Where I went Part 1 - Togo, Niger, Benin

A lot of people have been asking me what Adam and I got up to in our travels, and well, I thought I would post a little something something here to avoid redundant emailing...
So basically when Adam got to Ghana, we hung out in Accra for a week, then travelled to Cape Coast and Elmina and visited the old colonial towns and castles. We also went to Kakum National Park and Green Tutrtle Logde, both spectuacular bits of nature.
From Ghana we headed on to Togo, we didn't spend much time there, but in that short visit we managed to stay in the best value and worst value hotels of our trip. We visited Lome and Togoville. It was on the ride to Togoville that I decided to never get a pet goat, since the goats in the tro-tro with us sqwaked the whole way to Togoville, and also proceeded to kick me the whole way there...yes...let the white person sit with the goats, they love that.
After Togo we headed to Benin, which I think must be one of the most underrated countries in the world, the people are great, and its just such a wonderful place. We hit up the capital, and a place called Ouyidah, which was a big slaveing outpost. The town which is quite a voodo place has a python temple, which lets the snakes lose a night. If you are a resident of this town and one ends up in your house, you are ocnsidered blessed... We also visited a whole village on stilts, 25,000 people living on houses on stilts in the water, complete with floating market. Our highlight of Benin was visiting Natingou, where we took a motorbike trip to check out the tata sombas, which are fortress like houses that were used to protect people from the slave raiding abomeys. The fortress houses also kept other cultures at bay, so the ethnic group has remained fairly untouched by outsiders...but obviously not to much since we were there.
We headed onto Niger after that, and it was a good time. So freaking hot, between the hourse of 11 and 3 people just sleep everywhere in the street, because its to hot to do anything else. its like everyday in the afternoon an amageddon hits the town and everyone is out cold on the ground. I repeatedly thought people needed medical attention, but really they were just sleeping in weird contortions. Adam and I beat the heat by faking class and sitting in the lobby of the fancy smancy hotel in town...we also took advantage of their clean toilets... It was in Niger that I think I had the highlight of my trip....which was going out into the desert by camel for a few days, we had a fantastic guide. And the scenery was outerworldly. It was a lot of fun every morning getting wrapped up in my 5 meter long Tuereg turban and sleeping under the stars at night. We would stop at different villages which all had little garden oasis' in the middle of the desert...very cool. After the camel trip we headed bac from Agadez and checked out the only giraffes in West Africa which roam near the main highway (go figure)...before we headed off to Burkina, but I will save that country for another post.