After a long plane ride, we landed in Abidjan! We found a dinner place near our hotel, which made for a great first night in Côte d’Ivoire. While we didn’t spend much time in the city of Abidjan, the impressions I did have were generally pretty positive. The city seemed pretty clean and modern.
From Abidjan, we drove out to Bouaflé to watch the Zaouli mask dance. This was one of my favorite cultural experiences of the trip – the dancing was amazing. I was so impressed by how fast and intricate the footwork was. The still images definitely don’t do it justice. It was really cool to get the chance to see it live. The people of the village were welcoming and excited to share their culture with us. I found this to be true across West Africa. These destinations that aren’t on the typical tourist trail aren’t tired of seeing foreigners, they’re often excited to get the chance to engage with you.
From there, we headed to Yamoussoukro. Yamoussoukro is the capital of Côte d’Ivoire, which is an interesting choice given it has a population of only about 400,000 while Abidjan is where over a fifth of the country live, with a population of 6.3 million people. Fun fact, Yamoussoukro is also the home of the largest Christian church in the world. It’s called Our Lady of Peace and it literally holds a Guinness World Record for its size.
For the record, it is 320,000 square feet // 30,000 square meters, and 518 feet or 158 meters tall. This was our first order of business. Also, I had to borrow a skirt from them, because I hadn’t realized we were going to a church and I was wearing shorts. We weren’t allowed to take many pictures inside, but we could take them from the doorway, and then we had a full tour of the church.
After the church, we went to an area where the local people were making the beautiful bolts of cloth that you find in the markets across West Africa. It was fascinating to watch. The construction of the looms was so interesting to me. It can sometimes feel strange to watch people who are just doing their jobs, but they did seem to like showing us around and explaining how it all worked.
Côte d’Ivoire was the end of a two week tour, so a lot of the focus was on the meals and going out for drinks and enjoying the last few days with the people who we had just befriended on the trip. Some of us were continuing on, heading to Ghana, Togo, and Benin, but most of the group was heading to the Abidjan airport to start making their way home. Saying goodbye was bittersweet, but I really enjoyed the sites and experiences we got in Côte d’Ivoire!