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This is the infamous Basilique de Notre Dame de la Paix in Yamoussoukro, Cote d'Ivoire that can be seen from anywhere in the city. That is The Basilica of Our Lady of Peace. You may wonder why it is so famous. Well let me try and tell you. This is the largest cathedral in the world. Larger than St Peters in Rome. How do I know? Well, because on my guided tour for 1000 CFA I was told everything about the cathedral. I repeatedly heard about the cost of building it, the marble imported from Italy, the air conditioning system that cools the spectators just outside of the doors, etc. Upstairs in a little room, there are pictures showing you how large is the dome of the cathedral in Rome, and how this one is bigger, likewise for the steeple and the circumference, etc. |
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The cathedral was built by the former president Felix Houphouet Boigny about 10 years ago or so. I found it very hard to feel anything spiritual about a huge cathedral worth millions of dollars in the middle of a country that has a population of at most 30 per cent Catholics. If that weren't enough, Houphouet conveniently "immortalized" himself in one of the stained glass windows depicting Jesus, his 12 disciples, and Houphouet Boigny. Funny, I never knew the grand Felix was the 13th disciple. |
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As you read in the african adventure stories, my second trip brought me to Jacqueville. Jacqueville is a wonderful little village not far from Abidjan, but far enough to not have any of the hassles. It is a very relaxing place, with a deserted beach, and real people to meet if you make an effort to follow the long dirt road and visit the villages. This is a man we met who exports coconuts and coconut oil to France. We originally just asked to buy one coconut, but he invited us to his house to see how he does it, and how could we refuse?! |
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So we followed this man back to his little hut in the village just outside of Jacqueville and he showed us how he smokes the coconuts to get the coconut oil. It was quite the little business and he had many people working for him. He was a very nice and friendly man who even introduced us to his family and when he sent us off, he sent us off with a sack full of about 12 or so coconuts! All he asked in return is that we send a copy of his picture to him, which I soon found it was all many people wanted. So thank you Souley Younnoussa for all your hospitality! |
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In November, Lindsay and I made a trip to the West Coast of Cote d'Ivoire and visited three towns/villages: San Pedro, Sassandra and Grand Bereby. This is the beach at San Pedro. A beautiful sandy beach. Much cleaner than Grand Bassam, and nice to finally see Africans enjoying themselves in the water as well. The town of San Pedro is small but very friendly. It is quite near the Liberian border, and so at this time there were a lot of Liberian refugees, we made friends with a couple and shared some Flags and great conversation until the wee hours of the morning! |
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This is Grand Bereby. A nice quiet village by the ocean. Great beaches here too. And here you have your choice. A nice beach with good waves for surfing or a nice little alcove with calm waters for swimming. Grand Bereby has some nice memories for me as well. It was here that at 9 pm we were invited to join some kids dancing in the streets. We had a blast, and so did they! They loved seeing "toubabou" (the white person) trying desperately to dance the mapouka with them! This is a donkey that so desperately wanted his picture taken:) |
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Our last visit on this trip, and my last trip within Cote d'Ivoire brought us to Sassandra. This village was at one point a very important port for Cote d'Ivoire. What is interesting here is that there is both the ocean and the Sassandra river. A must when visiting Sassandra is a trip down the Sassandra river in a pirogue, which is what we are doing in this picture. It is a very scenic trip. Peaceful at some points, like when you begin at 7 in the morning, but there are some rough spots as well. If you are lucky, you may even see some monkeys up in the trees! I did! |
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This is a mangrove tree seen from our trip down the Sassandra river. Mangroves are very interesting plants. They are fascinating in their ability to actually create land. The roots grow deep into the water and then new mangroves are fertilized. As the mangroves move farther out into the water, the old ones eventually die off and actually make fertile soil for new plants to grow. These can be found throughout the coast of West Africa. According to the Lonely Planet West Africa guide, the best place to see them is in The Gambia, but I think this was a pretty good up-close shot. |
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We had some great guides and rowers for our little pirogue (found them at our hotel at Chez Tantie Youyou). We took off bright and early, around 7 am, so as to get all the sights we wanted to see. At one point, we stopped in this village to try "african gin". But be careful, it's very strong, and you take it straight! It was here that the villagers informed us that they would not allow us to continue on to see the hippos as the hippos were apparently "angry" that day and it was not safe. Perhaps a wise decision, since Lindsay bought a 1.5 litre Awa bottle full of gin to drink on our way back! |
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