Traveling-wise, 2023 was an interesting year for me. It began in late-January with a move to my new country of residence: the Democratic Republic of the Congo. By the end of December, I had taken 66 flights, logging nearly 115,000 miles, spending 276h 57m inside planes. This according to FlghtRadar24.com! But fortunately, traveling in 2023…
Let us start today with a warning: this post is neither a trip report to the Pendjari Park nor a write-up on it. Rather, it is a compilation of photos from my trips there, the last one of which was in 2018. Quite a lot has happened since then, both in Benin and at the…
The Aguda of the Bight of Benin is a community composed of what Professor Yai designates “three supporting pillars” [1]: the descendants of the Portuguese traders who settled in the region in the 1700s; the descendants of the Brazilian traders who came soon after; and the descendants of the retornados, i.e., former slaves who settled…
A few photos from my book “Benin: Land of Magic” (Benin, 2018; currently out of print). I lived in this most beautiful country from 2015 to 2018. One of the things that I found fascinating about it was its diversity. Its cultural diversity, certainly, but also its flora diversity, its fauna diversity, the diversity of…
January is always a time for plans and decisions. Virus or no virus, this year is no different. 2020 was a difficult year for a wide variety of people, including addict travelers, of course. One key takeaway for me from last year was that travelling in the time of Covid requires lots of flexibility: Flights…
In Jan 2018, while living in Cotonou, Benin, I had a chance to be present for an Egungun event in nearby Porto Novo. Egun what? Well, glad you asked…! Egungun are some of the most popular—and most colorful—street manifestations of the Yoruba-speaking peoples of western Nigeria, Benin, and eastern Togo. Honoring ancestors at an Egungun…
In late 2009, I found out that a small group of Portuguese riders was organizing a motorcycle trip from Lisbon, Portugal to Bissau, the capital of Guinea-Bissau. It was an opportunity too good for me to miss: Up to this point, I had been a “surfaced-road-in-the-Western-World” motorcycle rider, but I wanted to expand my horizons; Unlike…
The expression “Royal Palaces of Abomey”—yes, plural—refers to a set of ten palaces built successively between the mid-1600s to the late-1800s by the kings of Dahomey. In all, they cover an area of 115 acres (47 ha) in two separate sites (the palace of King Akaba is adjacent to the one of his predecessors, but isolated, as…
Central African Republic (CAR): In 2012/2013, this medium-sized country in the middle of the continent erupted into an all-out civil war. Ever since then, the CAR has been facing an enormous challenge trying to maintain a minimum of security within its borders. Rather surrealistically, it is here that you will find one of the most…
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