Ganvie, the Stilt Village

A couple of weeks ago I went with a group of other crew members to see Ganvie, Benin's famous Stilt Village. By famous, I mean that in made it into the guidebook. Don't worry, I was surprised there is a guidebook for Benin too. The story is that the King of Dahomey was conquering neighboring tribes and selling the people as slaves, so the king of another tribe went looking for a place where his people could be safe. He came upon a lake, and turned himself in to a crocodile. In the lake he found a shallow area, roughly 2 meters deep. It was there that his tribe built their new village, a village on stilts. The tour to Ganvie began at a hotel in Cotonou where we boarded boats for an hour ride. Unfortunately, the little outboard motor in my boat failed multiple times. Luckily we had one of our fine deck Officers with us who quickly repaired the engine and left me questioning the competance of our guide. Once to Ganvie we stopped at 3 little 'Gift Shops', one which sold approximately 5 things. The kids all poled their little canoes over to wherever we were and stood with their hand out yelling 'Monsieur, Madam!'. They asked for bics (pens) and chewing gum of all things. The people of Ganvie do not welcome the tourist. They hide their faces if they see a camera, and I doubt that they receive any of the money from people touring around their homes. As with most of Benin, Ganvie is very poor. The houses are shacks on stilts and the water is extremely polluted, with trash floating all around. While I enjoyed getting out of Cotonou and seeing some Beninoise culture, I wished I had taken the money I paid the hotel for the boat ride and bought some pens and gum for the kidos.