Cote d'Ivoire

Picture of the Bascilica on the drive towards it, hidden a little but the overgrown sidewalks.



Over the weekend, took Friday off and Monday was a holiday (randonly it was Africa Union day, but it didn't appear to be a holiday in all African countries at all....only Ghana, maybe more but definitely not Cote d'Ivoire......) so we took the chance to be able to visit Cote d'Ivoire.

Journey there was about 6 hours to the border, about 1 and a half hours through the border...during which time on the Cote d'Ivoire side a man who knew perfect English I know, but refused to speak it, made us have meningitis shots just becasue they weren't recorded in our vaccination books! Strange, as no where does it say its a requirement for entering the country but in this mans office!!

Anyway got through eventually and started trying to remember the French to make our way first to the beach to relax a little and then to Abidjan for the night.

Cote d'Ivoire was a little more difficult to travel round in than Ghana, there didn't seem to be transport coming and going as often, the border was no signs or anything, you just got on whatever vehicle was around as they were all heading for the same town which was more of the transport hub, from there it was more organsied and had signs.

We also had quite a few police/army stops a long the way, although pretty much a formality, they just check everyone has possports or ID and if they don't take some money off them, so its annoying in terms that its slows down the journey, but we never had any problems with them at all.

Made it to the beach, a place called Grand Bassam, which I think is like a resort area for them, however unlike Ghana it was crazily deserted, had really nice hotels with pools and landscaping, deck chairs on the sand, but absolutely no people, so sad they no longer get tourists, but possibly on the weekends its busier, as we were there on a Friday.

We then moved on into Abidjan, as didn't want to get there when it was dark, as didn't know our way around, we were organising to meet someone there who is Ivorian so we had a guide and someone to show us around, just a problem of how to meet as our phones from Ghana didn't work!

So we found a very white person looking bar to wait at and managed to explain to someone eventually that we wanted to borrwo their phone to make a call. So we got picked up and then moved to somewhere to get some food.

And the food here is very very good, had grilled chicken and attieke, grilled chicken was very nice, actually had flavour and wasn't so ridiculously spicy you couldn't taste anything else! Then the attieke you eat with it, is ground cassava which is cooked like cous cous. We also tried some fish, which was really good, actually juicy and not overcooked like it generally is in Ghana.

Next day, we met up with AIESEC people, both Ivorian and other interns who were living in Abidjan, and we visited the beach again, but this one was closer to the city, and similar to places in Ghana where all the rastafarians hang around. The water at the beach was pretty rough so we didn't swim, and you could also see differences from Accra as there were massive ships out in the water coming to and from the harbour, I think the harbour is one of the biggest in the whole of Africa.

Abidjan as a city, the actual city part of the city, is very very developed compared to Ghana, there are big high rise buildings in the business district and wide motorways in the central area.

We also spent some nights in the more Africa looking areas with the same dirt roads etc as come of Accra, but generally there seemed to be many more apartment type buildings than in Accra. Not how how the residential areas in the nicer areas were but probably very nice.

The civil war apparently made some of the French move away, but possibly some have come back now, there are meant to be elections in Novemeber after a long time of waiting, I think ceasefire was about 5 years ago maybe, so they have to elect a President and Prime Minister.

Sunday, we made the trip up to Yamassoukro, which is techincally the capital, and it took about hours by bus, its only 200km, but traffic and checkpoints make it longer.

It is an absolutely insane place, built by the President who wanted his home village to be the capital. It has massive roads which are tree lined and with side walks, and a massive palace which we couldn't see inside, along with the Bascilica which was built as a replica of St Peters, and apparently has the most stained glass in the world or something, but is in literally the middle of nowhere with no people around.

The city is hardly used for anything, there are no embassies or ministries despite it being the capital, and hardly any business from what I could see. Its also fallen into a bit of disrepair, some of the streets are overgrown and with holes in the roads, but you can see it must have been nice once.

The President who built it died in 1993 I think so since then nothing has really been done with it, but they do keep up the upkeep of the Bascilica well. They use it for mass every Sunday, although I don't think they would even begin to fill the space inside, and all the grounds are kept well.

We toured around, and the place is beautiful, there is stained glass everywhere, one of the crosses in the centre is solid gold and weighs like 50kg, each of the seats has its own air conditioning, only ever used once when the Pope came to open it, and the boulevard from the entrance to the gate is 1km long.

Once we finished looking around there, we didn't have much time left as we had to make it on the last bus back to Abidjan, and being in the middle of nowhere pretty much it was ages waiting for a taxi, eventually we managed to get a ride in the back of someones ute, which was good as there were about 10 of us. We visisted the lake outside what I think was the President's palace, and got the guards to get the chickens out to attract the crocodiles, and some of them were huge!

Then, had to get back on the bus, journey was actually quite fast this time, made it back not that late. Got some more food, this time just a street vender type place, who made spaghetti was was good, but not only did they just give you your food, they served it with French bread and gave glasses of water! Something I have never ever had on a street in Ghana. Also had breakfast at the same place in the morning and the omelette was one of the best I'd ever had, if there was such thing as cheese in Africa to out with it, would have been the best ever!

They did have dairy products though and actually had some really nice yoghurt which you could buy in plastic bags, I think the first time I've had yoghurt since I left home!

Monday, we pretty much just spent travelling back home, traffic out of Abidjan took ages, and then crossed the border pretty fats this time, and bus straight back to Accra meant we made it about 8pm, so pretty fast really.

It was a good weekend though, its a nice country, and its a pity they don't get more tourists travelling through, but its definitely not as easy to get around as in Ghana.

Photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/emmajaynedavidson/20090525CoteDIvoire#