Abidjan, Ivory Coast and Tokoradi, Ghana

 November 20, 2024

We docked this morning in Abidjan, Ivory Coast and immediately noted that this was the dirtiest harbor we have ever seen.  We could not believe all of the waste floating around our ship.  By the time we returned from our excursion early afternoon, the temperature was in the mid-80's and all that trash was beginning to smell.    

As for our excursion.  We left the pier at 11:00 in a seven bus convoy escorted by six motorcycle police officers. The traffic was horrendous but our escorts expertly cleared the traffic so we cruised right along to our first stop which was the Abidjan Botanical Gardens. On the way to the Gardens, Tim asked our guide if the clearing of traffic for us created animosity on the part of the locals toward tourists. He admitted it did. Then one of our group asked how many ships docked in Abidjan.  The guide answered about three a month. When we arrived at the Gardens three of the buses had left us for a nearby site. That meant that our four buses, probably 130 of us were at the Gardens. If was at this point we realized it was going to be a long day; Ivory Coast tour people were rookies at the whole tour thing.  The Botanical Gardens were going to provide the guides for our tour of the gardens.  They provide one!  This solo guide had a bullhorn which he never used and when he stopped to explain something he never waited for everybody to catch up. Lynda quickly decided to sit at a picnic table near the buses while Tim took the tour.  By the time Tim got Lynda situated he was hopelessly behind the guide.  There were few flowers in bloom and the only other plants of interest were large groups of bamboo.  Tim soon gave up on the tour and returned to where Lynda was sitting. There seemed to be little enthusiasm among our returning passengers about the visit. Our next stop was an orphanage.  All of us were ushered into a room much too small for a group our size. The building we were in was a beautiful old building. The room we were in was a large rectangle with probably a twenty foot ceiling.  This meant poor accoustics which, combined with a poor sound system resulted in no one really understanding what was said during the 15 minute speech. They obviously weren't looking for donations because there was no collection bucket out. Kind of made us wonder what was the point.  From the Orphanage we went to the Museum of Civilization. What an overstatement.  In 1962 an artist by the last name of Combes opened a school of art and the applied arts. The "museum" was a display of wood carvings by Combes showing how women's hair style changed during the 60's.  Admittedly, these carvings were very well done. The museum also displayed art created by the students, also excelllent. Check Tim's Facebook  page for pictures. The next stop was the St. Paul Cathedral in Abidjan. The Cathedral was just completed in 2023 and is quite contempary. Not like La Sagrada Familia but still stunning.  Two interesting features; the Cathedral is not built in the shape of a cross and the back of the building is about 15 ft tall, floor to ceiling, and then sweeps up dramatically towards the alter.  Again, to understand what we are trying to explain, check Tim's Facebook page.  The last stop was the d'reguer stop at a market. Like all of the previous markets that our cruise has actually let us browse, this was a high end market.  Unfortunately, because of the general lack of organization in the tour, we were given ten minutes to spend in the Market! Really!  The Cote D'Ivoire will not be among our favorite stops.

If this is Thursday, November 21, 2024 this must be Takoradi, Ghana. As our loyal readers know,  Lynda invariably finds a day where she decides: "Not for me today. Have fun Tim". Today was the day.  The excursion started with drive-by's that Tim won't even begin to describe, they were that boring.  Monkey Hill anyone?  The first actual stop was a major fishing port in Sekondi, right next to Takoradi. They are considered the Twin Cities of Ghana.  While not exactly Minneapolis/St.Paul, we'll give them some slack.  There had to be at least a hundred fishing boats in this port. Today happened to be a day when they were not fishing. It turns out this "fishing village" has a conscience. They do not fish two days a week and take the whole month of August off from fishing in order to maintain the vitality of their fishing grounds. Today was one of the non-fishing days so there was a party like atmosphere around the docks. First we were shown how the large blocks of ice that each fishing boat needs to keep its catch fresh are made. It is an amzing process.  Tim can't explain it clearly enough (he's had two G and T's while writing this blog) the process but in a matter of minutes they took a large steel ice tray, for lack of a better description, and froze ten large blocks of ice.  Again check the Facebook page for pictures. From there we wonder around the docks where people were selling stuff including fresh caught fish. There were a number of women wondering among everone, balancing containers on their heads, selling fish, food products, etc.  Tim even saw one woman balancing a container that contained women's bras.  Tim never saw anyone trying on any of the bras. As we left the docks we stopped briefly for a photo op at the place where the fishing boats are built. The rest of the tour was the usual. A stop at a Market and a stop at a "Cultural Experience".  More African drums and dancers. It was a very hot and muggy day, temps and humidity in the mid-80's. None of us were disappointed to get back to the ship.

Tim was suprised to arrive back at the cabin on board ship to find Lynda dressed and ready to go to lunch, which we did. After lunch we went back off the ship to where many stalls had been set up on our pier, selling the usual souvenier clothing, art and crafts. We actully bought each other  a matching shirt, for Tim, and dress, for Lynda. Our children/grandchildren will be embarrassed.