digging as opposed to the some of the more traditional sliver removal techniques. The fisherman that took me in the canoe was the same person that witnessed the reef incident and I guess took pity on me as the American style rods could not hide the lack of fishing experience. The quote for an off-shore experience in a motor boat was 250,000 CFA, which I kindly turned down.


50 / 50 Restaurant – did not eat but recommended for good inexpensive food – Blv du 13 Janvier, up from Presidential Palace

54 – Live Music, Restaurant, Art – A five person cover band was playing on the open air courtyard stage back dropped by artistic cloth paintings – Blv du 13 Janvier, between Sunset Club and 50 / 50

Barakuda Restaurant - did not eat but good crowd – at the corner of Rue des Camomilles and Route d’Aflao


Avéposo, Togo

Past the center of Lome – there is a small town that lines the coastal route to Benin about 10km. The surf is heavy and the beach is nice. The are plenty of hotels and small eateries. Once you get past the Shell refinery which was built in the 70s and has a pier that is supposedly the cause of beach erosion and the strange currents, you could feel like you were at a resort of some type (not a "Western style" resort).

Having tried out camping for the first time using a $20 US tent worked fairly well. Mastering the beginning of the rainy season and understanding storm winds resulted in a wet sleeping bag which was not that bad. The bugs are still to be addressed but they are definitely less of a problem. Attempting to locate more camping options as the journey continues.

A couple of unconfirmed reports: the first has to do with the death of a local person attempting to swim in the waters on May 1st – the public holiday for Labor Day. As there are not life guards and no guess as to who you would call if one needed assistance it was a polite reminder that even the locals have a tough go of it. The second has to do with an attempt on the President of Togo’s life by his brother. The President is the son of the previous dictator who is rumored to have over 125 recognized children. One of the sons was a minister and attempted to shoot his Presidential brother and in the process was shot in the leg approximately three months ago. (Note: this is just rumor) There is to be the first free election in Togo in 2010 which should be an interesting contest.

Presidents of Togo, 1960–present

Sylvanus Olympio: April 27, 1960–January 13, 1963
Emmanuel Bodjollé (Chairman of the Insurrection Committee): Jan 13, 1963–Jan 15, 1963
Nicolas Grunitzky: January 16, 1963–January 13, 1967
Kléber Dadjo (Chairman of the National Reconciliation Committee): Jan 14–Apr 14, 1967
Étienne Eyadéma (from 1974 Gnassingbé Eyadéma): April 14, 1967–February 5, 2005
Faure Gnassingbé: February 5–February 25, 2005
Bonfoh Abbass: February 25–May 4, 2005 (interim)
Faure Gnassingbé: since May 4, 2005
(From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_Togo)

From Avéposo it is a 15 minute ride to Agbodrafo and Lake Togo. Again the fishing bug resulted in me passing on taking the canoe trip across to Togoville and instead finding a path through the villages to the railway bridge and dropping a line. This resulted in not even a nibble. The fisherman with all of the nets must be doing a great job because I kept thinking that a fish hatchery would be a great venture.

Le Fréres de la Côte Restaurant and Private Beach - This beach front bar and restaurant is quite nice and tranquil. The couple that run it – Louis and Catherine – are very hospitable and have put a lot of effort in getting it right. The masks on the wall are terrific and the bar is made of a very nice African wood.