For years, Ivory Coast was an unsafe vacation spot. After the declaration of independence in 1960, the nation went by way of two civil wars. Things remained unsettled till 2011, when the dropping president Ggagbo was arrested and extradited to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Tourism is now slowly beginning to take off. Mid-November, I made a journey by way of this – to me nonetheless unknown – West African nation.
Abidjan & Grand-Bassam
After arriving on the airport of Abidjan, I instantly journey to Grand-Bassam, 45 minutes away, which was chosen because the capital throughout the colonization by the French. And similar to that you abruptly end up consuming exterior within the night on a terrace with the glowing Atlantic Ocean at your ft! What a transition from the grey and wet Netherlands and Belgium I left within the morning.
The colonial quarter in Grand-Bassam is now a Unesco World heritage web site: the grandeur of the colonial structure remains to be spectacular though many buildings are in want of restoration. The Museum of National Costume, which shows conventional clothes of the nation’s many ethnic teams, can also be very attention-grabbing.
Yamoussoukro
The subsequent day, I head to Yamoussoukro, the birthplace of the primary president of the Ivory Coast, Félix Houphouët-Boigny. He made his birthplace the capital of the nation and had an enormous status venture constructed there: the Basilica of Notre Dame de la Paix, which equals the scale of the St. Peter in Rome. It is a wierd notion, such an immense constructing in an empty panorama with out believers, fully soulless. You surprise what number of hospitals the president may have constructed as a substitute…
North
As I drive additional north, I enter extra conventional territory, the place animistic customs, conventional dances and crafts reign supreme. I usually see teams of weavers who make lovely cloths on their lengthy narrow-band looms; bead makers, who provide their loam, hand-painted beads on the market, and woodcarver’s workshops.
After being launched to the native notables, I expertise an enchanting masks dance on the Baoulé, the place the dancers are simply as fiercely and enthusiastically inspired by the native folks as by me! In Korhogo on the Senoufou inhabitants I see a ‘leopard dance’. The ‘leopards’, uplifted by hallucinatory music, show their acrobatics abilities.
West
As the street will get worse I attain the western aspect of the nation, which is extra mountainous and inhabited by the Malinké and Dan folks. Here too I’m handled to a spectacular dance efficiency with masked stilt dancers, through which many villagers take part enthusiastically.
Man
Finally I arrive in Man, an space surrounded by 18 mountains that’s splendid for lovely walks. I go to the waterfall and the sacred forest with Campbell monkeys.
The South Coast
Driving south from right here I head again to the coast the place I keep in an attractive and cozy resort. Due to the presence of a bay, it is usually doable to swim safely within the Atlantic Ocean.
The south is dominated by endlessly stretching plantations of cocoa and palm oil forests. Two main rivers minimize by way of Ivory Coast and circulate into the ocean at Sassandra and Grand Lahou. Boat journeys are the popular excursions to discover this panorama.
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Abidjan
Finally, I return to Abidjan, a pulsating metropolis with a inhabitants of thousands and thousands. It is a pleasing metropolis with elegant eating places and high-quality artwork galleries. An ideal place to finish a journey by way of this contrasting nation. Where the world can’t discover you…
Jozef Verbruggen is Director and Owner of Untamed Travelling. Untamed Travelling is a journey designer that focuses on high-end bespoke journey experiences across the globe.
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