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.