New Years - Grand Popo

So we've decided to start form the beginning - well not the beginning beginning, just the start of '07. So here goes:

A group of folk (usual suspects from Exxon, US consulate etc) got together to head over to the Republic of Benin (next country over) to stay at a resort in a small town called Grand Popo - near the border with Togo for a couple of nights over new years.

(l-r) George, John, Shamar, Travis, Desi & Mas (Ryan's behind the camera)

After an early start - and I mean EARLY - we embarked on the two hour boat ride through the lagoons and across the border, hoping to get to Grand Popo by lunch. Yeah, well you know what they say about best laid plans... 30mins into the trip, we're stuck in the worst harmattan fog I've ever seen (it was actually cold believe it or not) and so we couldn't see more than 20ft in front of the boat and just had to drift for an hour - all the while hearing music and strange sounds coming out of the fog from all the little villages along the way. Very Heart of Darkness...

Marlowe's slow boat up the river

Anyway, long story short couldn't find our way through one of the lagoons to Cotonou so had to turn back and get off at Porto Novo and find a taxi. I guess it was lucky that one of us spoke French (thanks Desi, you're a life saver) as the rest of us kinda just stood around (one woman tried to sell us a baby...) as cars were organised and we mounted our trusty Peugeots for the drive across Benin to Grand Popo. All I can say is wow - the roads worked, no potholes, no real traffic - even a certain amount of order! That said, the harmattan was pretty bad and you could literally cut the pollution with a knife. They even had toll booths on the roads (and people actually paid) and I'm not talking about the Nigerian toll booth of a couple of half asleep police trying to wangle "a little something" out of everyone who comes through.

Porto Novo local boat dock

cruisin in Cotonou
the road to grand popo - look no traffic jams!

Anyway, we finally made it to grand Popo about 3 in the arvo and we were all bloody hungry. Luckily, the food in Benin is about a billion times better than Nigeria (I will have to concede that maybe amongst all the things that went wrong for France in Africa the legacy of good food, booze and cigarettes isn't such a bad thing...) A plate of prawns and salad later, we were all ready to park our bums on the beach and watch the locals go about fishing. Strange thing was, there was an unerringly large amount of fuss going on around the place, with various props being erected by the owner of the place (insert french name here - I personally went with Jean-Pierre - but I really haven't got a clue what he said all weekend, and he thought I was American, so obviously the feeling was mutual) Anyway, point is, that Jean-Pierre is a frustrated summer camp instructor, coz as it turns out we were all to run and jump and slide and whatnot through various obstacle courses and games and blah blah blah - someone give the guy a whistle!

pretending to work hard on the beach
locals actually working hard on the beach

Now I don't mean upset the delicate balance of international relations here, but it was new years eve - what does that normally entail? why lots of sitting around enjoying the odd beverage, of course. And what did we get? Some frustrated french bloke that had never heard the phrase "Dude, you've got to be shitting me. I'm not going through that thing! I'll be at the bar. If you need anything, don't call me, OK" So the games went until after sundown and I was getting nervous, the words "beach resort", "sober" and "new years eve" were getting horrifically close to joining together in a sentence for the first time in history - that was not the kind of history I was prepared to make... ever. (mind you, though, we all had a great time and I'm glad we did it)

what can I say, fun and games?

I don't really know why I was worried, half an hour later we were surrounded by an absolutely amazing spread of god knows how many courses of fine french cuisine (at this point you kinda have to let the french have it, they know what they're doing when it comes to food). There was a local band of drummers and dancers that got everyone moving and plenty of champagne. I never thought I'd eat foie gras in Africa - but I have to say that I'm still alive so it was all good!

that's what I'm talking about!
(l-r) Desi, Travis, Mas, Shamar, John, George

The next day, was unfortunately time to leave. But luckily, there was no fog and the boat ride was a pleasant 2 hrs (as opposed to the 4 - 6 hrs it would take going through the border crossing via road) all we had to do was wave at a bloke who was having such a lazy time that he couldn't even be bother wearing clothes - you have to respect a border guard wearing a towel around his waist! He was more interested if we'd bought him any beer while we were in Benin, no luck there I'm afraid.

So Happy New Year all! Hope it's a good one...