Reasons why you would or wouldn't go via Cote d'Ivoire???
 

I'd love to make this a poll, but not sure whether I can as 'just' a user.

Now that the conflict is over & there are many of you heading for similar places further south such as DRC & Angola, it's interesting to me as to why you don't head south to the coast in Cote d'Ivoire ...

Anyone like to expand as to why you'd like to visit the Cote d'Ivoire ...

Or why you wouldn't?

Thanks

Kira

Sorry, you need to be a "Contributing Member" or "Gold Member" to post a poll. You can easily become one or the other at:

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/store/#Contributions

Also for details on what you get by being a Member, and what you can and can't do, see the FAQ, especially:

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...b_why_register

Hope that helps!

Thanks Grant ... at the moment the purse strings are incredibly tight, so I'll leave this as a question on the forum for now & maybe by March when things should be a bit better, I'll sign up!

Kira

I hope things get better soon - it's a pain to have to count pennies!

good luck, Grant

Hi Kira,

I'm about to head back to Ghana for a visit and may resume searching for a C.I. friend who disappeared from (my) sight during the civil war. What I'm hearing is a continuing increase in armed, sometimes violent home invasions and highway robberies by the sorts of folks I like to stay clear of: mostly young men who don't appear to care whether I live, die or am permanently disabled.

All such stories are highly suspect, of course, particularly if trying to establish patterns and predictability, since the storytellers always have some sort of axe to grind, often merely puffing up their own boldness and life-on-the-edge cred. But still....even before the war C.I. was widely known for this sort of crime and for the sort of people who commit it. A lot of them work for the government in and out of uniform. White skin and tourist or NGO status has not always been protective for people I know personally or have heard from in passing.

OTOH (there is always an "other hand"), people like yourself have traveled more or less hassle-free in C.I. recently, and past investments in infrastructure and tourism still provide benefits. Plus, the art scene there is like no other in West Africa, and I sure miss that in Ghana and elsewhere. I'll probably wander across to Bassam and Abidjan and try to get a local reading before deciding how risk-adverse I'm feeling these days. I might have used up several of my limited supply of lives riding my slow bike on the fast autobahns and autostradas recently.

Are you contemplating anything specific in connection with this query? Expanding your referral services to a second continent? Maybe another trip?

Enjoy,

Mark

This is what I wrote about CI in June
 

This Fab Trek - Photography and Journey. Yamoussoukro, Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire.
I enjoyed it.
Manfred, in Marrakech

Can you get a CI visa at either the border with Guinea, or Liberia?
If not, how much did anyone pay in Conakry or Monrovia for a visa, and how long was it valid? Thanks.

CI Visa in Conakry
 

Got mine in Guinea, very quickly, very friendly, for any time u want
think it was 40000 FCFA. I paid quite a lot for Laisser Passer at Liberian/CI border, as this could only be done in San Pedro, so needed an escort. Basically customs took out some money from me. Apart I never paid anything else. In the Souther CI I never ever had been stopped. In the north u get stoppped quite a lot, for bribes, u pay or not, depending on how well u talk. But never somebody asked for papers or passports. Not even when leaving for Mali to the north.
All is fascinating, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, CI

Rgds Manfred

thanks a lot

by the way, how much did you pay for the LIberian visa? Did you get that at a border?

Costs Visa
 

cannot remember, but was expensive. They are all expensive Guinea, SL, Liberia.
got SL, Liberian and CI visa at embassies in Conakry.
Additionally Liberia and SL require that u get ur Laissez Passer for ur vehicle at the embassies before showing up at the border. Also Guinea has started giving the Laisser Passer at Embassy/Consulate. Hope that helps, Manfred, in Casablanca

yeah that's useful, thanks.

Bump this up again
 

Would love further views on whether people have thought about changing their route & going via CI in the near future?

Kira