Cote d’Ivoire

Sacred masks and so much more

Another off-the-beaten-track trip. Arriving in the first village we were greeted by a whole load of kids all waving frantically and shouting something. As we asked our guide what they were saying, he smiled and replied: „white people, white people“. We are here to see the sights, but I believe we were the „sight of the day“ where ever we turned up. We did over 2000km in 2 weeks (on astonishingly good highways), and saw most of the lush and green country. We met wonderful people in remote authentic villages and learned about local crafts and crops. We witnessed ancient ritual dancing to the music of traditional instruments, where the whole town celebrated with the dancers and with us, and we saw acrobatics worthy of an Olympic diploma.

A welcome by the town kids

DAY 1: THE GOLI MASKS

We arrive in the capital Abidjan by Air France, which is easy, there are daily flights from Paris, not many tourists on the plane, I wonder who else is traveling there, beside us. After a night at a good airport hotel we start our adventure. We leave Abidjan for the town of Yamoussoukro, which is about 4 hours of driving on a massive 4-lane highway. The new president has started to build a superb road network throughout the country, the roads here are incredibly good. We check in to our 2* hotel and after waiting 2 hours for our lunch which we then gobble down, we leave for the town of Tiébissou. We are here to see a performance of the Goli masks. 

Map of Côte d’Ivoire