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Richard Trillo commented about Is Haiti in East or West Africa, On Sunday November 8th, 2009 03:06:53 PM
Andy, you're right, the vast majority of Haiti's slaves came from the western side of Africa - particularly the present-day areas of Congo, Angola, Ghana and the coastal regions of Nigeria and Cameroon. I think there would be effectively no Haitians of East African descent. East African slaves weren't really involved in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, they were shipped to the Arabian peninsula and other parts of the Middle East and across the Indian Ocean. There's still a ex-slave community in Iran.
Richard
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Richard Trillo commented about Gaddafi Marks his Territory in the USA, On Wednesday September 23rd, 2009 10:25:05 AM
I say kudos to Barack Obama for being more of an internationalist than any of his predecessors. And much as he may hate a lot of what Gaddafi says and does (most decent people would), he recognises that the world is a tiny village, and it has only one street. And we all live on that street. We have to learn to get along as neighbours. After all, who sells the arms that allows Gaddafi to hold his country in fear? Whoever it is (I'm not going to go and find out now, probably the French. . .), they're allies and close chums of the USA. And who sold the Mujahideen (later became the Taliban) the weapons to fight the Russians 20 years ago? Yup, guessed it in three letters.
Nationhood is an increasingly washed-up concept.
Sorry, rant over, soap box kicked to one side!
Richard
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Richard Trillo commented about Somebody Read a Doug Lansky Book, On Thursday September 17th, 2009 10:52:52 AM
Andy
Doug Lanksy's a friend of mine, and a great writer. Full disclosure: he's another Rough Guide author! He helps people do what you're doing, in a book called "First Time Around The World: A Rough Guide Special" (ISBN 9781843536611). Very useful, though you could probably give *him* a few tips. . .
I don't know if this e comes from one of his books, I think it may have been in the lecture he gave.
Happy travels,
Richard
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Richard Trillo commented about Laundry Soap in Small Bags Travel Tip, On Sunday June 21st, 2009 03:53:02 PM
Its also the best way to spread wealth.
Buy a big bulk box of Omo: one (relatively) rich wholesaler gets a wee bit richer.
Buy 50 tiny sachets across the country: 50 households earn another spoonful of rice or ugali.
Of course, always buy small when travelling (I might adjust that advice when buying mobile phone airtime. . . )
Richard
Comment About Laundry Soap in Small Bags Travel Tip
Richard Trillo commented about 2009 June 3 Enter Kenya Leave Tanzania, On Thursday June 4th, 2009 11:01:34 AM
Karibu tena Kenya! (Welcome back to Kenya. . . there you go Andy, two more Swahili words).
The thing about the visa is confusing for people, but what they seem to do is have an agreement with Tanzania and Kenya that you can visit those countries on a single entry Kenya visa and return to Kenya within the visas validity, and nothing more to pay.
However. . . they got you at Moyale. Since April 1 the Kenya visa price was reduced to $25. Some of the immigration posts have been a bit slow to notice the new instruction. . .
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Richard Trillo commented about My Kahama Tanzania Friends, On Monday June 1st, 2009 09:23:41 AM
Hi Andy, you need to learn some Kiswahili! MyEye is actually mayai, just means eggs. Im enjoying your posts again, having had a period of voluntary abstinence when I was travelling myself and couldnt deal with all the mail and inbox clutter. But in recent weeks, Ive noticed youve been concentrating a lot on this body odour topic, which seems like something you should have got used to a long time ago. In my experience, people bathe very frequently in Africa, even if it means walking a long way to a stream of fresh water. But in many parts its rare that people use chemical deodorants or anti-perspirants to mask their natural perfume. Are you still doing that yourself?
Comment About My Kahama Tanzania Friends
Richard Trillo commented about Van from Antigua to Panajachel Guatemala, On Wednesday April 9th, 2008 08:20:00 AM
Hi Andy
Great to hear you're having such a good time in Guatemala. I drove down from San Francisco to Panajachel in the summer of 1978. . .wow, 30 years ago. Doesn't feel like it (as my parents used to say, etc).
Forget tagging your travels to Google Maps, pin up your route and photos on Google Earth. I'll email you your current position!
Take care,
Richard
http://theroughguidetowestafrica.blogspot.com
http://theroughguidetokenya.blogspot.com
http://theroughguidetothegambia.blogspot.com
Comment About Van from Antigua to Panajachel Guatemala
Richard Trillo commented about Blackbeard the Pirate, On Friday March 28th, 2008 12:16:00 PM
Don't you mean a Little Egret, Andy?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egret
The Rough Guide to West Africa
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Richard Trillo commented about Crisscross West Africa Travel, On Thursday September 20th, 2007 06:48:00 AM
Yes, they completed the Nouakchott to Nouadhibou paved road a couple of years ago. So it's tarmac all the way from Dakar to Paris.
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Richard Trillo commented about Washing My Clothes in Ghana, On Friday September 14th, 2007 03:01:00 PM
It's hard to fathom the economics of a cash economy slapped down on top of a subsistence economy. Fact is, most people you see around, by the road, especially in the rural areas have no money. They have no money at all. They have no cash. Nada. As you say, if somebody who owns a hotel says, let's run a laundary service, then they'e going to apply the prices that they expect their guests can afford, ie something like a dollar per item.
And your pigs question? I've always assumed it just means there are few Muslims in the area. North and West Africa used to have a big pig culture before Islam became so important in the fourteenth to eighteenth century, and you still see these scrwawny hogs, running around like goats in certain places. It's extraordinary. And then you go 10km down the road, and they're gone, and you're back to sheep and chickens and goats climbing in the thorn trees.
All the best for the next stage,
Richard
http://theroughguidetowestafrica.blogspot.com
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Richard Trillo commented about Crisscross West Africa Travel, On Friday September 14th, 2007 02:41:00 PM
Good idea, Andy. I reckon once you get to Dakar you could be in London in under two weeks overland. It's a good paved road the whole way now. No more sand (nearly).
Bon voyage,
Richard
http://theroughguidetowestafrica.blogspot.com
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Richard Trillo commented about West Africa Jump Gates, On Thursday August 23rd, 2007 06:18:00 PM
Don't forget Andy, you can fly from Banjul to London (The Gambia Experience, about $300–400), or from Mopti or Atar to Paris with Point-Afrique (probably less). Or you can go overland from Dakar to Spain in about a week to 10 days, just taking a lift with someone (I would guess $100+ would cover your share of fuel).
You are always connected.
Richard
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Richard Trillo commented about Is Togo to Senegal by the Coast Possible, On Saturday August 11th, 2007 11:25:00 AM
Hi Andy
It's a tempting route, but I think it's a pipedream at the moment. I'd love you to prove me wrong, but my worry would be southwest Côte d"Ivoire (not a happy part of the world in recent years) and the border from there into Liberia. And you're right, it's not actually possible to hug the coast along this part of West Africa. It's nearly all mangroves or tidal creeks through Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. In fact Ghana is the best place to do it, I mean where the road actually runs behind the beach (as in Lomé), for a part of the way. But if I was you, I'd head up through Ghana to Ouagadougou and Bobo, then cut into Mali and bike through Guinea. Guinea is the most beautiful country in West Africa. You would love it there, and people not nearly so Francophile as in Togo, Côte d'Ivoie etc. Bike through the Fouta Djalon hills, and go on the route from Pita to Télimélé - awesome scenery. Then. . .assuming today's elections have gone smoothly, you can go down to Freetown or visit the Bijagós islands off the coast of Guinea-Bissau – superb beaches and really amazing people who don't get much contact with Europeans (or mainlanders). After that, Senegal will be a snap, and probably feel a bit like getting back to Europe in comparison.
Bon voyage!
Richard
richardtrillo@blueyonder.co.uk
http://theroughguidetokenya.blogspot.com
http://theroughguidetothegambia.blogspot.com
http://theroughguidetowestafrica.blogspot.com
Discount flights with profits to development: www.northsouthtravel.co.uk
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Richard Trillo commented about West Africa I Crossed the Line, On Thursday August 9th, 2007 05:41:00 AM
Andy, what was the question? (!) The original French, German one.
Hang on in there,
Richard.
Comment About West Africa I Crossed the Line
Richard Trillo commented about Importance of French Spelling, On Tuesday August 7th, 2007 03:14:00 AM
Hi Andy
French is an absolutely pig of a language to learn, almost as hard as English I'm told. But if you know the word means slowly, why not look up slowly in the English-French section. And then you should it find it says "doucement". Actually I've just tried it with the rather crap translation widget I sometimes use and that translated slowly as lentement and gently as doucement. But even that's a help – French adverbs usually end -ment, just as English ones end -ly.
Good luck, or I guess I should say bon chance! Or is it bonne chance as chance is feminine. . . damn.
Richard Trillo
richardtrillo@blueyonder.co.uk
http://theroughguidetokenya.blogspot.com
http://theroughguidetothegambia.blogspot.com
http://theroughguidetowestafrica.blogspot.com
Discount flights with profits to development: www.northsouthtravel.co.uk
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Richard Trillo commented about The World Compared to What, On Tuesday July 31st, 2007 03:49:00 AM
I hear what you say Andy, but the world is a very small place and we are right on the edge of making it uninhabitable. We've just had floods in England from the heaviest rain in 200 years and there are tens of thousands of people with no safe drinking water. And in China the floods have killed hundreds and made millions homeless. Yet they are still building coal-fired power stations at the rate of, I think 100 a year. And they have every right to make their lives better. I don't know what the answer is, and for sure travel isn't the only source of the problem – mostly it's just the way we live, consuming and consuming and pumping more carbon into the atmosphere. But we can't go on just letting the market and the "current financial year" dictate everything. I would like my children and grandchildren to experience the joys of travel as I did when I first left home and I worry that the world we're creating won't allow that. Nothing lasts forever, progress and good times aren't guaranteed and at every stage in human history people have looked back on the past with the knowledge that they with living in modern times. I just think people need to use their imagination more.
Hence, my idea about trains!
Comment About The World Compared to What
Richard Trillo commented about The World Compared to What, On Monday July 30th, 2007 02:55:00 AM
Hi Andy. Interesting post. Peters' projetion is much more accurate than Mercator, but it distorts countries in a another way, making the equatorial countries look too tall and thin and the countries at the extremes of the latitudes, like Russia and New Zealand, too short and wide. But the big service to fairness that it performs is too show the true relative sizes of of countries, which suddenly makes Africa, particularly, look as huge as it really is.
I don't agree with all of your thoughts about buses. . . Yes, they are the way the world travels, mostly, and yes it would be interesting to come up with a world map based on journey times. But I think you're being unfair to trains. The problem with trains is they're too small, way too small, and still not fast enough. George Monbiot's book "Heat" about climate change, speculates on the possibility of a high-speed rail link from the UK to India. I thought that was extraordinary and let my imagination run with it for a bit: imagine a 24-hour train journey at 300kph in a train 10 metres wide and 10 metres high, on tracks 6 metres across. . . carrying maybe 5000 or 10,000 passengers.
It does sound far-fetched, but so would today's cheap air travel have sounded extremely far-fetched when our grandparents were young. I think we need to get building those big new railway tracks. Or we can kiss goodbye to world travel for most people in the next few decades. Which seems very unfair on the Indians, the Chinese and everyone else who is going to want to explore the world as the sea levels rise.
Bon voyage,
Richard
Richard Trillo
richardtrillo@blueyonder.co.uk
http://theroughguidetokenya.blogspot.com
http://theroughguidetothegambia.blogspot.com
http://theroughguidetowestafrica.blogspot.com
Discount flights with profits to development: www.northsouthtravel.co.uk
Comment About The World Compared to What
Richard Trillo commented about Efio Tiger Nut Togo Food, On Thursday July 26th, 2007 04:22:00 PM
They're delicious Andy. At least I think they are. Try them mixed with the rice the next time you cook rice. If you start with dried ones, very wrinkled and grey, then boiling them for a few minutes makes them swell and go from hard and chewy to tender and crunchy.
In Spain (and Mexico?) they make a wonderful cool drink from them called Horchata. You could sell it in your guesthouses. There's an idea!
http://www.xmission.com/~dderhak/recipe/horchc.htm
Bon continuation
Richard
richardtrillo@blueyonder.co.uk
http://theroughguidetokenya.blogspot.com
http://theroughguidetothegambia.blogspot.com
http://theroughguidetowestafrica.blogspot.com
Discount flights with profits to development: www.northsouthtravel.co.uk
Comment About Efio Tiger Nut Togo Food
Richard Trillo commented about Volunteer in Africa, On Friday July 6th, 2007 02:50:00 AM
Hi Andy
The need to give back in Africa seems be growing and I can understand why, especially as we get increasing indications of how badly we've mistreated the earth over the last couple of hundred years – climate change effects, strange weather, floods and droughts. All of which tends to be just inconvenient in the west at the present time (with big exceptions like the horror of Katrina), but routinely wipes out thousands of homes and lives in the poorer parts of the world.
But what can people actually do? It's pretty shameful that Marc and Taia should make a trip all the way to Togo only to find that the orphanage they were going to do voluntary work at isn't an orphanage at all. But at least they can go home again and return presumably to their regular lives.
That go-home-again option isn't open to an African migrant who somehow manages to get on one of those overloaded boats off Senegal or Mauritania and makes it into the EU. Assuming they don't drown, once they're in they're in, working in the underground economy, Western Union-ing their wages home to the family. That isn't really any more of a solution to Africa's poverty than sending money to charities, or doing some voluntary work in Africa. It's all just sticking plaster.
What Africa most needs, in order for it to work properly, is fair payment for its exports. Take chocolate for example. Cocoa farmers routinely exploit labourers, including children, paying them next to nothing, or even literally nothing apart from food and a place to sleep. Why? Because they receive such low prices on the world market, controlled by the big importers and manufacturers. People can help without giving to charity or volunteering in Africa by buying fairtrade chocolate, and by actively avoiding brands and companies that don't promote it. And the same applies to coffee, tea and any other product for which a fair trade variety is available. Some people might think that won't make a difference, that such actions and boycotts are too small. But people said that about the Atlantic slave trade – it was part of the system, the profits were too great to ban it, and so on. But it did cease. Campaigners ended it.
Bottom line? The rich world is living at the expense of the poor and we need to alter the balance.
Richard Trillo
http://theroughguidetokenya.blogspot.com
http://theroughguidetothegambia.blogspot.com
http://theroughguidetowestafrica.blogspot.com
Discount flights with profits to development: www.northsouthtravel.co.uk
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Richard Trillo commented about Agpe Popcorn Learning Togo Ewe Language, On Wednesday June 20th, 2007 06:08:00 AM
Great story Andy, I know exactly what you mean. It touches people greatly when they know you're treating them with respect and on a completely one to one basis. We've got a bit of Ewe in the Rough Guide to West Africa. It seems quite difficult. Thank you very much is "Akpay kaka". I think you can keep saying "kaka, kaka" for emphasis, which I like!
You should try some of the greetings too. Nng di = good morning, Nng-do = good afternoon.
Good luck! (no idea what that is in Ewe!)
Bon voyage,
Richard
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Richard Trillo commented about Togo Lizards, On Tuesday June 5th, 2007 08:37:00 AM
Nice pics Andy. They're both the same species, adult male in breeding colours and a baby. African rock agama, scientific name: Agama agama, if I recall rightly.
Bon voyage,
Richard
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Richard Trillo commented about Should Hobo Experts Answer Questions, On Thursday May 17th, 2007 03:04:00 AM
Hi Andy
Interesting post and the question about cheap airlines reminds me how few people in the English-speaking world know about the French charter company, Point Afrique. There's a link to them on my Rough Guide to West Africa blog. They're offering Paris to Dakar for €410 round trip, Ouagadougou €520, Bamako €520, Cotonou €630 and Niamey €520, including taxes. One-ways are half price. What is really remarkable is not just the prices but the fact that all their profits are reinvested in the countries they fly to in development projects.
Comment About Should Hobo Experts Answer Questions
Richard Trillo commented about Africa Iron Age, On Wednesday May 16th, 2007 03:47:00 AM
Interesting question Andy. Yes, this photo shows that Togo is in the Iron Age (I wouldn't say "still", as that implies some kind of inevitable chronology). Fact is, Togo is in the Iron Age and the Digital Age at the same time. I can't remember if you've been through Mauritania or Mali yet? In the crafts market in Timbuktu they sell not only lots of crafts, but also huge numbers of small arrowheads and stone axes and hand knives, scrapers and other tools, that people find in the dunes just north of town, and also all over the desert in Mauritania. If you found stone tools like that in Europe, you'd think "Stone Age", caves, probably 20,000 years ago or more, literally pre-historic. But in West Africa the stone age persisted right into historical times, and there were hunters out there in the bush making stone tools just a couple of hundred years ago, maybe less, until there were enough iron tools, and iron technology was widespread enough for people to switch and lose the old stone-flaking skills. But I believe there are people in southern Africa, San hunters in Botswana, some of whom stil have those skills. So these "ages" have come to carry a slightly perjorative baggage in our popular culture.
Comment About Africa Iron Age
Richard Trillo commented about I Have a Bigger Car, On Wednesday May 2nd, 2007 04:20:00 AM
Interesting post Andy. The big issue is perhaps quality of life rather than level of consumption. The two come together when someone spends $1000 on designer clothes that are physically no better than the $100 knock-off copies. But the real thing makes a statement that delivers a sense of worth and status to the wearer. Same thing with the $10 rice and chicken, served in fancy surroundings, that the $10 is actually paying for. The big problem is that we (you, me, the west, the ones who can afford to travel), can have it both ways. We can live secure in the knowledge that at any time we can be medivac-ed home, or just fly back for a break. And there's always a vague backup plan in the background. Whereas in Togo, people are living hand to mouth. The dollar a day cleaner might sound good, but if you had a house to clean, you'd also have a stream of people knocking at your door asking why you didn't have a dollar a day cook, a dollar a day garden man, a dollar a day driver, a dollar a day night guard and a dollar a day cadeau girl. I'm exaggerating, but you know what I mean. You'd become a local source of cash. Which is fair enough in that environment, but would be a headache, and too much for most people to put up with. Meanwhile, we continue to travel in cheap countries and inevitably, those people, or some of them, want to be in a position to return the favour. Not many of them would have much time for Thoreau's simple life ideas. That lifestyle, and the two months a year work, ten months a year play is probably only available *within* an economic system which is predominantly driven by the 24/7 mindset. In other words you can jump off the carousel for a while, but only because you know most people won't.
Bon voyage
By the way, I've just noticed you've got a really old map of Togo - hence the hippo confusion. I'll send you some scans of the new edition. A bientot.
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Richard Trillo commented about I Travel North to Adeta Togo, On Wednesday April 25th, 2007 04:52:00 AM
Actually Andy, there's a new regional map of West Africa, that's if anything even better than Michelin because it's at 1:2.2m instead of 1:4m (ie about 34 miles = I inch instead of 63 miles = 1 inch). I've been using it for editing the Rough Guide to West Africa and it's been really good, obviously not as detailed as the IGN country maps, like Togo 1:500,000, but they tend to be very out of date, so what you lose on detail you gain on accuracy. It's published in Germany by Reise Knowhow. It's double-sided, printed on polyart plastic paper, and it only covers the southern part of the region, ie from all of Senegal east to Cameroon. ISBN is 9783831771769. Rough Guides publishes quite a lot of the Reise KnowHow maps in their own brand, unfortunately not this one yet.
Bon voyage
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Richard Trillo commented about A Trying Day in Togo, On Friday April 20th, 2007 02:10:00 AM
But it is very difficult as soon as you hire a guide or fixer, expectations can go through the roof. I think the best strategy is always to start out being 100% clear on both sides what the expectations are, how long this will go on for, what will and won't happen (eg no trip to the US). And as for the concept of finding decent, ultra-basic hotel rooms, but not just ending up on someone's floor paying cents, that's a tricky one. I understand what you did Andy, and how trying it can be to travel in West Africa. Also feel a bit sorry for Michael, who seems to have been a good guy and a good helper, but who perhaps got carried away in his imagination about what the prospects were.
Bon voyage!
PS I've just been editing the Togo chapter of the RG to West Africa – very weird to have your account and these pages in front of me, and Google Earth as well so I've been literally hovering over Lomé, all from a garden in Surrey!
Comment About A Trying Day in Togo
Richard Trillo commented about Cheap Room in Good Hotel, On Thursday April 19th, 2007 08:21:00 AM
Andy, try these cheap-end places:
Budget hotels
Hôtel du Boulevard bd 13 Janvier, just west of av Mama N’Danida %T221.15.91. Very run-down, but friendly. Rooms are basic but clean, and there are great views from the roof. A/c rooms a little pricier. 2
Le Cedre Kodjoviakopé %T901.98.93. Rambling place recently taken over by a charming Lebanese family who exude hospitality. Wide range of rooms and a great bar/restaurant serving traditional Lebanese fare and good pizzas on the balcony overlooking the ocean. Great value rooms with fan, or a range with a/c. 2–3
Copacabana 65 rue Litimé %T221.64.57. Rooms are good value for this part of town and better than you might expect from the grim façade. Friendly staff and rooftop bar are bonuses, but the adjoining nightclub won’t suit light sleepers. Rooms with fan 2 or a/c 4.
Le Galion rue des Camomilles, off rte d’Aflao, Kodjoviakopé %T222.00.30, Wwww.hotel-galion.com. One of the city’s best budget places, with delightful staff, laundry service and spacious, immaculate rooms in a refurbished home with a landscaped courtyard. Excellent value. Rooms with fan 2 or a/c 3.
Chez Lien Kodjoviakopé %T220.35.85 or %T910.11.78, %Echezlien@ighmail.com. Vietnamese-run with decent rooms and a good restaurant. A favourite with Peace Corps volunteers. Rooms with fan 2 or a/c 3.
Mawuli 21 rue Maoussas, northeast of the main post office %T222.12.75. Amongst the cheapest you’ll find, a bright, pink building, with simple but well-maintained rooms (no fans or nets) and a friendly, homely atmosphere within the small courtyard. 1
Montréal bd 13 Janvier %T221.39.50 or %T901.18.81. Good-value rooms in the thick of the bustling nightlife, but it can be noisy. Handy for the pink pool table in the bar below. Laundry service. Rooms with fan 2 or a/c 3.
My Diana Rue des Jonquilles %T222.16.62 or 935.63.49. Simple, spotless rooms with fans on a quiet street. Periodic electricity problems can be a pain. 2 [Andy; thanks for the tip about their electricity problem]
Tano rte d’Aflao %T220.29.41, %E tanohotel@yahoo.com. Jolly hotel on the beach just a few hundred metres from the Ghanaian border. Cheap, clean rooms and a very lively bar. Rooms with fan 2 or a/c 3.
Comment About Cheap Room in Good Hotel
Richard Trillo commented about Togo a Militant Hotel Search, On Thursday April 12th, 2007 06:08:00 PM
I guess I may not be able to persuade you to take up bicycle travel! Though I still maintain that it's absolutely the best way of travelling in Africa - you get to go exactly where you want, you're completely independent and can camp out in the bush if you want to, and when you don't like the road, or you feel like moving a bit faster or just arriving somewhere, you can just load your bike onto a passing taxi and away you go. Perfect! (you need a mirror for those crazy truck drivers, and as an alternative to the bazooka idea. . .)
I have an idea about the fact that Africa is so poor and at the same time quite expensive. I'm not an economist, but my guess is that because most people live largely or partly outside the cash economy (ie, they live in the rural areas, grow their own food, milk some goats, rarely have any cash) the hotels and other "tourist" services are really just satellites of the global economy, hence expensive. And because the market is small, there's not much competition to keep prices low. What do people think?
Comment About Togo a Militant Hotel Search
Richard Trillo commented about Failed to See Cacao, On Wednesday April 11th, 2007 04:19:00 AM
Hi Andy
I don't think it matters that you went looking for cacao pods on cacao trees and ended up documenting the whole process of palm oil production. That's just a great bit of serendipity and readers of hobotraveler benefit either way. Also, as I understand it, cocoa production is quite a lengthy process, and only the first stage, fermenting and drying the beans, is done locally and cocoa and chocolate production are mostly done in Europe before being reexported back to Africa - another example of neo-colonialism.
There's an excellent book about food plants that would be right up your street – the Oxford Book of Food Plants. Somewhat old fashioned, it was published by OUP in 1969, but it has excellent illustrations and just enough info to satisfy my curiosity - tells you where everything originated for example (how did Italy cope with no tomatoes?. . . which came from South America). The ISBN is 0199100063. It's not in print any more but Amazon re-sellers are selling it for about $10. I guess you probably wouldn't want to carry it around with you though!
Incidentally, my recollection from the cacao areas was big pods on the trees in Jan/Feb. Maybe they've already harvested them?
Bon voyage
Comment About Failed to See Cacao
Richard Trillo commented about Togo Africa Frogs, On Tuesday April 10th, 2007 07:24:00 AM
Hi Andy, these are actually toads, though I don't know what kind. You can tell because of the warty skin and much shorter back legs. They have a prominent gland behind the eye, too. Nice pictures. Funny that the ditchwater is so clear.
Comment About Togo Africa Frogs
Richard Trillo commented about Dollar my way to Cacao, On Tuesday April 10th, 2007 07:21:00 AM
Hi Andy, sounds a bit complicated. Couldn't you just rent a bicycle or moto and go a couple of miles out of town to the nearest cacao plantation?
Anyway, I guess you'll be doing it right now, so look forward to hearing how the trip went!
Comment About Dollar my way to Cacao
Richard Trillo commented about Hotel Recommendations Stress, On Wednesday April 4th, 2007 10:13:00 AM
Andy, a compendium of up-to-date accurate hotel reviews is a fantastic project if you can manage it. It's an interesting idea about publishing photos of hotel owners or managers, but it can lead to problems, even recommending somebody can result in the opposite effect. And sometimes the man or woman in the photo wouldn't be there, and the place could be just as good, or it might be in a state of disarray. Our researcher on the Rough Guide to West Africa was in Kpalimé just a few weeks ago, and she didn't include the Mandela in her update, but it sounds like we should.
You're right about how many tourists visiting Africa are in their own vehicles. And that's why we have to consider their needs (safe parking and the ability to go out of town) when researching the guidebooks. But we shouldn't ever be ignoring the CFA3000 a night travellers too – after all that's how Rough Guides started and my guess from the emails we get is that at least half our readers are using public transport - maybe it's less in Togo for some reason. A lot my own African research was originally done by bicycle, which I reckon is probably the best of all worlds: you get to travel for free when you have the time; you can put your transport on top of a bus or taxi brousse when you need to go faster; you stay reasonably fit; you can go wherever you like, even places a car can't reach; and best of all local people think it's incredibly funny to say a tourist on a pushbike, sweating and red, which really breaks the ice if it ever needs breaking, and makes you very welcome wherever you go. When we were cycling, we camped a lot, using a home-made tent (rip-stop nylon groundsheet and mosquito net upper).
Looking forward to more news as you head through Africa. Bon voyage.
Comment About Hotel Recommendations Stress
Richard Trillo commented about Kpalime Auberge, On Monday April 2nd, 2007 06:31:00 AM
Interesting idea, Andy, about publishing photos of hotel owners or managers. I think the problem would be exactly that, that sometimes the man or woman in the photo wouldn't be there, and the place could be just as good, or might be in a state of disarray. The only thing I've found writing The Rough Guide to West Africa over the years is that the decent places survive. Very low BP numbers (boite postale, ie Postbox numbers in postal addresses) can be an indication that the place has been there for a long time, and is therefore a survivor, and probably good. But the kind of place you get for six bucks doesn't necessarily have a postbox address.
I'm enjoying the profusion of blogposts from HoboTraveler since you've been in West Africa. Do you think the region has given you a creative surge?
Bon continuation, as they say!
Richard
Comment About Kpalime Auberge
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