Life's a Beach!

We finally had a chance to search for the beach last Saturday. We were told that it wasn't too far away from the school. So we set off to find it.

A lizard was keeping guard on one of the posts along the route.

 

It took us about 15 minutes from the school to find the beach road, which led to the beach itself.



The houses on the right were really fancy. I think the gate's there to limit access. No one was there when we walked by. See the sand in the distance!? With me is Naphtali, one of our teachers.

When we made it to the end of the road, we took off our sandals and walked to the water, which was about 300 meters away.


It was windy on the beach. What seemed like little tuffs of hair were blowing around. Actually they were these little crabs, which were almost transparent.

Here we are just away from the surf. The water was warm!

The beaches right now aren't safe to swim or play in. There is a wicked rip-tide that will sweep you away. The shore isn't shallow or flat, buy quite steep. So we just walked along for awhile. There weren't many people at the beach at all.

 

Close to where we entered the beach we saw these beach huts. Some people were beginning to gather for some shade and fun. The music was loud!

We were approached by some beach vendors, wanting us to buy goodies. One persistent young girl gave us "the eye" when we didn't purchase anything from here. This woman and her cute child were the most colorful and least demanding!



The beaches in Cotonou sure have the possibility for attracting many tourists. There is still much for the government to do, infrastructure-wise, for tourism to be a contributing industry for the country and her people.

We hope to visit some other beaches further to the west of where we were. We hear there are huts you can rent for the night and some interesting places to eat. Stay tuned for that adventure!