I was confronted with a jumble of mixed emotions as I boarded my KLM flight bound for Amsterdam. Still reeling from the travel high of my recent journey to Accra, Lomé and Porto-Novo, I was hesitant that regardless of wherever my next destination might be, I was bound…
UNESCO World Heritage in Ouidah It’s hard to believe that this post will wrap up my first foray into West-African travel. I really fell in love with Accra, Lomé and Porto-Novo and cherish all the friends I made along the way. The day before my flight back to…
Cotonou, ville sans histoire? (Cotonou, a city without history?) was the question posed by one of the special exhibitions at the world-class Fondation Zinsou, Benin’s first contemporary art museum.
For someone who thought he had come prepared to Porto-Novo, I sure had a lot to learn.
Sometimes when you travel, you experience a massive stroke of luck that can only be explained by the travel gods smiling down on you. You happen to be in the perfect place at the exact moment to meet the right person or step into that certain subway car and presto, the course of your trip has changed forever.
Some countries do have two, or even three official capitals, but Benin has only one: Porto-Novo. And yet, Porto (as it has affectionately been nicknamed by locals) often plays second fiddle to the mighty Cotonou, which is a mere 41km (25mi) west of Porto along the Atlantic coast.
The View of Ghana’s Volta Region from Pic d’Agou How often do you get to say that you’ve been to the highest point in a nation? Togo is a relatively flat country, but there is a small smattering of mountains in the southwest quadrant near the border with…
The Grande Marché and Cathédrale du Sacré-Cœur de Lomé (Sacred Heart Cathedral of Lomé) at night Lomé, like so many African capitals, is given the short shrift in guide books and online resources. Lonely Planet lists a meager four sights to visit in the Togolese capital (and none…
So close to Lomé that you could hardly classify visiting them as a “day trip,” the charming cities of Agbodrafo and Togoville lie on the shores of Lac Togo (Lake Togo) just 31km (19mi) east of the capital.
Togo’s history has not been a happy one. From the slave trade to European colonization to a familial regime that has run the country for the past 53 years and counting, the Togolese know all too well the meaning of the word, “struggle.”