3 day weekend + 2 hour drive = bliss

So this weekend was the long awaited, much anticipated “trip to Assine” which is known as the vacation spot within Cote d’Ivoire (http://coucouelodge.blogspot.com/ ). A group of about 10 of us went for the holiday weekend. My hotel room was located on the mostly deserted barrier island on the other side of the lagoon, so from the restaurant and pool side I would catch the skiff across the lagoon to the “cheap seats”, my little bungalow, which seemed a quintessential “writer’s retreat” sat less than 200m from the lagoon on the one side and less than 100m from the crashing waves of the Gulf of Guinea. What a setup! If you like water skiing, Seado’s, the lake “thing” you’ve got the lagoon. If laying on the beach hearing the wave’s crash is your style you’ve got the Atlantic Ocean. If you like the pool scene with French peace keeping troops you’ve got that too…
All in all, the weekend was spent relaxing, reading, playing Patanque (http://www.petanque.org/news/admin/227.shtml ), eating some great food (side note: I ordered dinner the second night, “sauterelle” which means grasshopper, but apparently doesn’t mean that what I’m ordering will be a grasshopper but rather some relative of a crawfish or a lobster or something that tasted great with butter) and the finale – a bonfire under the stars of Africa. Yes, somehow I did pass up the four hand $10/ hr seaside massage, but there’s always next time…