http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Benin/South/Cotonou/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Africa , Benin , South , Cotonou en-us Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:43:55 UTC Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:43:55 UTC We arrived in Cotonou and got dropped off at the main market during rush hour. Then followed the most terrifying moto taxi ride of my life. The driver weaved between cars that I thought were going to hit each other at one point I actually put my hand on the hood of a car I thought was going to hit us. I could see though that if he hadnrsquot driven like a maniac we would never have gotten http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/South/Cotonou/blog-293963.html Woke up and took a bucket shower which is really gross to do inside a bathroom. We waited aroudn our hotel for quite some time before we actually started our day to visit the stilt village in Ganvie.After our talk about visiting Nigeria subsided we got a ride to a village near the lake entrance to Ganvie. The ride on the water was crazy. We took a canoe for the four of us which was rowed by a s http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/South/Cotonou/blog-271943.html It is hard to know the words to choose to begin describing this new adventure of my life but I guess its just easiest to start at the beginning...So my last week in Montpellier flew past every day at school with an awesome class of people who became great friends. We had an awesome night on out final thursday all meeting up for goodbye drinks lots of laughs and languages around the table sor http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/South/Cotonou/blog-260056.html Step 1 Disassemble plans. They hadnrsquot really meant anything anyway. Donrsquot be silly.I left Athim as early as possible Friday morning to arrive on time to apply for a visa for Ghana. I made it to Cotonou by noon and happened to find a volunteerfriend she volunteered to be my friend at the office. She gave me two critical pieces of information because she is a good volunteer http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/South/Cotonou/blog-119251.html Thanks to everybody for your support in my fundraising I managed to raise just under 2000 toward my program fees for Youth Challenge International and CrossCultural Solutions and really appreciate everyone's help...I had tons of fun and attached a few photos from the night for your viewing pleasure...BestBron http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/South/Cotonou/blog-110471.html I apologize for not posting this blog sooner but finals travels and the common cold have kept me occupied in the last few days. Last weekend I set off to Benin a small country with a history steeped in the practice of voodoo the slave trade and grand empires. We crept into Benin at twilight after hours of frustrating travel to the East frontier of Ghana and across Togo. The country appea http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/South/Cotonou/blog-104193.html Now we are in benin and have been doing lots of learning about voodoo and all their kings.Started out in ouidah where ol got a nice shirt made see photo attatched and went to some museums. Learning about voodoo and fetishes doesnrsquot mean the same thing as in england is really interesting.. voodoo is actually a religion and is focused on the positive. We in the west have completely demon http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/South/Cotonou/blog-103355.html Got up today at 630 late for this part of the world and spent our first full day in the chaotic city of Cotonou and I can safely say that I love it.We arrived yesterday and were dropped by our Peugeot 505 taxi along with the 8 other passengers in the ultimate nightmare location with a backpack. Stood on a traffic island with roads on three sides it all bulging with battered cars and a million http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/South/Cotonou/blog-101630.html Crossing the border from Ghana into Togo felt like getting back to genuine Africa. Away from modern conveniences and into overcrowded bushtaxis driving like therersquos no tomorrow which more than once got close to true. We had entered the hilly Danyi Plateau and were travelling on twisting roads through junglecovered hills to get to the Benedictine monastery outside the small village of D http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/South/Cotonou/blog-80384.html i wanted the title of this entry to be poopfree beach but i was too excited to boast my firstso me and yuss crossed another border in a nonairconditioned bus with the sea twinkling in and out of view just to our right had to think about that direction just nowthe voyage was about three hours not counting the beauracracy at the border. and so now we are in cotonou which seems like the capit http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Benin/South/Cotonou/blog-61125.html