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Bosnia and Herzegovina Europe Serbia

Stuck in the Snow in Serbia

While looking for good day trips outside of Sarajevo that weren’t Mostar, I found one that I was really excited about that went to East Srpska and Western Serbia. Bosnia and Herzegovina is very interesting, politically – even from the name, it’s easy to tell that it defines itself as multiple different segments, under one umbrella. Geographically, Herzegovina is the southern part, which includes Mostar, and then the north and east are considered Bosnia. There are also two political entities. One is the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the other is Republika Srpska. Srpska often identifies more heavily with Serbia, both in their flag and their traditions. It made for a very interesting day trip, because we got to see very different parts of BiH and we had a guide for this portion, so we could ask lots of questions.

The landscape felt a lot like Colorado as we headed out of Sarajevo and headed to our first stop, Visegrad. The bridge was originally built during the Ottoman empire and is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. After walking across it and admiring the town from the bridge, we boarded a boat to get a better view!

Once we had taken it all in, we headed into town. Part of Visegrad had been built as a film set, called Andricgrad. It had very strange vibes – kind of Truman Show, with the appearance of an “old town” but clearly brand new.

One of the other interesting things we saw in Srpska was this billboard, with their leader, Milorad Dodik. We had asked if there were going to be any celebrations for the 30th anniversary of the peace treaty, and our guide shook his head and told us that things were still tense. In my understanding, Dodik had attempted to enact new laws that were challenged by the courts, and the courts in the Federation also responded by sentencing him to prison. He responded that he would not recognize their decision and was attempting to rile up the population in Srpska to support him against the Federation. Things seem to be settling down again now – the news articles aren’t more recent than March, when I was there.

Our next stop was the Dobrun Monastery, which Wikipedia informs me was built in 1343. Its location along the banks of the river was very scenic.

After that stop, we crossed into Serbia! We ended up getting lunch at another film set town. Is it odd they have so many film sets in this tiny part of the Balkans? This was designed to look like a traditional Serbian village for the film Life Is a Miracle. I found it to be more charming than Andricgrad, personally.

Once we’d had lunch, we headed into Tara National Park to go to a viewpoint. Unfortunately, the farther we got on the road, the icier it got, until we went down a hill and then weren’t able to get up the next one. Which was fine, we would just turn around…. except, we couldn’t get up the hill we had just come down, either. Our guide told us to get out of the car (me, Grace, and a Polish woman who was on the tour with us) and he tried to get it up the hill. And then tried, and tried, and tried. All told, it took about two hours where we were stuck on the side of the road, waiting for our car. A huge thank you to all the lovely Serbians who stopped to try to help us and wait with us!

Luckily, the car did get unstuck, and we got down the mountain again and back to Sarajevo! It was certainly an adventure. I will want to go back to Serbia, as I’d like to see Belgrade and Nish and a few other places, but I will never forget my first time.

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Bosnia and Herzegovina Europe

Sarajevo Weekend

I first visited Bosnia and Herzegovina on a day trip from Dubrovnik, when I went to Mostar. I loved it immediately – it was one of the highlights of a whole month of travel, and I was eager to go back to experience more of the country! As it turns out, I ended up getting to come back sooner than I expected, in a long weekend with a friend of a friend who I only met when she showed up at the Airbnb. Alan, our mutual friend, ended up having to pull out of the trip at the last minute due to a skiing injury. While it was a bummer not to get to experience the trip with him, I still had an amazing time!

I had most of the first day by myself, since I landed at 11 am (after an extremely tight layover) and then Grace didn’t arrive until dinner time. I started by wandering around the city center. The airport is a bit of a haul from the city. I wanted to take the bus, but it was infrequent and I would have had to wait for a long time, so I ended up sharing a taxi van to the city center with a few other travelers. Once you get there, though, almost everything is walkable, with one historical site as an exception.

Walking around the Old Town is very cool. The architecture is beautiful and I loved looking at all the shop displays, with the Bosnian tea sets and carpets and handicrafts. Grace and I didn’t do much the first night beyond figuring out dinner and getting settled in, but we got up early the next morning to see as much as we could!

We started with the Latin Bridge, which is one of the most important historical sites of the 20th century. This is where Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, which kicked off WW1 and led to millions of deaths. It’s such an unassuming place. It was very strange to stand there and think about how consequential it once was.

From there, we headed up to the Yellow Fortress, which had great views of the city! Luckily, the weather wasn’t too hot, because it did take a few steep hills to get there.

Sarajevo has a very dark recent history, and the museum options are plentiful but depressing. We ended up going with the Museum of Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide, which was a very good overview of the conflict and resulting genocide in the 90s. I knew a little about it, but not that much, and Grace and I ended up staying there for a long time reading through all the details and watching the videos of what life was like during the Siege.

It was so recent. This November will mark the 30th anniversary of the peace treaty between Bosnia & Herzegovina and Serbia, which means that pretty much any adult that we spoke with lived through the war and the genocide and the siege. As I’ve said before on this blog, I love to see when a place is resilient and manages to thrive after such horrible circumstances, and Sarajevo is an incredible example of it. The marks that were made on the city are still evident, from a few collapsed buildings that have never been rebuilt to evidence of mortar shellings, like the “Sarajevo roses” in the sidewalks where the holes were filled with a red material.

I spy at least three mortar shell scars on this building

After lunch, we continued with the historical tour, which did require a taxi. We wanted to go to the Sarajevo Tunnel, which is also known as the Tunnel of Salvation or Tunnel of Hope. It’s located back near the airport, pretty far out from the city center. It was worth the journey, though – very interesting to see how they got food and supplies into the city despite the blockades. I can’t imagine how harrowing it must have been in the dark under the threat of sniper fire and bombings.

With that, we called it a day, and had a really nice meal and drinks at a local restaurant. We had scheduled a tour for the next day, which deserves its own post (stay tuned), but it meant an early morning to make sure we had time to experience the full itinerary.

For our final day, Grace had more time than I did, so she managed to swing a day trip out to Mostar! I was heading out at 3 pm, so I had another quick walk around the city, trying to see some of the areas that we had been driven by but hadn’t had a chance to walk through, like Veliki Park and along the river.

I also managed to make it to another one of the museums I was very interested in, which was Gallery 11/07/95. It is a photo gallery of the genocide. The audio guide was excellent. They had several short films that did a great job illustrating what it was like to be there during the war. It was so impactful and moving. I am glad we did the museums in the order that we did, though, because I think this one benefitted from the knowledge I had gained up to that point. It allowed me to spend more time reflecting on what had happened vs. piecing together timelines and the progression of the tragedy.

After that, it was back to the airport for another set of flights. In this case, Sarajevo to Istanbul, Istanbul to Cairo, and a night at the airport hotel before a morning flight to my next destination.

If I ever intended to rank the countries I’ve visited, Bosnia and Herzegovina would definitely be up there for me! I’ve really enjoyed both of my visits. The culture is friendly, the landscapes are beautiful, and they do such a good job presenting their history and how it fits into the broader regional conflicts that were occurring throughout the fall of Yugoslavia.

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El Salvador Guatemala Honduras North America

The Ruins of Copán

When I was looking at my options of day trips from San Salvador, I found one that was ambitious but very interesting. It was doable to head into Honduras to see the ruins of Copán, which is a Mayan site that I was interested in seeing!

And when I say doable, it is still a long way. Over four hours by car each way, crossing through Guatemala. Four border crossings in total, for the very motivated who really want to see UNESCO’s cultural heritage site of Honduras. My tour picked me up at the crack of dawn, and I headed out. There were six of us total.

I technically count Guatemala as a country I’ve been to but it is top of my list to return to see it properly

After a gas station breakfast in Guatemala and watching the sun rise from the car, we made it to the ruins! As it turns out, they are a fantastic place for bird watching. They have scarlet macaws who frequent the area around Copán, which were so cool to see flying around us.

I also got to see toucans, which was a bucket list item for me! I had desperately wanted to see them when Megan and Matt and I were in Costa Rica, but they were elusive there.

Once we had all finished taking photos of birds, we headed to the ruins. Copán was a very important city to the Mayans, and today it remains significant because the sculptures and architecture is so well preserved. I’ve seen quite a few Mayan ruins throughout my travels in Central America, and Copán certainly ranks up there – the detail in the carvings was very cool!

The site was pretty large, and while there were other tour groups, Honduras doesn’t see the same number of tourists as many of its neighbors. Most of that is a reputation for being quite dangerous, as it has one of the highest murder rates of any country. In data I found from 2023, it was ranked 4th after Jamaica, Haiti, and Ecuador. That’s more in the cities, though, and I certainly didn’t feel unsafe in Copán. But it did mean that it doesn’t have the same overtourism problem that places like Chichén Itzá are facing. We saw a few other tour groups, but it never felt crowded.

Copán is a huge national symbol in Honduras, so some of what we saw was even on their money! I love seeing the architecture that’s represented on a country’s currency where I can.

Our guide was excellent as well. She knew a lot about the history of the site and what all the carvings meant. She told us how she wished that the government focused on developing tourism to Copán more, and investing in the infrastructure around it, since they have a world-class historical site in their backyard.

After the ruins, we headed to lunch in the adjacent town, which has the helpful name of Copan Ruinas. The food was very good and we had just enough time to do some shopping in the market before we got back in the car to head to San Salvador.

All in all, it was a great day trip. A lot of time in the car, but worth it to see one of the more interesting ruins in Central America and to get a chance to see a little of Honduras!

Categories
El Salvador North America

Weekend in El Salvador

Once, I was at the Dulles Airport very late at night, and I looked at the board and saw that all of the flights leaving were for Central America. There are a lot of direct flights from Dulles. I realized that maybe it might be possible to do a long weekend to Central America, which opened up some options! So far, I’ve traveled through Belize, Panama, and Costa Rica, so I had four countries left of the seven to explore. I settled on El Salvador – it’s small enough that I felt I would be able to see a fair amount, because the distances between things aren’t quite as much as, say, Guatemala and Nicaragua, and I’ve been curious about it for a while now.

It only took 4.5 hours to get to San Salvador. It’s amazing, living somewhere with so many direct flights, where I can get off a plane and find myself immersed in a different culture! I stayed in San Salvador, the capital, and used that as a base to explore a few areas of El Salvador. For such a small country, it has a lot to offer. I started with the Mayan ruins of Joya de Cerén and San Andrés.

I’ve seen a fair number of Mayan sites now, and I went to another on this trip that was more impressive (more on that later), but these were still interesting. I liked being able to peer down into the areas that were still being excavated and studied. The layers of rock were very neat.

From there, it was lunch near Coatepeque Lake! I loved the view from the restaurant. The color of the lake is gorgeous. If I’d had more time, I would have been interested in going down closer to the shore – it looked like there were communities down there that I would have loved to explore.

The whole area near the lake is part of a natural protected area, called Cerro Verde. After lunch, I headed there for an eco-walk, which included a higher viewpoint of the lake!

Overall, it was a good first day, but I liked my second full day in El Salvador a bit more. I did a tour of the Ruta de las Flores! And yes, it’s not completely “off the tourist trail,” but it did feel like a collection of places where locals were out and about, as opposed to that first day that was focused almost entirely on tourist sites.

I’m not saying going to tourist sites as a tourist is a bad thing, but I like to have a mix, and particularly in El Salvador, as their recent transformation is part of what drew me to visit. Their president, Nayib Bukele, was elected in 2019 and has been focused on radical changes ever since. Prior to his election as president, he served as the mayor of San Salvador.

He’s a polarizing figure – there is no question that under his leadership, the crime rate in El Salvador has plummeted, but his methods have led to a number of concerns over human rights. Also, when I say plummeted, murder rates went from a high of 66 per 100,000 people in 2012 to only 1.9 per 100,000 people in 2024, which is a decrease of 98% in only nine years. Those numbers are working in his favor. He was just reelected in 2024, winning a staggering 84.65% of the vote.

I was curious to see for myself what the new El Salvador looks like. I felt totally safe, even walking around by myself to get dinner as the sun went down. The Salvadorans were friendly and welcoming. I got the impression that tourism is on the upswing, with more tourists putting it on the radar now that the crime rate is lower.

One of the aspects of the tour that I really enjoyed was going to a coffee farm! Central America is known for producing great coffee, and it was cool to see the whole process. I’ve been to a few places that produced coffee, but this was a much more in-depth tour on how they get it from the plant to what I would put in a coffee maker or a French press.

There’s something very soothing about the beans drying out in the sun, being raked frequently like an oversized Japanese sand garden. On the other hand, once they’re put into the sacks, that work transporting them and confirming that they’re distributing the correct beans to the right places seems absolutely grueling.

Two full days is a short visit, to be sure. But I made the most of them, and I had a third day in the region that I used for a quick trip out of El Salvador – more on that next time. Because I dipped into my 2025 vacation days allocation for West Africa, I’m tighter on vacation this year, and this was a great use of a long weekend to explore a place that’s been on my radar for a while now. I would recommend longer if you have it, to spend more time in San Salvador and get out to the beaches (especially if you surf), but this was absolutely doable with the direct flight from DC.

All in all, it was a great Presidents’ Day weekend!

Categories
North America United States

Birmingham, Alabama

I’m very close to visiting all 50 states in the US! After my visit to Alabama in January, I was left with only three more, which is a goal I’d like to finish by the end of 2025. Right now, as the weather gets warmer, I’m putting it on pause, since I’m not interested in visiting the South in the middle of the summer, but I have tentative plans for state #50 so I’ll have to plan the other two as we get into fall.

For Alabama, I ended up choosing Birmingham for my visit. Montgomery was a close second – both cities have fascinating history in the Civil Rights era, but it seemed as though Birmingham would have more to see from a visitor’s perspective and better options for restaurants and bars. I’m sure I’ll make it to Montgomery at some point, but I had a nice weekend in Birmingham!

Birmingham’s story is one of a city rising out of the ashes. The path to civil rights in Alabama was not an easy one, and Birmingham once had the nickname of “Bombingham” for the 50 dynamite bombings that took place over about 20 years, from 1947 to 1965. The most famous is the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, which has been rebuilt and stands across from the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

The Civil Rights Institute is absolutely what drew me to Birmingham, and it didn’t disappoint. It did a great job covering the history of Birmingham and the broader Civil Rights movement, from sit-ins to the desegregation of buses to the Freedom Riders movement. The section on the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in particular was so well done, both on the events that happened leading up to it and the investigation that was done after the fact.

The park outside also had a set of sculptures and memorials related to the Civil Rights movement. I found the one where it feels as though you’re walking in between the snarling and barking dogs to be particularly interesting.

Downtown Birmingham maintains a lot of its historical charm, but then some parts of the city felt absolutely abandoned. It probably didn’t help that I was there in January. Still, the areas that were thriving seemed great, and I hope that same energy can sweep over the rest of the city.

After I’d visited all the other things I wanted to visit, like the historical sites and museums, I ended up stumbling upon a very cute indie movie theater! It’s called Sidewalk Film Center + Cinema, and I’m a little obsessed with it. Such cool vibes. If it was in the city where I lived, I would go there all the time. I went to see Nosferatu, which was a good one to see on the big screen. The photos below are from the bathroom, which stayed on theme.

Overall, Birmingham was a good weekend! Pleasant and interesting, with good food options and with plenty of options to fill a couple days. I’ll be heading back to the South a few times this year to finish my last few states, so it’s been nice to get a chance to learn about the Civil Rights history from the locations where it all happened.

Categories
Bahamas North America

A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Probably Do Again

In December, I was invited to celebrate a friend’s 30th birthday on a cruise to the Bahamas!

I’ve only been on a cruise once before. My parents and I went to Alaska when I was younger. They had always wanted to try a cruise, but we quickly realized it didn’t align well with our family’s travel style. My parents like road trips because they like to be in control of their own timing and be flexible in their plans, which doesn’t work well with the way that cruises operate with their tight deadlines* to get back on the ship. We only tried it the once. Alaska was amazing, though.

*Side note, I did read an absolutely fascinating article about the people who got left behind on a remote island in West Africa when they failed to make their cruise departure time.

For Phil’s birthday, it was a much better fit. He had pulled together a variety of people in his life, including family, friends he had grown up with, friends from DC, and travel friends, and all had pretty different levels of comfort with travel and interests. The cruise worked well because it meant none of us had to plan anything in advance. We could all grab drinks and dinner and mingle without anyone needing to split the check or pick a location – we could walk into an establishment, sit down, and stay as long as we liked. I can absolutely see it for large groups or families who want to spend time together without needing to plan every piece of their vacation.

We were meant to have two days in the Bahamas, but the sea was rough during our cruise. I took dramamine and was glad I did, because I didn’t get seasick. We did still get our day in Nassau, but our day at Royal Caribbean’s private island turned into a day at sea.

And of course, the first view of Nassau was Atlantis Resort!

Nassau was interesting – parts of it, right off the port, feel like an extension of the ship itself. Well-known international brands, a partially fenced off section that is filled with more souvenirs, drunk Americans and Europeans doing shots at the Señor Frog’s. But all it took was a walk a few blocks away to get out of the crowd of tourists, which was a much more pleasant walk.

We also visited the Straw Market. It had pretty decent souvenir options, but the part that I liked the most was our conversation with one of the shop owners. He explained how people pass down the stalls through the generations. This is one of the best options for making money in Nassau, and they hold tight to the real estate within the market, teaching their family the skills to make handicraft goods that tourists will want.

After having lunch in Nassau and exploring the city, we spent the rest of the time on the ship until we disembarked Monday morning. I had worried that it might feel oppressive. It really is massive, though. There was more than enough to explore over the course of a weekend. There are a ton of bars and restaurants and activities – we even did an escape room on our full at sea day.

There were also some areas of the ship that felt calm. The Solarium, which is an adults only section, had seats where you could lay down and watch the ocean, and I spent a nice morning drinking coffee there. They also have a whole floor that’s designed to look like Central Park. It was nice to have options for when I needed a moment to read and relax without feeling surrounded.

All in all, I enjoyed it more than I expected. I wouldn’t rush out and prioritize a cruise on my upcoming travels, but I also would consider it for destinations where that’s a good way to see the region. It was such a fun way to celebrate Phil’s birthday!

Categories
Africa Benin Côte d'Ivoire Ghana Guinea Guinea-Bissau Liberia Senegal Sierra Leone The Gambia Togo West Africa Road Trip

Reflections on West Africa

I’ve been posting about West Africa for 11 weeks, and the trip itself was wrapped up in a little over three weeks. My memories of it have benefited from going through the photos and writing about it here – it was amazing, even in the moment, but it was also full of long days and not enough sleep and terrible roads and swimming in a pool where crickets jumped in my hair.

There are reasons that West Africa is not the most touristy region out there. One of the ones I haven’t talked about much is the visas. As an American, 9 of the 10 countries required me to have a visa to enter.

  1. Only Senegal was visa-free, which was nice since that was the one where I entered and exited twice.
  2. I went to the embassy for The Gambia, where I paid $200 to get the stamp in my passport.
  3. We applied for Guinea-Bissau at the embassy in southern Senegal, as there is no Guinea-Bissau embassy in the US – it closed in 2007.
  4. Guinea was an e-visa. It was pretty fast for me, although others in my group had trouble.
  5. Sierra Leone was an e-visa, and was one of the smoothest ones.
  6. For Liberia, I paid Wander Expeditions to handle it, because their fee for helping wasn’t that much more than the embassy was going to charge me and I wanted to take something off my plate.
  7. Côte d’Ivoire had an online form to get a pre-approval, and then we finalized the visa at the airport when we landed in Abidjan. They took an absolutely terrible photo of me that now lives in my passport with an otherwise cool visa that has an elephant on it.
  8. I applied for Ghana at the consulate in DC. Theirs was annoying because they require you to not only have a hotel booking, but you need a letter from the hotel confirming that you’ve booked, which felt like a lot of work for something that I already had provided documentation on.
  9. Togo was the worst for me. This seemed to be an outlier opinion – most people in my group had a smooth time with the e-visa. Unfortunately, the website didn’t work very well for me. After SO many communications with their IT support team on the chat that didn’t seem to solve anything, one of the other travelers recommended I try it with a fully new phone number and email, which ultimately did work. Still, I only ended up getting my visa approved a few days before we were actually meant to enter the country. It was super stressful.
  10. Benin was the best – they were an e-visa as well, and I got their approval on the same day I applied.

It was an absolute marathon of visa applications. I do not intend to do anything like this again, to be honest, but as someone who does actually make my living in helping others with visa paperwork, it was a nice test of my skills. I had a color-coded Google doc that I was using to keep track of what documents I was waiting on or needed to gather, and what applications were pending and who had my passport.

The American passport is generally pretty strong. I’ve needed visas before, but nothing like this, and it is such a stark reminder of passport privilege. I understand why they’re doing it, for reciprocity, and I can’t be mad about it. I’ve helped people fill out the business visitor visas to enter the US, as well as the UK and Schengen ones, and they’re awful. They’re so intrusive, they need details that seem entirely irrelevant to a short visit, and I can’t begrudge a country for making us do something similar to enter their own borders. Still, it was both expensive and challenging for this trip.

After reading that, it does beg the question of whether that all was worth it. It probably isn’t, for everyone. There are certainly travelers who I’ve spoken to for whom this is their least favorite region because of the visas and other logistical challenges. But for me, I love seeing the places where other travelers don’t. It was not the easiest trip I’ve ever taken, but I did love the payoff of going to the villages and seeing the cultural practices and learning about places that aren’t as widely discussed on an international stage.

If you are interested in the region but aren’t quite as willing to be without creature comforts, there are options. Senegal and Ghana have probably the most tourist development and I would highly recommend either country, although out of those two I preferred Senegal. Côte d’Ivoire had some very modern places as well and some of our nicer hotels across the board, although it felt like you had to search a bit harder to get to the places that made it cool and unique. Benin did not have quite the same level of hotels, but was an amazing payoff that I think was worth a couple nights without air conditioning or a great shower.

I loved my time in West Africa. It was exhausting, but worth it. That said, I moved apartments immediately after I got back and that was the worst experience ever – I definitely wished I’d had proper recovery time afterwards to sleep in and veg for a weekend instead of immediately having to move all my possessions. So, you know…. plan better than I did!

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Africa Benin West Africa Road Trip

Beautiful Benin

Similar warning to my post in Togo – if you are sensitive to harm to animals, I recommend caution. There are less graphic photos here compared to what I saw in Togo but there will be a few photos and references to animal sacrifice here as well.

Our final land border crossing! Still smiling, somehow

Benin was an incredible finale to this trip. Even after nine other countries and several weeks in the region, Benin felt fresh and exciting, with unique rituals and dancing that we were lucky enough to experience. We started off with a voodoo ritual that involved a chicken sacrifice.

I saw a lot of chickens sacrificed in Togo and Benin. The first one did bother me, but most of the time, they died fairly quickly – I only had to look away in the few rituals where the chickens seemed to know and feel distress about their impending death. While there were parallels, the rituals themselves all felt pretty distinct, with different preparations and manners of death for the chickens.

We also saw a lot of different dances, which were very cool. I loved the elaborate costumes. Some of those looked challenging to dance in. Here were some of my favorites:

This whole performance was so cool! This one, along with many of the other dances we saw across West Africa, were always so high energy. The level of cardio you would need to learn and perform these would be intense. One of the other ones we saw reminded me a lot of capoeira, the Brazilian dance fighting, but they had blunted knives that they used in the dance as well.

What I loved about the dances and the rituals is that we saw a huge diversity of different practices. Sometimes, when you’re in a particular region for a long time, things start to blur together, and you don’t appreciate the new things as much because they feel too similar to what you’ve already seen. But in this case, Benin felt totally new and even within the country, there were a ton of cool types of dances that all felt unique.

Going to all of these dances and rituals got us out of the main population centers in Benin and out into the smaller towns and villages.

One of the rituals that’s unique to this region is the Zangbeto. They are voodoo guardians. In some of the rituals, they are overturned and there are other protectors underneath, like statues or snakes.

The one that shocked me the most was when they flipped over one of the Zangbeto and there was a baby crocodile underneath!

We also spent some time seeing the historic sites of Benin, like their UNESCO site in Abomey.

One of the other historic sites we visited was Benin’s Door of No Return monument in Ouidah, which was a bit different than the versions I had seen in Senegal and Ghana. Instead of a door that was part of a fortress, this one is designed as a memorial to those who were taken away from their homes.

We spent some time in Porto-Novo, the capital, and Cotonou, the seat of government and economic center. Porto-Novo had some beautiful architecture in their old town.

For one of our days in Benin, we headed to Ganvie! Ganvie is a lake village, and was originally a way for people to stay safe from the slave catchers, as they were somewhat “off the grid.” I love the chance to see a place by a boat ride, and Ganvie was definitely worth the visit.

One of the wildest experiences I had in Benin was the Python Temple. This was in Ouidah. The snakes are an important religious symbol, and it’s a huge honor to be one of the priests who cares for them. They even let us hold them and get quite close to the snake pit. This was my first time holding a snake!

All in all, Benin was amazing. One of my favorite parts of the trip! It was such a good way to end the trip across the region, and I would definitely recommend it to people who are interested in traveling to parts of Africa that are a bit more “off the tourist path.” It’s not a safari destination. Or at least, the parts we went weren’t – I think West Africa does have some safari opportunities farther from the coast. But if you want to explore somewhere that is safe, friendly, and has a fascinating culture, Benin should absolutely be on your radar.

Categories
Africa Togo West Africa Road Trip

An Introduction to Voodoo in Togo

Starting this off with a warning – there are some fairly graphic photos of dead animals in this post. Togo and Benin are considered the birthplace of voodoo practices, which was fascinating to learn about and provided some of the highlights of the whole trip, but those practices do include animal sacrifice.

We started our day off with a drive to the border and a lengthy border crossing. Togo’s stamps took up an entire page in my passport. Thankfully I’d gotten a new one expressly for this trip. Most border agents were fairly polite about the way they stamped and made everything pretty neat, but there were so many visas and stamps and crossings that it chewed through a lot of pages.

We started in Lomé’s main market and visited the cathedral. You may be wondering about the prominence of a cathedral in a place where voodoo is practiced. We asked our guide, Isaac, about that, and he said that the people of Togo and Benin do not consider it to be an either/or. You don’t have to choose Christianity or voodoo, but you can practice both. The way he described it, it was Christianity during the day and voodoo during the night.

We ascribed to the same principles, I guess, because as the sun went down, we headed to the Akodessawa Fetish Market. This is not the way that most Westerners use the word “fetish,” just to be clear – there are no sexual connotations here. A fetish in voodoo culture is a powerful object, like an amulet or a talisman. Our guide basically said that this is where you would come if you needed parts of a specific animal for a ritual.

“Let’s say you went to the voodoo practitioner and he told you that you needed a chameleon,” Isaac said, choosing an extremely relatable example that I’m sure all of us have experienced. And yes, I did see dead chameleons at the market.

It was both heartbreaking and fascinating. Nothing really could have prepared me for walking behind a table filled with horns and feathers and skulls and skins, only to find a basket of dog heads staring back at me. And once we’d had a chance to explore, we got our first look at the kind of ritual that such a market facilitates.

First, we were taken to a room where they explained the various types of fetishes to us, including ones that helped travelers stay safe and ones that kept people healthy and ones that helped in the romance department. And then, once we had seen how those worked, we headed back outside for the main event: a chicken sacrifice.

We saw a lot of chickens get sacrificed as we traveled across Togo and Benin. Sometimes, the death was quick and the birds didn’t seem to know they were coming, and those were more or less fine. That wasn’t the case here – to be honest, I found this one pretty upsetting. I felt as though the chicken was in distress, and when he reached for another one, I wandered back through the market instead. The bones were even more unsettling in the moonlight.

From there, we headed to our hotel on the beach!

Togo was a fascinating introduction to voodoo culture. I have never seen anything like the Akodessawa Fetish Market and I can’t imagine that I will again. We didn’t spend too much time in Togo, as we were heading to Benin the next day, but it was extremely memorable! And Benin absolutely blew me away… but that’s a story for next time.

Categories
Africa Ghana West Africa Road Trip

Gorgeous Ghana

And on to Ghana! At this point in the trip, I’d been traveling for 16 days and this was the 8th new country I entered. It was a punishing schedule. We often had full driving days and repacking almost every night. We skipped a lot of lunches and had protein bars, and the vegetarian options were “meh” at best at most of our stops. Most of the people I was traveling with got colds around this time, because we were all running on limited sleep. Still, Ghana marked the end of one tour and the beginning of another, and there’s something invigorating about meeting new travelers.

Of all the places we visited, Ghana probably had the most robust tourist infrastructure, with Senegal coming in a close second. We had nicer hotels and more dinner options across the board, which was a nice change of pace. After a short flight from Abidjan and a night out in Accra, we headed to Cape Coast.

Like Senegal, Ghana has a significant amount of historical sites related to the slave trade. We visited the Cape Coast Castle first and went through the details of what happened there. Each of these that we went to has its own version of the Door of No Return, where those who were enslaved last set foot on the African continent. It’s definitely a sobering piece of history.

From there, we headed to Elmina. We started with a walk through the town, including a visit to the harbor, which was very cool, and then headed to the Elmina Castle. It’s hard to do those visits back to back. They’re emotionally difficult places to visit, not unlike a concentration camp or a memorial to genocide. By the time we went for dinner, it was nice to get a chance to think about Ghana’s present and not its past.

Like many places I visited in West Africa, this one had a magnificent beach, and I enjoyed watching the sun set over the water.

The next morning, we headed to Kakum National Park! It reminded me a lot of the hanging bridges in Costa Rica, except it looked far more rickety. I would not recommend this to anyone with a fear of heights. It was gorgeous, but there was a part of me that wondered if the bridges would hold, especially when they creaked as we stepped onto them and rocked back and forth if more than one person dared cross at the same time.

I am actually shocked how tan I look here?

After the national park, we headed back to Accra! We started with the thing I was most excited to see in Ghana: coffin shopping.

Yes, that’s an absolutely wild sentence, isn’t it? Let me clarify. Ghana has a cultural practice that is completely unique across the world, where they build what are called “fantasy coffins” or “figurative coffins.” They build on themes that are important to the individuals in life. It can be related to that person’s job or calling, or it can be something that they loved, but it should represent them in some way to facilitate their journey into the afterlife.

I had read about the practice before but it was SO cool to get to see it in person. They showed us what they were working on, and then they had stacks of photos to show us all the amazing and intricate work they had done in the past. I’ve always wanted to be cremated, but if this was my option for burial I’d strongly consider it.

Once we were done coffin shopping, we headed to the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum, which was an interesting look at Ghana’s history and the way that they present their country’s founding.

We ended the day at Black Star Square, which celebrates Ghana’s independence. I’m glad to have seen the main sites in Accra, but I do think I got a better sense of the city going out to the bars on our first night in Ghana!

The next day, it was another drive across Ghana so we could cross into Togo. After the trouble I’d had getting my Togo visa, I was just excited that I had all my paperwork in order! I would definitely consider revisiting Ghana and spending more time there, though – it was a nice visit, and I think the country has a lot to offer. Ghana and Senegal are often spoken about as the gateways to West Africa for travelers who are looking to explore the region for the first time, and I can see why on both counts.