The quietest little capital city in the world

Porto Novo is a nice little place to visit. The seat of Benin's government since way back into the French colonial time, this place is only 45km from Cotonou, populated at around 225000, but it feels like a quiet, relaxing little place, especially as opposed to the hustle and bustle and traffic of Cotonou. But I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit I suppose since this is really my first post about me and Kelsey's traveling, so let me back up two weeks to leaving Gaya.....

Waving lines of flashback.... ala Wayne's World....

Biddilyloo biddilyloo biddilyloo

Left Gaya last Tuesday. Typical of any African traveling, this one started off like a bush taxi, coughing and sputtering and we weren't sure it would get moving.... We had bought tickets from Gaya to Dasa, Benin on a bus line, Air. Show up at 7 like they said. No bus at 730, no bus at 830. Finally a bus pulls up at 9 or so. It's full. They say, no problem, there's one behind it. Ok, Fine. Turns out the next bus is more than an hour behind this one.... and it's full also. Before it arrives we're told to head to the border and after the bus passes there people may get off and we can find seats, so we motorcycle taxi it to the border (Kelsey's first one ever actually) and get through just as the bus is pulling up. And.... no empty seats. It's this bus or nothing for the day so we talk our way on and sit in the aisle.... for FOUR hours. A bush taxi would have been better. Never has my back been so sore. But we make it to....

Dassa-Zoumé

This place is famous because the virgin Mary was seen in a cave in one of the hills behind town, and may I say, these hills are Awesome! They rise out of nowhere as one travels from the flat lands of Northern Benin, huge piles of rocks made by giant tonka trucks. They just seem so improbably placed in a land one wouldn't think of as having glacer activity (cause that's what looks like would have caused them), but no one can tell me where they came from. Our guide on one hike told me that they had always been there. Since his grandparents parents and that they were natural; no more info. Stayed at a great ecotourism place we got hooked up to through a PCV in the area and spent a relaxing day and a half hiking in the hills and enjoying GREEN.

It's ridiculous the difference in the flora between Gaya and Dassa, which is maybe halfway down Benin. Gaya is green by Niger standards, but Dassa is much much more. They have FORRESTS. That's multiple trees in the same place!!!! Unheard of in my neck of the woods. The land just seems thick with living plants, like it will strangle itself. And sometimes it can feel quite... claustraphobic after living in open savanah scrub land for a year. Even in our rainy season when the bushes get green and leafy it never feels like it controls the land like the foliage does here.

So after this intial shock of green-ness, and our pause to adjust (more for me as Kelsey is still somewhat fresh from the green NW), we pressed on to....

Abomey

Seat of the Dahomey Kingdom for a long time (since I only speak a little French I didn't exactly get all the info from our French language tour). We visited the palace of the last two kings, they're attached. It was interesting as they were a pretty bloody lot who traded in slaves. Carved and painted pictures on the palace walls depict decapitations and other bodily harm casued to enemies and there is one of the thrones set on the skulls of four poor fellows from and opposing group. One cool thing is they used women heavily in their army, which the europeans referred to as their Amazons. There's a pride in that and a lot of places are Benin with Amazon in the name. This was all in passing to....


Cotonou

Which isn't all that cool. Big and busy. Scared me, but not really because of it's size, but because of the difference in the power of the economy versus what one sees in Niger. It's sad to see my little slice of Africa in the grander scheme of things. We really are a poor country, even here. Cotonou is happening economically, with new builings, lots of businesses, etc. Clean streets even (for the most part), which means someone is being paid to pick up trash... a luxury from where I'm from. Didn't spend much time here, but instead went to...



Porto Novo

And now we're back where I started. I liked it much better than Cotonou. On Friday when we arrived it was sorta busy, Sat and Sun it was like a ghost town and then when we left there this morning (Monday) it was busy busy busy. Such a contrast, but I imagin most people who are in the government are only there during the week or when they have to be. So much of the government work is handled in Cotonou and not in the capital.... Well anyway it made it a more attractive place for me. They have some great colonial architecture there. Sadly, much of it is crumbling away, but they have restored a number of buildings, though there are so many many more that are just falling apart in the capital's twisted maze of old town. Very fun to walk through.

So from here it's on to Ghana after a stop tomorrow in the voodoo capital of Benin, Ouida. Will try to keep you all posted as we go.

Oh, before I go, don't forget how you can help out a poor English starved Nigerien child in Gaya for only $10. (I'm trying not to be overly pushy here, but I'm realizing that seven grand is a lot to come up with, so PLEASE donate and/or pass this along to others I may or may not know who are more suceptible to a casual mention of education needs in the third world... Thanks!)


Until later and from an English speaking country (hurray!)