We’re in Abomey, Central Benin. After some really nice driving thru Benin’s world famous potholes we reached the capital of the local royalties on 6^th August 2014.
Invited or not, we had to visit the king. Unfortunately he was busy in local conflict management between the MoRSPGAH (Ministry of Road Safety, Population Growth and Animal Health) and the MoLRDF (Ministry of Land Reclamation and Dense Forestry) – wanna know more? Get it in our next newsletter we’ll publish by the end of this month. If u’re already on the distribution list, don’t worry. If not, subscribe on the right site of this page – or regret a lot.

The entrance of His Majesty’s Palace in Abomey…..

… and the delights of Abomey’s central market: tomatoes for the sauce and the powder for the all-u-can-eat-without-ur-dentures lunch: just mix it with cold water, no spices.

Next day to Porto Novo …..

Finally we reach Porto Novo, the proud capital of Benin with many beautiful government buildings.
Martin nearly got sentenced to death for taking the pic on the left without prior permission – soon the full story in our newsletter.

Of course we stayed in the 1^st establishment in CDB Porto Novo, next to the Parliament building and the Court.

We admired the sights of the town – a main road with some traffic, the Brazilian style mosque and finally the market with all kind of goodies for cooking and voodooing …..

…. and one of the voodoo temples in town.

On 10^th August we left the capital Porto Novo for the real capital Cotonou – here the impressive Skyline.

The evening at the famous sunset point, having a look at an unhappy captain’s masterpiece when approaching the shore and the most expensive beer we had in the last years.

The next morning the usual you do in capitals: hairdresser, rotten grapes and see some people …

… and we moved on to Ouida Beach by the so called Fishermen’s Road.

There we finally reached the beach – so beach life, dolce far niente, eating fishy things in the evening, etc.

Of course also some culture: we had to see the door of no return, the gate of the involuntary journeys to the Americas.

We had to see Ouida, the voodoo capital of Benin with its famous python temple.
Well, at certain times Monika felt a little snaky ….

After Ouida to the most famous beach in Benin: Grand Popo. Activities see beach in Ouida.

Of course beach life becomes boring after some time: thanx to the nearby fishermen we were saved – they sold their catch directly in front of us.
So far our adventures on our way from Ouaga 2 Laufenburg. Next week more of the same – but different; or expect our newsletter by the end of the month.

And finally: after a few weeks in West Africa we have quite a number of interesting findings on daily life in the different countries. 2 share them we’ll add whenever possible a thematic 6 pack 2 each post.

Of course the 1st 6 pack Shows some nice encounters with other motorists on the way thru West Africa.