Sat May 17th 2014 - Lome, Togo
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| Togo - Between Benin and Ghana |
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| First sight of Lome |
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| Greetings to Togo |
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| Market Chaos |
Today, we had booked an afternoon excursion, so in the morning we hopped on the shuttle from the ship to the "grand marche' - supermarket in the town of Lome. the port is a container port, so the views from the ship are not too attractive... but it is very interesting to drive through a busy African container port. it is very big, bustling, and somewhat chaotic, weaving around the containers, quite an experience. When we got off the bus we decided to walk through the market area, which seems to cover the whole town ... if I could think of creating a West African town centre on a movie set, and got it perfectly right, no one would believe it that it was authentic. It really is everything you could imagine in your dreams, dusty, exotic, people yelling and trying to sell you anything and everything, goats and chickens wandering around, women carrying unbelievable loads on their heads (why is it always the women?), we saw one woman with a minimum of 6 full size suitcases on her head... another with a box of live chickens, another with clothes on hangers on three sides hanging from a framed mound of bales of cloth... they carry water, bread, corn, clothes, household supplies, shoes, you name it- they carry it!! All this, while small motorcycles created terror and havoc as they dodged in and around the crowds. While I thought the sales pressure was heavy in Beijing, it was mild compared to the markets in West Africa... After running the gamut through town we hopped into the local supermarket and picked up a few supplies for our cabin and took the shuttle back to the ship, heavy traffic both inside and outside the port area... it is incredible how the small motorcycles buzz around in packs weaving in and out on dirt roads, over curbs, across oncoming lanes... no helmets. I saw a family of five on one little motorcycle.. kid up front, then dad, then another kid squashed between dad and mom, who was carrying a baby on her back in a cloth pouch. Yikes, ... and I thought I was recklessly brave driving my 805cc on open tarmac roads in Canada with a helmet and protective padding in my leathers.
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| Voodoo ceremony |
After a quick snack we headed out for our afternoon tour which was a trip to a village called Sanguera.
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| Derek with local kids |
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| Voodoo Priestess - Note scars |
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| Village Kids |
It
is a fairly large traditional style village and we were welcomed by the
priest, who performed a welcoming ceremony, blessing us and pouring
water and palm wine onto the dirt to indicate that we could now enter.
They follow voodoo tradition and we were treated to drumming in the main
village communal area where they danced and went into 'trances' etc. We
noticed that many of them had large scars on their bodies and smaller,
more defined scars on their cheeks from cutting themselves as part of
their traditions. It was here that we saw our first Calabash (Crescentia) tree. The 'fruit' of this tree is not edible but are cut in half, dried and used as bowls we know as Calabashes. The pulp is used for respiratory conditions. After a short wander, and a cold drink we headed to
the 'Village Artisanal' which is a small artists community, highlighting
Togolese weaving, clothmaking, statue making, macrame etc. It was quite
interesting, but we were determined not to buy more 'stuff' having
off-loaded so much stuff we had gathered in the first 40 years of our
marriage. We did enjoy watching them at work and a washroom break was an
experience in and of itself... hygiene and sanitation are not high on
the priority in Togo... I will not elaborate!!!
Back to the ship, dinner and dancing (finally some rock music) on the pool deck.
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| High Priest |
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| Mom Dancing - Baby asleep |
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| So Beautiful |
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| Janice one again joining in |
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| Village view |
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| Guess what this is??? |
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| Calabash tree with fruit... who knew? |
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| Leaving Togo |
Back in harbour, the other couple bowed out, but we got Pappy to take us to Lac Rose. A saline lake from which they harvest salt which is exported to Mali. There we got a camel ride and rode from the lake over to the Atlantic Ocean, now they said it wouldn't be bumpy...they lied, but it did create a memorable experience. Getting on and off were quite spectacular events. Then we went over to a restaurant for lunch, sitting by a pool with a Gazelle beer. Had the best chips in years and a wonderful filet of a fish called thiof. (discovered later that it is an endangered species - sorry!) We then raced back in the taxi arriving at 4.30 and walked right into the folkloric drum and dancing show at the ships theatre. It was an incredible act, our ears were still throbbing an hour later. What an outstanding day of such different experiences and emotion. A great "do it on our own" day and it cost less than the cost of just a morning Princess tour.
