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Ask yourself what it means to be able to travel so peacefully and happily through a country that, up to only a few years ago, was rated as one of the two most dangerous countries in the world (along with Somalia). Cote D’Ivoire has been doing their best to keep the peace since an agreement was signed between the government and the Force-Nouvelle “rebels” of the north, but the memories of the civil war are still fresh; civilians from both sides recount stories of the day the war showed up on their doorsteps, and many lost friends and family members. However none of their rough history comes into the picture of Ivorian hospitality and kindness. Even in the tiniest villages, the cocoa, coffee, rubber, plantain, and cassava farmers are as welcoming as ever.

Leaving Burkina, got a ride with businessmen who drove through all the checkpoints with enough savvy contempt to not even be asked for bribes. After a few days touring villages and learning to farm chocolate (but not getting to eat any, the raw cocoa is exported and the finished product is returned to Africa at twice the price it sells for in Europe), I ended up in the beautiful 18-mountain, “rebel-held” town of Man, which gave a good opportunity to hear about Ivorian politics from all three sides - government, Force-Nouvelle, and UN - with a general consensus that everyone is tired of the unrest. Having a beer with the commander of the Force-Nouvelle army, he invited some government soldiers to sit with us and explained, with a hint of desperation, that the people of Cote D’Ivoire are tired of the fighting, and that regardless of political intervention they wont let the war start up again. My prayers are with them to follow through on that.

The allure of visiting the deep jungle was strong, so I found myself walking down the muddy, potholed road towards Tai National Park, the biggest of its kind in West Africa. It’s a long road, rarely traveled in the rainy season by personal vehicles, but I got a very lucky ride with a Lebanese cocoa exporter based in Tai, and so after all the mud and heat of the bush I found myself with three days of air conditioning, fast internet, and delicious shwarma, not to mention a break from African politics with a lot of discussion of the Middle East. Got my rainforest hike in on a grown-over trail through a reserve along the Liberian border, didn’t see chimpanzees but apparently heard a few. The black market sells baby chimps, monkeys, parrots, etc for next to nothing.

After a few days along the beautiful coast and in big city Abidjan, I figured it would be better to leave the country before the October 31st elections, although I read they went well (thankfully). Now in Ghana, hitched around the jungle a bit, with lots of hospitality from the Ashanti, and now couchsurfing in a boarding school in the southern town of Cape Coast. Greetings from the Atlantic beach!

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