Spring Break, Day 4

After awaking from my deep beautiful slumber, I had breakfast. The coffee tasted like pure spice. It was the weirdest (and probably worst) coffee I've ever had. I still drank it. I also had eggs and a baguette (like I said, a staple breakfast here). After stretching a bit and discussing some options for hikes, Tania and I set off with Prosper who would act as our guide. In case you are unaware, there are lots of community ecotourism projects throughout West Africa. Some one or some people survey an area and find what can be used to attract tourism... a good hike, waterfalls, an unusual ecosystem, etc. It's called ecotourism beause it capitalizes on the ecosystem and the natural environment. And so then little hostels get set up in these tiny little villages just like the one we stayed in, Kumakonda. There couldn't have been more than 1,000 people in that whole village, but they had a little hostel. So for this particular project, we payed Prosper probably more than one would expect, but most of the money goes towards community development and not just to the guide himself.

So we set off on our hike around 9AM. Prosper brought his butterfly net with him which he used like a real pro. All along the hike, he would catch butterflies and show them to us, but never hurting a single one. There were some really amazing ones that we saw. It's amazing to think that the designs on butterflies and other insects are the inspiration for so much art in the world. The intricacies of the designs are quite stunning. In addition to catching butterflies, Prosper showed us all kinds of cool things you can do with different plants. He picked up this one leaf and stamped it onto his arm, and the leaf left a white imprint of itself on his dark skin. It was quite beautiful. He also showed us indigo which he made paint with, and then he made orange paint from the bark of this one tree. He painted a pineapple in Tania's journal with the paints. It was pretty sweet. There was a leaf that was basically sandpaper. There was another that was basically velcro. I stuck one to my shirt and it stayed there all day long, and the texture was really fuzzy like velcro. Then there was another leaf that was used for mosquito repellent... you could definitely smell it.

Seeing all these different plants and their uses reminded me once again of how everything we have comes from nature. However, I'm so used to seeing it in a different form, such as shampoo or medicine or books or tables or paitings or anything else you can think of. Just like chickens don't just show up dead and de-feathered at the grocery store all by themselves, everything else we have is just some transformation of what grows naturally in the world. So although I was amazed to see all these plants and find out their uses, it's nothing new. It's what we've been doing for many millenia.

The hike was pretty amazing. It wasn't too difficult or too easy. We talked a lot and experienced nature. We also got some pretty great views of Kpalime and surrounding areas below. When we got back, we rested for a minute and had some African pizza. This time we wanted a meal and we were brought snack size. Oh well. Rachel had enjoyed her morning just reading, writing, and getting lost on the dirt roads. We asked how to get down the mountain and the guys at the hotel got us a guy in the village who had a car. He overcharged us, but then again we had no bargaining power being in this tiny village. We got into his car which was the biggest piece of junk I've ever been inside. The windshield had a huge spider web crack that took up more than half the windshield. Pieces of string and duct tape were holding everything together. And then the driver never even turned on the car. He just rolled down the mountain in neutral, all 12km in Kpalime. It was pretty funny.

When we got to Kpalime, the driver of the car went off to find us a taxi. After eating the largest pineapple of my life, the driver came back with a taxi. We went through a whole process that happens a lot when we get in taxis - people start grabbing our bags to put them in the taxi, they urge us to sit down without telling us anything about anything, and then some guys argue in a language I don't understand. It's always such a strange process, but it happens more than you would think. The driver informed us that we were going to pick up three more people to take in the taxi. We were confused because we weren't sure how three people were going to fit in the car, considering four were already in it. But the driver drove around town and found three people who wanted a ride. So I was crunched up in the back with Rachel and two other people and Tania was crunched up in the front with some guy. This phenemenon is called a bush taxi. They are taxi, but they function as tro-tro's in that they stuff as many people as possible into the given space.

So, here I was, extremely uncomfortable, half my body practically hanging out the window. We soon discovered that this was the craziest driver we had ever encountered. He easily went 80 to 90 miles per hour the whole time on this road, passing every car and motorcycle that came by, weaving in and out of traffic. He didn't even slow down for this goat that was crossing the street. He just mowed down that poor unsuspecting goat. I wasn't sure how to feel about the situation, so all I could do was laugh out of disbelief and then feel horrible about that goat becoming roadkill.

When we got to Lome, the driver took us to the ATM because we were out of money. Then we told him to stop at this little place where we got meat sticks, yogurt, and baguettes. Then the driver proceeded to drive us to the Togo/Benin border. Looking back on it, we should have found a different driver considering how crazy that driver was, but we didn't feel like finding another taxi. When we entered Benin, we came to the immigration office. The guy who checked out visas was extremely unamused by life. That's one thing I've noticed here - everyone who works for the government seems to be lacking some essential part of their being as if they've completely suppressed their soul. When he took Tania's passport, he asked for her nationality (even though her passport clearly says "Mexico" on the front) and then he gave her a look like, "Oh God, here come the Mexicans."

We took another bush taxi to Cotonou, the largest city (though not the official capital) in Benin. This time we didn't kill a goat, but we did hit a bat, although the driver really can't be blamed for that. The bat just sort of appeared on the windshield all of a sudden. In Benin, the roads weren't quite as nice as Togo, but they were still nicer than Ghana's. Throughout all of Benin, there was an increase in the number of motorcycles on the road. We got to the city of Cotonou a few hours later and immediately the whole city looked like it was nothing but zemidjan drivers. Cotonou is a bit bigger than Lome with a population of somewhere just over a million. The driver didn't know the city at all, so he wasn't able to take us to our hotel. A woman who was in the taxi with us argued with him and told him that he should find out where the hotel is and take us there since we payed for the ride. We agreed, but we soon discovered that asking people for directions in Cotonou is basically the same as asking them, "Give me a completely random direction to go at which point I can ask someone else for a random direction." Street names are not a big thing in Cotonou, so no one knew the name of the street. We tried calling the hotel but they wouldn't answer their phone.

Finally, after searching for about an hour and half (so ridiculous!), we found the hotel to discover that the whole thing had been checked out by Nigerian businessmen. Friggin' Nigerian businessmen. Always gotta be taking over hotels and stuff. Luckily, though, the guy working at the hotel led us to other hotels. We walked for a long time, going to three different hotels that were all full. Finally we got to a place called Maquis Ansawa Place that had a vacancy. I was exhausted and dirty, so I immediately took a shower, which really means I got a bucket of water and poured it over my body (welcome to Africa!). I also discovered that this hotel, like every other place we stayed at on the journey, did not have toilet paper. What's up with that? We went downstairs and spent the rest of the night eating and chatting about our crazy journey. We talked about how life just didn't make sense. No matter how much time I'm here, I feel as though there are some things that I will just never understand.

We went to sleep, and then at about 3 in the morning, Rachel and I were awoken by the creepiest knocking I've ever heard. It was this really quiet knocking that grew in intensity with each knock for about 10 repetitions. Then there would be a considerable pause at which Rachel and I would look at each other, both of us a bit terrified. Then the knocking would go on again. We couldn't figure out why someone could possibly be knocking on our door at 3 in the morning, so we didn't get the door and just endured the creepy knocking for five minutes or so. We found out the next morning that it was actually just the owner of the hotel coming by to fix our air conditioner. That's fine, but at 3 in the morning? You could've come a little earlier, you know.

On a last note, I have to give the quote of the day:

"I never needed to know the name for that until I killed one."
-Tania del Rio on learning the French word for 'bat.'