Thanks for all the beach Ivory Coast, but I've got a plane to catch

It's been 4 days and 3 nights since I settled down here in the Grand Bassam.  I've laid on the beach, eaten good street food and explored Abidjan.  But now it's finally time to go back to the USA.

Abidjan is a cool city, though still a little war torn.  They haven't picked up all the pieces or torn down all the partially destroyed buildings.  But in maybe 5 years, I will definitely want to come back.  There are about a half-dozen city sectors and each one has there own color taxi, but the orange ones go everywhere.  There are big buildings and malls and crowed residential buildings and corner markets and street sandwiches with fish, meat, guacamolé, fries, fried plantains and all sorts of vegetables.  There's lots of Mediterranean inspired restaurants.  Grand Bassam is a 1$ taxi van ride away and you can easily get $10-20 rooms.  I estimate that may go up to the $50 range when things get going, but still pretty cheap for what you get.

Maybe I was easily impressed because the standard of hotel rooms was so much higher than in my small Burkinabé village.  This trip was a great transition for me.  I was pretty morose on the train ride over from Ouagadougou.  Getting all the depression from leaving my village out of my system, and on the beach no less, will make my homecoming much happier for me.

Barry Goes to Côte d'Ivoire

I boarded the train at 9am Saturday thinking I would arrive at 2am Tuesday, sleep in the station till sunrise, and then go on to my hotel.  The 2nd class seating (1st class was sold out) consists of unpadded McDonalds style benches.  It wasn't too comfortable and sleeping was impossible.  But the view was incredible.

10 hours going through the jungle and all of a sudden this basilica pops up out of the palm trees.

Unfortunately, we got in at 6pm Sunday.  I was happy to be off the train but finding a hotel in a strange city at dusk makes me a little nervous.  I got a taxi and said to take me to a hotel in the 20-30$ range.  After an hour of driving around, looking for this guy's buddy in the Angré quarter, we found him and he took us to a couple of hotels that are called 'residences' for tax purposes.  It was dark and I was a little nervous, but being from Ouagadougou and knowing so much about Burkina Faso helped me because this guy says he specializes in helping Burkinabe businessmen find lodging in Abidjan.  The 2nd place we check out seems fine and I pay the $22 and half expected to get robbed, my comeuppance for poor planning.  But my luck held out and I was more than happy.

I think the guy, despite my appearing to know about Burkina, was still worried that I would be Americanly unimpressed with the lodgings.  Dude, I've been living in a village of 4000 for 2 years.  There was a tiny kitchen, a toilet, a TV with Canal+ and an AC.  I'm satisfied.  No running water?  Son I invented no running water.  Give me a giant barrel of water and a few buckets and I'm happy.  I slept in 18 degrees C with a big smile on my face.

This morning (today is Monday) I get in touch with my info guide and he tells me how to get to the Grand Bassam, where my planned hotel is.  I'm 500 meters from the beach and I'm paying $10 a night.  The lodging is spartan, but remember that I'm a Peace Corps Volunteer.  This place has a fan and running water! I can take a bush taxi into Abidjan for $1 anytime I want.  I'll go explore a couple of markets, a couple of city sectors, and the beach.

3 days till my flight leaves.  Or I could just live here and set up a frozen banana stand.

Thanks for all the fun Burkina Faso, but I've got a train to catch.

In about 12 hours I'll board the Ouaga-Abidjan train.  It should take about 40 hours.  That's a whopping 17.5 mph.  Lot's of small town stops I guess.  A bus does it in about 20 I think.

A little bit about the Ivory Coast.  There are no confirmed cases of Ebola yet (8/8/14), despite being a neighbor to Liberia with it's closed borders and everything.  Abidjan is practically American level of development.  I speak french and a bit of Jula, which is also spoken there, so I'll be prepared to handle the less-than-friendly people.  Taking the train, I won't have to worry about road bandits.  I'm travelling light, one backpack and one clothes bag that I can jettison real quick if things get nasty.

About the train.  I missed out on a first class seat.  They have one single first class car and it always sells out.  I even tried to buy 5 days in advance.  So I'll have to sit in one of the like 30 2nd class train cars.  So many times in west Africa I see missed opportunities on maximizing profit.  1st class is only 40000 Francs as opposed to 27500 for 2nd class.  40000 Francs is like a decent sized fan, if you pay the tourist price.

I guess that's why it's so easy for European and Middle Eastern businessmen to come in and run everything. The seats in 2nd class are basically plastic McDonalds benches.

I took a couple of long train rides when I studies abroad but the Ivory Coast could easily be the most beautiful trip.  Hopefully the scenery is nice and my appetite for reading stays firm, because this guy just died on me.

My bro gave that to me on like the last day before I left for Burkina Faso IIRC.  Travelling in-country is one of the biggest complaints from volunteers who have to deal with Burkinabe pestering them for money or to take them to America.  Me, I just put on my gigantic headphones and descend into a wonderful world of Led Zeppling, Girl Talk and trance music and I'm there in a heartbeat.  Anyone bugs me, I just stare blankly at them and mouth (in English teehee) that I don't understand.  Jeff definitely gets the award for most valuable addition to my pre-Burkina packing list because genius Barry wasn't planning on bringing a music device.

I have someone who I'll meet in Abidjan, friend of a friend, so I won't be alone.  It should be a nice relaxing end to my time in Africa.  If it's not, I hid the rubies in my latrine.  Trust me, they're down there.