Just floating along

Day 12 - Ouidah-Ganvie-Cotonou-Ouidah

Our resort was lovely and right by the beach but we didn't have time to enjoy it as we hit the road at 9am. The crowds of yesterday weren't up as early as us so we drove into Ouidah to visit the Python Temple. We were given the option of having a snake draped around our neck but declined. Taking our shoes off to enter the temple we saw a lot of pythons curled up on the floor and the ledges on the walls. 

More voodoo drumming and dancing was underway just outside the temple. As it wasn't crowded we had great views this time.

Driving on to the edge of Lake Nokouéwe we jumped on a boat to visit Ganvie, possibly the largest stilt village in Africa and home to around 25,000 people. 

The people moved here in the 18th century to try and escape the slave traders. On the way we passed canoes of locals fishing and other canoes singing and beating drums to welcome us, and once there we witnessed locals moving about on boats and buying and selling at the floating markets.

Lunch was at a restaurant in the nearby town of Cotonou, then on the way back to our hotel we stopped at the original site of the Tree of Oblivion, on the old slave road (which is now the main road to the beach). Here slaves being shipped away tried to forget their past by walking around the tree three times. Unfortunately the tree was no longer there, it was just a bare patch of ground.

We'd been warned that once we headed north that our accommodation was going to get worse, so we took advantage of what might be our last chance for a while to spend a pleasant evening with some decent food and a sea breeze.