Ouidah – How I almost stayed at a luxury spa.

Firstly the town is pronouned Wee-dah and it is situated on the southern coast of Benin. I went here from Abomey. It was horrendous and it will give you an idea of just how awful I found the traveling. Although there was a few minutes luxury at the end of it. Firstly the manager of the hotel took me to Bohicon, the nearest town and found me a bush taxi to Cotonou. So far so good.

The taxi driver then dropped me on a main road and found me another bush taxi to Ouidah, supposedly I was paying extra to have the taxi to myself. Well so much for that! I sat there for 20 minutes and was joined by two more passengers. We dropped off and picked up more on the way. Frankly I didnt care about the extra couple of dollars, I just wanted to get there. So we arrived in Ouidah and about 10 motor bike taxis fought over my suitcase.

Finally i made my selection and gave what I thought was my hotel but by this time I was confused by all the attention. Twenty minutes later we turned up at a rather luxurious hotel and I was congratulating myself on finding such a gorgeous place for about $25. While sipping a gloriously cold pineapple juice and enjoying a bowl of peanuts realization dawned on me. Of course it was stunning it was also a case of mistaken identity.

This was a luxury resort, Casa del Papa and even for one night was well out of my budget. There was no choice but to call another motor bike who took me to the rather more modest establishment I had booked. .