in Abidjan

Didn't get to blog in San Pedro yesterday, because the power had been down all night and throughout the day over there.
Today, we have Flown to Abidjan, with a kind of sour aftertaste, because we're leaving the dog alone at night for the first time (he'll get walked and played with around the clock during the day though).
Funny anecdote: when smallish one saw the little Sophia plane land, she asked if it was on her Mamie. And when she got on the plane with her daddy - I was getting the luggage - she panicked, thinking I wasn't coming. Sweet kid!
Our little trip to Abidjan started off on the wrong note, first the plane ride took 20 minutes more, so we feared there wouldn't be time to tick of all the boxes on our schedule. As David tried to go and get his drivers licence, they told him he was at the wrong office. (Mind you, he's been trying to get an Ivorian licence for a year now!) It was already lunchtime by then and the daughter was starving so we went to eat somewhere - it turned out to be a pretty crappy cafeteria style place.
We took a quick trip to Cocody after lunch to find the whole artisanat market had vanished... and been turned into a construction site. Luckily the jewellers were still there! :D
And the for the second try to get D's licence. A* had fallen asleep in the car so I decided to just wait in the car the time it took himto go in and do whatever... We ended up waiting for over an hour in the soaring heat. Half an hour in, A* woke up and objected to being confined. So we went out for a walk... that's when total mayhem started! She had found a leaky tap and wanted to play with it. I wasn't prepared to open it for her, so the next half hour she spend crying and screaming.
But then the fingerprinting went swiftly and we even got to go for icecream and some shopping to Cap Sud.

The Sophia airplane was fully booked again, and every time I'm in San Pedro there are more and more people around and in the hotels... It's very strange. Even when we go to La Baie des Sirenes now during the week, there's other people around. We were kind of getting used to the luxury of having everything to ourselves all the time. Oh and there's even a departure hall now in San Pedro airport. It's clean and has airco and - unbelievable - a clean restroom!

Tomorrow we'll be discovering new places as we're off to Aboisso, to see V* again (my neighbour in Cameroon) after what's been more than a year!

Meanwhile I'm thinking of starting a 'things to do in Ivory Coast'-blog.

Until next time,
keep warm!
L