Cotonou to Porto Novo

Do you know what’s the capital of Benin?

From Cotonou to Porto Novo it’s less than an hour on the road. So, first things first, I went to apply for Congolese visa.

Republic of Congo has an honorary consulate that is far in the East of Cotonou. 10kms on the road. Google shows it’s Dandji neighbourhood so I tell that to the zemidjan driver and I sit and we go, 600cfa. And so it happened that the driver thought Dandji is a bit closer to where we started the journey and we have to extend the trip by maybe 1-2kms. Of course in such cases the price immediately inflates, the man asked for 1000cfa. We settled on 800cfa.

The building is quite attractive, on a sandy street. Inside there are masks and an open air waiting lobby. A man behind a table showed me the visa form, the visa has many prices, one month validity, 2 entries, 40,000cfa. He also asked for photocopy of the passport and I had to go and make it, 10cfa in a shop on the street parallel to the one on which the consulate is located.

It was Friday. The consulate is open only on Monday and Friday. The man said I had to collect the visa on Monday. I protested, politely and asked if I could collect the passport on the same day. He said there were too many papers to process. Of course I was the only client inside the building at that moment. But I kept waiting, the man said the mysterious person inside the consulate has to check if all my papers are in order. And then he came out and asked for a cadeau so I can collect my visa the same day. And I refused, politely. Saying that I’m alone and it’s not easy to travel alone. Etc. The man backed off. From iOverlander I knew people were getting visa the same day so I was quite confident. And so it happened that I was chatting with Mimy, a friend in Lagos, who’s Congolese by birth. And when I told her about the cadeau, she said “give them 2000cfa, they are cheap.” Oh well, I didn’t want to but then staying till Monday? Would I even be able to go outside Cotonou without passport? Ah.

20mins later the man brought out the passport with the visa. It’s valid only a month from the entry date I stated. Those visas are so expensive yet they are so restrictive.

The road back to the guesthouse was of course 600cfa on a zemidjan.

In the guesthouse I met the owner, Cedric, a béninois.

The guesthouse is described in the internet as bed & breakfast, yet no breakfast was offered to me.

Zemidjan to where cars to Porto Novo leave was 300cfa. We drove maybe 5mins and I was dropped where some cars were standing, 1000cfa, we soon left.

In Porto Novo I chose to stay in Auberge Le Bonheur, which could be translated as Auberge Happiness. I picked it on iOverlander as the cheap one, a bit away from the centre. The name quite indicative of what can be expected, I was presented the rooms: 2000cfa for room with AC, 1500cfa for room with a fan. What?! These were prices for an hour… I asked for the night, 8000cfa, we agreed on 7000cfa. The auberge was popular with couples, one was just leaving, no issues, bonsoir madame bonsoir monsieur. There was a writing pad recording entry and departure time in the reception, I counted 15 entries, the price was 1000cfa anyway, some didn’t spend more than 15 minutes inside.

I took a beer and read about town in the guidebook. I was in Porto Novo in 2010, stayed in centre of town but the place I stayed in, still adverting itself as a hotel, now dead shut. A lively bar next door, dead shut.

I took a walk towards centre and stopped in a maquis very near, I was hungry. Inside it was full of people, there was just one type of food: pounded yam and groundnut sauce and mutton. I waited maybe an hour to be served. After I asked the waitress why it’s so long, her answer was “you didn’t give me any money!”. I paid 1500cfa and the food was divine. I mean the sauce tastes so fresh, almost Asian. Creamy and zesty. The meat has a lot of stuff in it including parts that had structure of tofu.

There were even two guys playing music, just using the drum and sticks. It sounded very nice, local style.

F

rom the maquis I walked on. There are parts of town, very small ones though, that have been restored. Some.town walls, some market houses, some fetish huts. People seemed very curious about me, almost everyone stared and greeted me.

I was called to ethnographic museum. The museum was… Free. But with a guide and if the guide service was good… I tipped the man 1000cfa, the museum was dark and only had Yoruba masks, not very attractive but the guide spoke very entertainingly (is that a word?) and informatively and also in English.

I bought water. The price was 600cfa but the woman has no change. When the change – and the owner of the shop arrived – the price was 500cfa.

I walked all the way to the market. Snapped some pictures – people, including men, dress very colourful here.

On my way back I bought groundnuts, 1000cfa for bottle, finally a normal price, mango for 100cfa and bananas, 50cfa each, small and yellow, a bunch of 10. The bananas turned out to be very unripe. I took a beer in jardin des plantes, a wooded area.