Ivory Coast: Abidjan

 

Wednesday, March 22, 2023, Abidjan, Ivory Coast

The ship arrived in Abidjan, the largest city in the Ivory Coast, at mid morning. We were late getting cleared by local authorities, which started a snowball effect of being late all day. Abidjan was a mix of big city high rises, and extreme poverty.

Our ship-sponsored tour was an 2-hour bus ride to Grand-Bassam, a classic example of colonial towns built in the late 19th-early 20th century. Traffic was heavy and we had a police escort to get us tourists to our destination and back to the ship in time. Our tour guide was young and inexperienced, did not have a good grasp of English, and had a heavy accent. The sound system on the bus was poor. We were also in the back of the bus which didn’t help. 

We drove along the seaside much of the way. It looked apparent that infrastructure was being built near the ocean for resorts. The contrast with the shacks regular people lived in was stark. However, we saw a lot of satellite disks on their corrugated iron roofs. They were connected.

Infrastructure going in for resorts

Among cars and trucks, a man pulling a cartel

How the other 98% live.

Our first stop was the costume museum. After a 2-hour bus ride everyone had to pee. Toilet facilities were inadequate for 3 buses full of people. None of the exhibits were in English, and no one to explain them. The manikins were pretty crudely made but the costumes were fantastic! Many tribes, and some dioramas of traditional housing compounds. Grand-Bassam was grand at one time. The colonial buildings were not kept up, many abandoned. The poverty was evident everywhere.

My favorite costume (in case)

This man was walking along the road.

Next we made a quick stop at a craft market on the way out of town. We only had 15 minutes to shop. It’s hard for me to make shopping decisions in 15 minutes. Charlie did wrangle a good deal on a traditional African mask with the time pressure pressing on both sides of the negotiation. To add to the confusion, school was getting out.

School’s out!

Off we zoomed to lunch at a seaside resort. It was quite a nice resort and could accommodate all our buses. We were advised by ship personnel not to eat on shore in Africa. However, our tour was 8 hours long with lunch included at this resort. More drummers and after awhile it drove us nuts.

Resort where we had lunch. Stark contrast.

Our itinerary had mentioned time for a quick dip in the ocean at the resort. I had realized beforehand that, if things went like they had been, it was unlikely we would have time for a swim. I wore my swimsuit under my clothes anyway. Hope springs eternal. After eating we had enough time to use the restroom, which was quite nice. 

Back in the bus, we drove the 2 hours back to Abidjan in heavy traffic, with an especially long line at a toll booth. We stopped at a modern Catholic Church with attractive stained glass windows for a few minutes when we got there. We also visited a museum, which was wonderful. We didn’t want to leave after only 15 minutes, but were being harangued to get back on the bus. 

The mosque

Modern Catholic Church 

The sun set and ship personnel on the dock were stressed that 3 buses of people were delaying our departure. It was a discouraging day, but got us to reevaluate the benefit of ship tours in West Africa. We cancelled a few the next day.

 

It was getting dark. Long line to reboard the ship.