April 03, 2006

SAGA PART 1 - IN THE NICK OF TIME

Well, here I am.

I finally made it to Cotonou, after a grueling 29 HOURS of travel.

Like I mentioned earlier, the sequence was planned to be this way:

Tuesday: Monrovia-Accra (2 hours)
Wednesday: Accra-Abidjan (1 hour), 10 hours of boredom and Abidjan-Cotonou (2 hours).

What really happened:

Leaving Monrovia:

On my last day in Monrovia, I took the time to take photograph my loyal Youpi in Monrovia:

1Youpi in Monrovia


We did make it to Accra on Tuesday night, although we really could have missed our flight. While my colleague thought we were scheduled to leave on the 29th, I thought we were meant to leave on the wednesday. So between the 2 of us, we were really going to miss our flight out of Monrovia. Thank god, the assistant caught it and we made it to the airport on time.

Now this got confusing, because we thought our flight was a 12. In fact, it was a 10:30. We made it there by pure luck as we took a leap of faith and went through the queue, thinking that at worse, we would get kicked out and put on the 12PM airplane. Turns out, it was our flight that was early. We really got lucky.

Arriving in Accra:

Arrived in Accra, a bad surprise was awaiting us: although my colleague J. had made sure to make reservations for us, the hotel gave our rooms away, leaving us homeless in Accra. Thankfully, we found rooms elsewhere to settle for the night.


The Beaver

Thank you , Easter Butterfly in Sweden, for posting on my guestmap!

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

5 comments:

Saur♥Kraut said...

I have never even heard of Accra!!! And thanks so much for the pics, you really bring so much of the world to us this way. It is very enriching. Lovely pic of Monrovia! It's interesting to see that it looks quite similar to some parts of Florida.

Beaver said...

Accra is the Capital of Ghana, a kingdom nestled between Togo and Ivory Coast.

Ghana used to be one of the hubs of the slave trade - you might remember my post about El Mima Castle? That was in Ghana.

Ghana is one of the politically and economically stable countries in West Africa. If I were to recommend an english speaking country to visit in the Region, it would definitely be Ghana.

See my below post about travel plans... it includes some links to WIKI about the various countries, including Ghana.

Emmanuel.K.Bensah II said...

Hi saurkraut,

how coincidental to find you here!:-) Am glad Beaver is acquainting you on Accra, which is where if you will re-call, I blogged to you about several months ago!!!;-)

hope you r doing great...

...as are you, beaver;-)

I posted a comment a while back on your blog--not sure you ever responded:-(

Beaver said...

Hi Emmanuel,

I'm sorry if I didn't respond to your last comment. I'm sometimes in places where internet is scarce... as you may know ;o) so when that happens, I get a bit lazy...

Yeah Accra is a really nice place. I love the quiet warmth of the Ghanaians.

Cheers,

Beav'

Salt Water said...

I've now been to the newest map I can find (National Geographic 2005) and I see Accra in Ghana, but where are the pictures of you water skiing on Lake Volta? The lake is right next to the city on my map and I expect pictures of you with a boat rope in one hand and your favorite beverage in the other. Just joking of course. With all seriousness, how is this wild life you lead looking for the long term. you've been at it awhile now. Can you survive this a few more years? I'm sure I speak for all your fans when I say we are behind you 100%. Yet I feel a bit selfish. I'm keyboard traveling with you, but I probably will never leave this county. Please forgive the redundancy, but thanks Oh Great One.