Our trip to Togo was short, but sweet. We got a late start out of Benin, but fortunately
crossing the western border also meant a little time-travel as we gained an
hour and reached the capital just after sunset.
Lomé is located on the coast and houses one of the most important ports
of West Africa, with incoming goods making their way inland, as well as Ghana,
Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. Our hosts
in Benin suggested a place for us to stay in Lomé that seemed to fit our
price-range and cleanliness-to-dirtiness threshold before we left too. We had no idea of where La Bella was located
so we called the owner shortly after crossing the border. After talking for a few minutes, she quickly
decided that the hotel would be simply too difficult for us to find on our own
in the dark. She graciously offered to
taxi to a prominent and easily found club at the center of town and ride
back with us to her place. It turns out
she was just as friendly and fun in
person as over the phone. Charismatic
with an overly honest sense of humor, she had a smile on her face the entire ride back. We didn’t get lost (which was
a nice change of pace after our Contonou fiasco) and got to have some laughs
along the way. A good start to our brief
sojourn in Togo.
The next day was our only full day in Togo. A crime,
perhaps, but the once fluid schedule was beginning to solidify before our eyes as
we started the back-half of the trip and with high hopes for Ghana and the
daunting prospect of selling the Goose in Côte d’Ivoire still looming overhead,
we needed to keep to a brisk pace. Our
first stop was the Musée International du
Golfe de Guinée. Our guidebook said
that this museum housed sculptures and masks from all across Western Africa and
it did not disappoint. Honestly, it was
a little overwhelming, with easily over a hundred works of art crammed into a
few rooms. While they were organized by
types of art (first room was sculptures, the second jewelry, the third masks) I
wish they would have been curated with a little more attention to chronology
and origin. Nevertheless, it was an
impressive array of West Africa art, ranging from a giant Nimba statue from
Guinea to ornate Ashanti gold-work from Ghana to some terrifying masks from
Burkina Faso (or at least, terrifying to me).
Definitely worth checking out if you have the chance.
After that we split up for the rest of the afternoon. While Clara and Michelle went in search of
some new shoes and Togo’s fabled poisson
braisé, Chris, Brittany and I continued on to see a church in downtown Lomé. Although Togo officially speaks French today,
the church was constructed before the German’s transferred ownership of
Togoland to France and Britain in the early twentieth century. Togoland was divided into two halves after
that, right down the middle. The western
part would eventually become part of the British Gold Coast (and becoming Ghana
a year later) while the eastern half remained under French influence, until
their independence in the 1960. The
church was beautiful and in very good condition and it was great to see that it
was still able to offer schooling to children in the area.
After a delicious western lunch, a re-televised soccer match
and some air conditioning, we made for an open plaza and had a startling discovery,
which was one of the most bizarre things we saw on our trip. Kids taking rollerblading lessons! First and foremost, I hope that I don’t sound
like a naïve and condescending American.
Of course Togo has this kind of service available to kids as an after school activity in its capital city.
It is a relatively developed city with services that are able to cater
to its upper class citizens. But coming
from Guinea, where there are about a million and one reasons why this would be impossible to replicate there, we just had to grin as the twenty or
so kids were practicing drills with their instructor.
After leaving the Hirondelles
(swallows) to their practice we
happened upon our next great discovery. BUMPER
CARS IN THE ADJACENT PARKING LOT. Again,
we were recently Returned Peace Corps Volunteers. We valued having more authentic and less
touristy adventures on this road trip. But
indulging in the little things, like ganging up and sandwiching your friend
between two electrified carts, not only represented a fun way to end the
afternoon, it was the beginning of our return home. At least for me, this trip was my way of
leaving West Africa on my own terms, at my own pace. And as I write this post in my living room in
Minnesota, I can say with certainty that things like this helped make the transition of coming
back to the First World less jarring and overwhelming. And come on.
Who doesn’t like bumper cars?
We met back up with Michelle and Clara at our rooms and had a
much needed naptime - then went out in search of dinner. After realizing that the restaurant we wanted
to eat at was closed, we made serendipitous discovery number three. A restaurant that served dinner on the cheap next to a park with a playground. While our chicken
and fries were being cooked up behind the Parc de Martyrs, we got back to
basics and ran around that playground like it was 1994. There was climbing, sliding, tackling and
before dinner was served, showering - or at least we made do with some buckets
of water and washed as much of the sand from our clothes and hair as
possible.
We tried to hit the bars after that and after walking the
streets for a little bit, eventually arrived at an outdoor bar that served some
pretty peculiar items. The “bartender”
was very proud of his concoctions and unfortunately unsolicited-ly served us some
of his pretty horrible drinks. The exact
ingredients elude me, but I vaguely recall milk and poison-whiskey being involved
and in proportions that would surprise you.
After some debate the night was
concluded at the spot of our initial rendez-vous with our hostess, where we got
our fix of dancing and Beyoncé.
All in all, not a bad day.
Chris (A)
Trip stats:
- Total time in car: 75 hours
- Cheapest diesel: Benin (620 CFA/liter)
- Most expensive diesel: Conakry/ Siguiri (9,500 GNF/liter)
- Capitals visited: Conakry, Bamako, Ouagadougou, Contonou/ Porto-Novo, Lome
- Number of doppelgangers sighted: 1 (Lebanese Sean Cochrane seen at Room, Conakry, Guinea, Fred B at Amadine, Bamako, Julie in car in Ouaga, Tosten at De Niros, Ouaga - again, we have continued to fail at getting photographic evidence)
- Longest border crossing: 3 hours 30 minutes (Guinea - Mali)
- Shortest border crossing: 1 hours 05 minutes (Benin-Togo)
- Benin-Togo boarder crossing debrief (1 hour 5 minutes; 0 hours 5 minutes with time travel!):
- Stop 1 (Benin) - Gendarmerie stop - present passport, drivers license and carte grise
- Stop 2 (Togo) - Gendarme stop - purchase visa
- Stop 3 (Togo) - Gendarmerie stop for vehicle registration
- Stop 4 (Togo) - Short customs stop
