Le Grand Basilica, Agouti & Beach Paradise – The Ivory Coast 21st Jan 2010
Date: Thursday 21st January, 2010 | Country: Ivory Coast | 8 Comments »Checkpoint Charlie: “Par le vous Francais?”
Me: ”Petit Francais Monsieur”
Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh back to child like conversations with the locals as we enter the Ivory Coast. The road from the Liberian border to the nearest town was about 80km of off road hell, not only was the road bad but narrow as well and took a few hours in the late afternoon to get through. When we finally hit the tarmac I let out a sigh of relief, a local thought I was crazy as I started waving my hands around.
Toulépleu
After driving around for a while we realised that accommodation wasn’t that easy to come by and we were also told that we should get our carnet du passage (vehicle document for entry into countries) stamped at the nearest police station when we could as the border I must say were too preoccupied with the football (African Nations) according to Reka whose turn it was to go through the administration. We then bumped into a guy on a bike who told us that we could find a guest house just up the road from where we were looking, it turned out that the guy on the bike actually ran the guest house and he was called Gerard. The guest house was reasonable (4000 CFA or £6), had air con with a bath and Gerard himself took us for a walk round the town so we could find somewhere to eat cheaply and sink a few beers. He mentioned that apart from the guest house he also works as the manager for the towns only radio station in Toulepleu. The next morning we were invited to see the radio station in action and sit in with the DJ who played a good mix of African music. We exchanged some music and then said our goodbyes.
Top: Gerard and his radio show for Toulepleu in action
The following photos were taken along the roadside as we left Toulepleu, these bamboo trees were gigantic!!!
No its not the land of the giants but giant bamboo trees!
Yamoussoukro
The Ivory coast is a big country and we decided to check out the capital Yamoussoukro a pet project by Felix Houphouët-Boigny. Felix led the country when it became independent on 7 August 1960. And ruled as president from 1960 to 1993. Originally a village chief, he worked as a doctor, an administrator of a plantation, and a union leader, before being elected to the French Parliament. Houphouët-Boigny moved the country’s capital from Abidjan to his hometown of Yamoussoukro and built the world’s largest church there, the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro, at a cost of US$300 million. At the time of his death, he was the longest-serving leader in Africa’s history and the third longest-serving leader in the world, after Fidel Castro of Cuba and Kim Il-sung of North Korea. In 1989, UNESCO created the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize for the “safeguarding, maintaining and seeking of peace”. After his death, conditions in Côte d’Ivoire quickly deteriorated. From 1994 until 2002, there were a number of coup d’états, a currency devaluation, an economic recession, and, beginning in 2002, a civil war.
The Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro
Guinness World Records lists it as the largest church in the world, having surpassed the previous record holder, St. Peter’s Basilica, upon completion. It has an area of 30,000sq metres (322,917 sq ft) and is 158m (518ft) high. However, it also includes a rectory and a villa (counted in the overall area), which are not strictly part of the church, and it can accommodate 18,000 worshippers, compared to 60,000 for St. Peter’s. The basilica is constructed with marble imported from Italy and is furnished with 7,000 square meters of contemporary stained glass from France. Côte d’Ivoire President Felix Houphouët-Boigny chose his birthplace of Yamoussoukro to be the future site of the new capital city of his country in 1983. As part of the plan of the city, the president wanted to memorialize himself with the construction of what he called the greatest church in the world.
The basilica was met with some controversy globally when construction began. The lavishly built basilica sits in the middle of the African bush in an impoverished city where only a minority of homes have running water and adequate sanitation. The cost of the basilica doubled the national debt of Côte d’Ivoire but many of the country’s Roman Catholics are proud of the church.
Artistically, the basilica was also criticized by many art historians and critics, for being a modern pastiche of a western Renaissance masterpiece, and for not having any relation with modern styles of architecture or African culture.
All of this maybe correct but this building is still a magnificent place to visit no matter what the impact was on the country.
After visiting the Basilica, we read that there is a place where you can see the ex presidents crocodiles get fed at around 5pm, after asking around we found the place and realised that the feeding itself was something that visitors had to pay for, the lake itself had about 50 crocs and some were very close to us as they awaited their live chickens.
We wanted to find some cheap accommodation and we saw that there was (what we thought) a catholic mission close by to the lake of crocodiles. When we arrived there we realised that the mission was in fact a number of religious schools. We met Ferdinand who said it would be possible to stay in their compound after we explained who we were and what we were doing. We were also introduced to Paulette who was also a teacher at the same school. They both made us feel very welcome here even though the conversation was difficult at times due to the language barriers. While Reka was talking to them I took a walk into one of the classrooms that happened to be an English refreshers course and during the class the teacher asked me to introduce myself and I explained who I was and the class then started asking me questions, the students were keen to practice their English which was very good and we had a nice chat for the next 15 minutes. I later found out that their English teacher Kofi had walked from the Ivory Coast to Morocco with a friend in an attempt to start a project that would look at standardising the way foreigners are treated when entering another country, his focus was trying to see if all Embassies could be in fact one entity, a very ambitious project I thought.
Top Left: Paulette & Ferdinand Top Right: The English language students and Kofi (in green)
Ferdinand, his wife and Paulette took us out to dinner to a local bar where fish and chicken were being bbq’d on some hot coals, the food was great and we paid for the meal as a way of saying thanks to them for their kind generosity. After a good nights sleep we were invited to Paulette’s for breakfast, she is a lovely person who with Ferdinand looked after us for the day and for that we are grateful to them. Paulette’s garden was one full of fruit trees and she showed us the cocoa plant, Mangoes, plantains and coconuts that grew in abundance. We tasted the cocoa and it was surprisingly creamy and not as bitter as I was expecting.
Top right: Cocoa Bottom Left: Mangoes Bottom right: Paulette’s daughter, Ferdinand Reka & Paulette
Fully Loaded Taxi
Had to dedicate one section here to a Taxi driver that was so desperate for extra passengers that he made them perform a delicate balancing act to be able to get onto the van. Locals that saw this van were also amazed as both Reka and I were when we saw them:
A delicate balancing act!
Agouti
We experienced this animal actually without knowing, we were in a small restaurant and asked for a dish of meat and rice, when the dish was brought out it was difficult to know what the meat actually was, it had small ribs and the meat tasted of a cross between beef and lamb. Reka wanted to discover what the hell we had eaten and went into the kitchen to see the animal, when she came out again she told me she was so happy that she didn’t see this before we ate (see first photo below). Reka: some of you might not know how much I hate rats, so you can imagine how I felt after discovering that I just ate some giant one!
Agouti a delicacy in Ivory Coast!
Abidjan
Abidjan is the economic and former official capital of Côte d’Ivoire (the current capital is Yamoussoukro). It is the largest city in the nation, and the third largest French speaking city in the world. It has, according to the authorities of the country in 2006, 5,068,858 residents in the metropolitan area and 3,796,677 residents in the municipality.
When we arrived we were amazed by the sheer size of the city which was dominated by several highways that crisscrossed the heart of the city. It was a little overwhelming after spending time in Freetown and Monrovia which in comparison are very small.
Our first mission was to find some cheap accommodation and after checking out a few areas we met a nice policeman who knew of a place but instead of directing us he drove and we followed him to the hotel. When we arrived there we met Rodrick who looked after the hotel, he wasn’t interested in negotiating the price of 5000 CFA each (£6-7) a night but after checking out the prices of several other hotels this was by far the cheapest option, the rooms themselves were clean and had bathrooms and a fan. The day we arrived we knew that the Ivory Coast were playing football against Algeria that evening and Rodrick told us that his brother would take us to a place where they were showing the footy on a big screen,for the next few hours we then witnessed Rodrick and a few of his close friends get absolutely hammered as they sang Ivorian football songs, it was quite an experience! The game itself was a fantastic experience and witnessing the Ivorians go mental and start dancing in the street, smashing glasses and falling over themselves after a goal was scored was great. Sadly the Ivorians lost 3-2 to Algeria after extra time and sitting down with Traore Adams the guy that worked in the nearby internet cafe it was the same sadness and terrible loss that we all experience when our country loses a game that really we should have won, he was gutted!
Left: Citadelle Hotel – our base for a few days Right: Enjoying some beers before the game
I tasted a wonderful dish that night it was called attiéké which is made from Cassava and has the texture of a type of couscous but this was lighter and with a spicy chicken dish and salad was just great after a night of drinking beers during the footy. Since then we noticed that many places called a maquis , which is a restaurant that serves beers and also sells braised food (food that has been cooked over a low fire). These place are excellent as sometimes the Bar and the person grilling the food can be separate but they all work together to serve cold beers and tasty food to the punters that walk in. Abidjan also has many little coffee stands where you can get a quick espresso for not much money all throughout the day.
Above: Photos of Abidjan
I’d also like to thank Rodrick for helping us out in a tricky situation we faced with the Ghanaian embassy, but as my Mum rightly points out, I wont mention what happened until we have left Ghana!
Gerard & his amazing beach house
It was while we were having trouble with the Ghanaian embassy that we also met Gerard. He happened to first wave at us while we were driving in the city and it so happened that he stopped to say hello when we were parked up sometime later. Gerard asked us to call him if we still had problems with the embassy and he said he too could also try and help us. As he was so nice to us we called him anyway to see if we could meet up with him and say thanks for his offer. It so happened that he lived close by to the Ghana embassy where we were at the time and invited us round to his place for lunch.
Left: Gerard’s beautiful interior Right:Gerard
Gerard told us that he has lived in the Ivory Coast for the past 20 odd years, his business was the agriculture of palm oil in the east of Ivory coast on the border of Liberia. He has loved his time here by the stories he told us but it hasn’t always been easy and he sometimes lives in Limbo ready to leave the Ivory Coast if the stability in the country becomes worse as it has done on previous occasions. Gerard laid out a great 3 course meal for us as we talked out life and for that we are thankful to him. When we said our goodbyes we explained that we were heading to the Ghana border soon and he mentioned a beach house in Assinie, that he had built with the intention of renting this out to tourists, but as tourism hasn’t been popular recently over the last few years he said that not many people have stayed at his place, we asked him if we could stay there for a night and he said this wasn’t a problem, we just had to inform him of the day and if we brought our own provisions the stay would be possible.
The next day we made our way to a place called the Grand Bassam, it was a popular place along the coast for people to visit from Abidjan for the weekend, we found a nice little spot that we paid 4000 CFA each (£5) for a nights accommodation.
Grand Bassam
The next day we called Gerard and told him that we would be in Assinie around midday and he informed his Friend Yao that we would be staying at his beach house. The road to Assinie was very good and we made the trip in no time, we stocked up on beers and food in the nearby village, met a Benny hill lookalike Swiss traveller and had a coffee with him and then took a boat out to Gerard’s Beach house which was across a lagoon, it all seemed idyllic and we were not disappointed when we got to Gerard’s Beach house, it was a magical house, everything was naturally made mostly from wood, Yao the housekeeper was friendly and explained that he and Gerard had built this house over the last 14 years, it was absolutely incredible and words cannot express how much I loved this place. Reka: I couldn’t agree more, there are no words to describe this hidden paradise.
Above: Gerards Beautiful Assinie Beach House Bottom photo: Yao the amazing caretaker/carpenter
Gerard told me that this Beach house was a piece of his heart and it was very clear the love that he has poured into this place, I took a walk down both sides of the coast from his place and it was very clear that his house was by far the best thing on this quiet secluded beach. Part of the agreement that we promised Gerard we would do is try and promote this place and if the photos above don’t do it for you then I don’t know what would! We have to give a big thanks to Yao as well, he was a kind person and made us feel very welcome, we paid him a small amount of money for the small generator to be filled with petrol and he provided us with coffee and warm water. The bath was an amazing place as we were given hot water that was warmed by some hot coals and could well be the best bath I have ever taken outside with the cool sea breeze in such an amazing setting. We even tried Gerard’s homemade marmalade that he gave us that he is looking into starting a small production with, Gerard it was very good and we can only hope that some of our friends get in contact with you to experience this and your amazing house!! If anyone wants to experience this paradise please contact Gerard on:+225 07 07 74 02 to discuss a potential stay.
Various Photos from the Ivory Coast
Peanuts are sold in all sorts of ways, most are slightly roasted and salted and they are all very tasty
My overall impression of the Ivory Coast was a country that is spectacular in many ways, it seems undiscovered by many tourists who are afraid to venture here, but if you do you will be greeted by some amazing people as we have been.
Reka – HUN: Elefantcsontpart… mivel tudom, hogy csak azok olvassak a magyar kiadast, akikben megbizhatok, elarulhatom, hogy en mindig is azt gondoltam, hogy az orszagot azert neveztek igy, mert a tengerpart homokja elefantcsont szinu. Hat nem! Hanem mert tomegesen vadasztak az elefantokat az agyaruk miatt, es erre annyira buszkek voltak, hogy meg az orszaguk neveben is megemlekeztek rola?! Ezt az aprosagot kiveve, meg persze az ismetelt nyelvi nehezsegeken tul, ez az egyik kedvenc orszagom eddig. Az emberek halal nyugisak, de olyannyira, hogy ha a hataron nem allunk meg, hogy kilepo pecsetet kerjunk, akkor meg sem allitottak volna. De nem akarok elore szaladni, hiszen a ti olvasaatotokban meg csak most erkeztunk…
A hatar mindket oldalan ramaty ut fogadott, de szerencsere mindosszesen kb. 100 km-t kellett lyukbol ki es lyukba be atzotykolodnunk. Elso estenket egy fogadoban toltottuk, aminek a tulajdonosa, Gerald a helyi radioallomas programigazgatoja is volt egyben, ugyhogy masnap a kellemes legkondis szobaban eltoltott este utan vegigvezetett a studion.
Miutan a fofaros fele vettuk utunkat, egy teljesen masik varosban talaltuk magunkat par oranyi vezetes utan. Ezt a Noel az angol valtozatbol valami miatt kihagyta, de en nem szegyellem bevallani, hogy eltevedtunk. Ugyanis – azok, akik tudnak franciaul biztosan ertik a problemamat- az “egyenesen” es a “jobbra” mennyire hasonlo ezen a franya nyelven. Sebaj, masnap vegre eljutottunk a fovarosba, Yamassoukro-ba, ami egyebkent szinte csak a neveben es mereteben fovaros, mert semmilyen allami tevekenyseg nem folyik itt Abidjan-nal ellentetben. Egy dolgot kiveve, a megalomanias allamfo, Boigny itt epitette fel a vilag legnagyobb templomat. Igen, meg a vatikaninal is nagyobb (alapteruletet illetoen, mert allitolag II Janos Pal szepen megkerte, hogy legalabb a befogadokepessege ne szarnyalja tul a Szt Petert). Ketsegtelenul pompas epulet, es biztos vagyok benne, hogy Europaban ezrek latogatnak naponta, ugyanakkor az is elgondolkoztato, hogy hany ehezo csaladon segithetett volna a 300 millio UDS, amit beleoltek…
Bazilika utan krokodilnezes; a palota elotti toban kozel 300 krokodil el, akiket minden nap du. 5 korul etetnek (turistaknak elo csirke kb. 2000 FT-ert elado, amit az idomar jelenleteben megetethetsz a hatalmas hullokkel). Aztan a palotaval szemben meglattuk a Katolikus MIsszio feliratot, ami Conakry-bol ismeros volt olcso szallas ugyeben. Ezuttal tevedtunk, egy egyhazi iskolaba kopogtattunk, de nem hiaba, mert a vegen ingyen szallas es Ferdinand meg Paulette baratsaga vart.
Irany Abidjan, az igazi nem-fovaros. Hatalmas! Olyan nagy, hogy meg terkeppel sem lett volna egyszeru eligazodni, hat meg terkep nelkul, ugyanis a nagyon remekul megszerkeztett Lonely Planet Africa konyvebol valami miatt ez kimaradt. Keringtunk, mint – elnezest a kifejezesert- golyafos a levegoben, mikor is egy rendor felajanlotta, hogy elvezet bennunket egy olcso szallasra. Itt talalkoztunk Rodrick-kel es foci imado cimboraival, akikkel meg nem focirajongo letemre, nekem is elmeny volt a meccset nezni. Sajnos kikaptak, de a hangulat felejthetetlen volt.
Mint ahogy a ganai kovetsegen szerzett elmenyunk is… Noel ezt a reszt Edesanyja tanacsara kihagyta az angol verziobol, de mivel nem hiszem, hogy tul sok benfentes olvassa a magyar hireket, en leirom: Iden januar elsejevel megvaltozott a ganaiak vizum kiadasra vonatkozo rendelete, miszerint minden beutazonak a lakcime szerinti kovetsegen kell a kerelmet beadni es a vizumot beszerezni. Igen, meg ha viragnyelven irtam is, jol ertitek, turistaknak szomszedos orszagokban nem adnak vizumot, hacsak nincsen ottani tartozkodasi engedelyuk/lakcimkartyajuk. Az nem szamit, hogy a rendelet eletbelepese idejen mi eppen Gineaban voltunk, igy nem tudhattunk rola; es eszunk agaban sincs termeszetesen hazaugrani a vizumert (jo vicc). Most legy okos, Domonkos! Az egyik kovetsegi alkalmazott azert volt annyira jo fej, hogy elhintette, hogy a tartozkodasi engedelyt nem olyan nehez megszerezni… Vissza a szallasre, Rodrick-ot megkerni, hogy hivja fel rendor haverunkat, aki elvezetett a szallodaba… es lass csodat, masnap alig 2000 Ft-ert elefantcsontparti lakosok lettunk. A kovetsegen rezzenestelen arccal nyugtazta az elozo nap zsirbunko recepcios, hogy minden papirunk rendben van, tehat hamis, nem hamis, kiallithatja a vizumot az immaron helyieknek. Hat nem vicc!? Ja, mellesleg a ganai magyar konzul, akit meg amikor a helyzet kilatastalannak tunkt hivtam fel telefonon ugyanezt a jo tanacsot adta, hogy szerezzek egy tartozkodasit, diplomacia felso fokon!
MIkozben rohangaltunk a papirok utan, az utcan talalkoztunk Grealddal, akinek azota is mindketten nagyon halasak vagyunk. Nemcsak azert, mert egyreszt onzetlenul felajanltta a segitseget, ha magunktol nem menne az engedely beszerzese, de a masnapi haromfogasos ebedert, es legfokeppen az eldugott paradicsomert, amit ingyen szallaskent ajanlott fel. Ez a francia ferfi 20 eve el itt, palmaolaj gyara van, es a legfinomabb hazi narancslekvarbol keszult salata ontetet csinalja (bocs Anyu, nem tudok mintat hozni a lekvarbol, de hogy meginditsam a nyaltermelesedet, csak annyit mondok, hogy a keseru fajta, amit imadnal).
Szeretnem azt mondani, hogy a kepek magukert beszelnek, de ha oszinte akarok lenni, akkor inkabb azt kivanom, hogy mindannyian jussatok el Assini-Maffia felszigetere, ahol ez a csodalatos, 100 %-ig ketkezi munkaval, szinte csak fabol megepitett csodahaz all. Mivel tudjatok, hogy mennyire el tudok erzekenyulni, az nem lesz meglepetes, ha elmondom, hogy amikor Noel nem latta, elsirtam magam a gyonyorusegtol; de az annal inkabb meg fog lepni, hogy olyan energiat sugarzott a hely, hogy futni kezdtem a tengerparton (jo, nem kilometereket, de akkor is)!
Most nezem a kepeket, es rajottem, hogy kihagytam egy merfoldkovet. Akar mennyire nem szivesen gondolok erre az esemenyre, azt hiszem, hogy hatralevo eletem meghatarozo elmenyekent meg kell hogy emlitsem. Egyik delutan tortent, amikor utkozben megeheztunk es betertunk egy helyi etkezdebe, hogy csirke helyet egy szamunkra ismeretlen husbol keszult porkolt szeruseget talaltak fel. Csak akkor keztett gyanus lenni a dolog, amikor az amugy egeszen izletes huson meglattam a bordakat. A meret alapjan csak egy dologra tudtunk gondolni… de abban remenykedve, hogy nem lesz igazunk, megkertem a szemelyzetet, hogy mutassak meg az allatot. Igen, hatalmas mezei patkany volt!!! Ebben az esetben azt hiszem, hogy a kepek magukert beszelnek… (itt helyi kulonlegessegnek szamit, nekem egy trauma volt).
Elefantcsontpartra szivesen visszamennek…