As it’s half term, we had a couple of nights in Grand Popo (a name most Germans find very amusing), which is the main seaside resort for Benin. There are a few places to stay along the coast, but our favourite is Awale Plage, which has comfortable rooms, a nice pool and (usually) good food.

I say usually as the meals were substandard the first night, and the bread and butter arrived after the main course! Rooms have either air-conditioning or just fans. As it’s now rainy season, our room just had fans – a simple room with loo & shower room to the rear, a wooden upper floor with another double bed (where the kids sleep) and a nice terrace out the front. We don’t have a photo of the rooms, but I just found one here, along with some more interesting information.
For breakfast, we always like to go down the coast a couple of miles, to the Auberge de Grand Popo , which does a great petit déjeuner complet with omelette, pineapple, fruit juice, great hot chocolate and delicious coconut jam! And all with a view of the sea. The main reasons we don’t tend to stay here are (i) the pool is pretty lousy and (ii) there is no mosquito screening on the windows. The setting is lovely, though less self-contained than Awale:

The beach is fun, but currents can be very strong, so we don’t tend to go in too deep:

One interesting sight is the local villagers pulling up their fishing net from the sea. The net is huge and this can take hours:

Other news:

• Rob’s recovered from his malaria followed by a cold and is off to Togo on Wednesday, to record one of the smallest people groups in the country.
• We met a French bloke yesterday who’s in Cotonou for 3 months and who will be studying a Cranfield University, Bedforshire, next year! Wow! He’s interested in ABC, so we’ll put him in touch with some folk nearer the time.
• More rain and an outside temp of 25 degrees C, very nice!

Thanks for visiting!