{"id":671,"date":"2010-01-08T18:26:39","date_gmt":"2010-01-08T16:26:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/?p=671"},"modified":"2019-02-26T09:39:08","modified_gmt":"2019-02-26T07:39:08","slug":"cote-divoire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/cote-divoire\/","title":{"rendered":"A VISIT TO COTE D’IVOIRE – IVORY COAST"},"content":{"rendered":"

So I had the fortunate chance to visit the Ivory Coast or Cote D’Ivoire a couple of times while hubby was working in West Africa and resided in the sprawling capital of Abidjan with its 2 million inhabitants.<\/p>\n

Arriving at Felix Houphouet Boigne airport you are in French country. \u00a0Leaving the airport parking you are welcomed in French (Bienvenue) as you pass the white elephant sculptures spanning the airport road. \u00a0 Sadly this welcoming sign is no more as it was removed during 2011 with the change of government. \u00a0Also look out for the bronze statues as you leave the airport grounds.<\/p>\n

\"Bronsbeelde

Bronze statutes<\/p><\/div>\n

You will also see the local guy, come rain or sunshine, delivering his bags full of baguettes every morning with his bicycle or an old beat up Citroen stacked to the roof with pain <\/em>(French for bread). \u00a0We were really spoiled as you will not have to look far to find freshly baked bread and pastries wherever you travel in this beautiful tropical country.<\/p>\n

\"friday

Fresh paistries<\/p><\/div>\n

But on with my story. \u00a0Quickly you learn the basic French lingua to cope with the ever present police and military roadblocks asking to see your driver\u2019s license (but actually looking for some free cash donations),\u00a0 \u00a0be able to go to the shop, \u00a0the bank or use one of the many colour coded taxi\u2019s in the city.\u00a0 Taxis are colour coded which means they are only allowed to operate within certain areas.\u00a0 So make sure you catch the right one or you may change taxis a couple of times to reach your destination.<\/p>\n

\"COTE

Approaching Le Plateau<\/p><\/div>\n

All over the city of Abidjan traffic is always congested and you have to have lots and lots of patience to cope with the bicycles, pedestrians, slow moving traffic and impatient drivers overtaking at any possible place, pace and space.\u00a0 As I was always in a hurry whenever I went to downtown Abidjan I never had the opportunity to visit St Paul\u2019s Cathedral which was erected at a cost of $11.7 million. \u00a0Apparently it is worth is visit.<\/p>\n

\"COTE

St Pauls Cathedral<\/p><\/div>\n

When the smell of cocoa is filing the air of the city you will see the toys of the rich on the streets. Hubby nearly had a heart attack when \u00a0a McClaren production car drove past him in the potholed streets of the city! \u00a0What a shame that it will probably never be driven what it was built for, but only reaching a maximum speed of 100 km\/h due to the horrendous road conditions.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The toys of the rich<\/p><\/div>\n

One weekend my Ivorian friend Christine, from French decent who grew up in Abidjan, took us on the road east towards Grand Bassam.\u00a0 Along the road we see numerous road stalls selling art, wood furniture, clothes, and local food.\u00a0 These stalls are a lot cheaper than the crafts market situated near Zone 4 in Abidjan and is worth a visit as some of the craftsmen are extremely talented.<\/p>\n

\"stalletjies\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Once in Grand Bassam the strong French colonial influence is still noticeable as \u00a0the edge of palm fringed beaches are speckled with modern resorts and beach houses frequented\u00a0 by the vast Lebanese and French community soaking up the sun.<\/p>\n

\"Grand<\/a>

In Grand Bassam<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Beach<\/a>

Beach house views<\/p><\/div>\n

But this is not the end of our trip.\u00a0 As my Ivorian friend knows the country well she takes us to Ayame\u00a0 to show us the massive palace like house that was once built by a prosperous lawyer (back in 2010 already 70 years old) from Abidjan.\u00a0 The house is still not complete after 15 years and was never inhabited once.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The lawyer’s house<\/p><\/div>\n

To sculpture the gardens he recruited a landscaping architect to recreate the gardens of a ch\u00e2teau in France complete with sculptures from bronze created in Burkina Faso.\u00a0 The only person living on the property is the security guard \u2013 which anyway let us in without asking any questions \u2013 who smokes wild mushrooms that makes him happy clappy.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The gardens<\/p><\/div>\n

But our end destination is still further east towards the Ghana border at Assinia Mafia.\u00a0 We spent the day on the beach watching the wooden Ghanian fishing boats and relaxing with friends on beach chairs.<\/p>\n

\"BEACH\"<\/a>

Relaxing on the beach in Assinia Mafia<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Ghanian fisher boats<\/p><\/div>\n

Which saddens me the most, despite a strong economy due to cacao and rubber production, is the amount of pollution and \u00a0big trucks carrying massive logs (due to deforestation which is a major issue) into the city.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The stark realities of pollution<\/p><\/div>\n

Once again I was privileged to visit a country that was never on my list, but due to circumstances had the opportunity to visit it more than once, make some good friends, learn some elementary French \u00a0and appreciate life.<\/p>\n

CURRENCY NOTE<\/span>:<\/span> \u00a0 \u00a0All over West Africa the currency accepted is the Cefa (XOF). \u00a0 Being a previous French colony the Euro is rather preferred than American Dollar.<\/p>\n

“To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.” (Aldous Huxley)<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So I had the fortunate chance to visit the Ivory Coast or Cote D’Ivoire a couple of times while hubby was working in West Africa and resided in the sprawling capital of Abidjan with its 2 million inhabitants. Arriving at Felix Houphouet Boigne airport you are in French country. \u00a0Leaving the airport parking you are welcomed in French (Bienvenue) as you pass the white elephant sculptures spanning the airport road. \u00a0 Sadly this welcoming sign is no more as it was removed during 2011 with the change of government. \u00a0Also look out for the bronze statues as you leave the airport grounds. You will also see the local guy, come rain or sunshine, delivering his bags full of baguettes every morning with his bicycle or an old beat up Citroen stacked to the roof with pain (French for bread). \u00a0We were really spoiled as you will not have to look… Read more ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":683,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[125,153],"tags":[65,66,64,370,67,155,556],"geo":null,"yoast_head":"\nA VISIT TO COTE D'IVOIRE - IVORY COAST - TRAVELBUCKET<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Arriving at Felix Houphouet Boigne airport you are in French country. \u00a0Leaving the airport parking you are welcomed in French (Bienvenue) as you pass the white elephant sculptures spanning the airport road. \u00a0 Sadly this welcoming sign is no more as it was removed during 2011 with the change of government. \u00a0Also look out for the bronze statues as you leave the airport grounds.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/cote-divoire\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A VISIT TO COTE D'IVOIRE - 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