20250210 Seabourn Sojourn Grand Africa Cruise Day 77/96 - Lomé, Togo

Grand Africa Cruise Trip Day 77/96 - Lomé, Togo - An attempt at a private tour

We sailed 91 miles overnight, departing Cotonou, Benin at midnight and docking in Lomé, Togo at 7:00 this morning. Since this is still a sketchy area for pirate activity, the Captain delayed our departure so we could sail at a good speed to reach Lomé.

Arriving into Lomé

We booked our own tour through Viator. It sure sounded like a good tour of the area with a local guide. It turned out to be a bit of a bust.

Before the tour, communication with our guide, Louis, was fantastic. He reached out quickly after we booked, confirming details, pickup location, time, and so on. We kept in constant communication and had high hopes for the tour.

The five of us were delayed getting off the ship for a variety of reasons. The most concerning was a new requirement to have armed escorts on every tour bus. What? We still don't know the outcome of that.

 I kept him updated and he said everything was good. When we finally got off the ship, I messaged him that we were en route to the meeting point. When we go there...no Louis. We looked everywhere - no Louis. To add to the issue, Togo is one of the few countries where our Verizon international plan didn't work so once we were off the ship, we had no way to connect him. I found another guide who did speak English (Togo is a French-speaking country) and asked if we would be willing to call Louis on our behalf. Just then, Louis arrived.

Well, not just Louis. Louis, his wife, his young (two years old) daughter, and a driver arrived in a small, realistically six-passenger van. There was a theoretical middle seat in the way back and a small jumpseat-style unbelted middle seat in the middle row, but these were impractical for adults. So let's do the math here. Five passengers, a guide, his wife, a driver, and a two-year-old. That added up to nine. Even with the child on a lap, that came to eight full-sized adults crammed into seats designed for children. We said that was a no-go for us. Louis then hired a tuk-tuk for himself. His wife and daughter rode with us. We thought that was odd since he was our guide, but OK.  Still, have you ever paid for a tour and had the tour guide bring their child along? We sure haven't.

We were delayed departing from the parking lot as the police weren't going to let us go without an armed escort. Where would we put another person, especially one packing heat? Yikes! That all got worked out and all the private tours were finally cleared to go on their own.

Wedged in

As time wore on, we figured out that his wife was the one who spoke at least rudimentary English. It appeared that Louis did not. My best guess is that he ran all the written communication via WhatsApp through Google Translate or some other tool as his written communication was excellent. Regardless, as we drove from place to place, we got no information about Togo or any sights we saw.

Tuk-tuks are a popular mode of transport here

You never know what you'll see

Need a motorcycle helmet - only 5,000 West African CFA Francs or $7.47 US - seems legit

Everything was available on the side of the road - food of all kinds

Safety wear

Dresses

This guy was transporting some kind of duck - look under his arm

We arrived at Lake Togo - we were given the option of taking a boat across the lake to visit a small village - we all decided we would pass on that as the boats looked terribly uncomfortable

They use a pole to push across the lake as it is shallow

Where there is water...

Fish from the lake was available for sale

Need to get a motorcycle across - no problem

Every Viator tour we have been on includes the major attractions in the price. That is why we were surprised as we started stopping at attractions to find out that admissions weren't included for nearly anything. After the tour, I went back and checked the tour description, and sure enough, in fine print on the itinerary, it said that admission wasn't included. That means it was my fault for not knowing that, but still, this was outside the norm from all the other Viator tours we booked and should have been made more clear, in our opinion.

Our next stop was the Slave House. This house was used to house slaves captured and awaiting transport to wherever they were being sent.

A rough translation via Google:

The year 2007 01/16 Wednesday February on the occasion of the commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery at the invitation of H.E. Faure Essoziina GNASSINGBE. President of the Togolese Republic M.KCICHIRO MATSUURA. Director General of UNESCO visited the Wood House"house of slaves in Arbodrafo

A trap door leading to the slave quarters under the floor

Arlona was standing on the ground so you can get an idea of how cramped it was

Arlona and Michael, doing the slave stoop

A room where the Portuguese stayed - there was a wardrobe and safe

A look under the floor of the front porch at the slave quarters

Our motley group - Arlona, Garry, Linda, Brenda, Michael, Margaret, Daniel

There were several art pieces depicting slave times

Louis and his daughter

We saw a few laughing doves in the area

We left the Slave House and continued our drive.

Passing the Grand Mosque - Togo is 42.3% Christian, 36.9% traditional animist, 14% Muslim, and less than 1% followers of other religions

That foggy area ahead was dust from a cement factory

More interesting things for sale along the road - chickens and goats

Our next stop was the Fetish Market where Voodoo items are sold - they got a little militant with us about taking photos before we paid to enter the market - a place to buy things - we all decided that we didn't want to see it that badly and left

Serious wood - one plus a spare

It looked a little too odd for us

We asked if they would take us to the Assigame Market - the place where the Seabourn shuttles were taking guests. We figured we would end our tour there and just take the shuttle back to the ship. She agreed and we headed there - at least we thought we were heading there. We arrived at the Grand Market, a seemingly different place entirely. Either way, we had no idea where the shuttle would be. At that point, we were all hot, due to the malfunctioning air conditioning in the vehicle, and uncomfortable due to the inadequate space in the vehicle and asked to be taken to the port. We arrived outside the gate where we waited for the ship's shuttle to take us back to the ship.

The Togo flag, flying on a neighboring cargo ship

Reflecting on the day, we did see some interesting things, but you really take a chance when booking tours in developing countries. We expected that a company like Viator would do a better job vetting tour guides. The couple was friendly enough and their daughter was well-behaved, but still, we were expecting Louis as our guide. We got his wife who only spoke a little English, and seriously, who brings a small child along to work? The whole thing was disorganized and a mess, but we survived it all and had an experience we will look back at and laugh.

We got back to the comfort of the ship, glad we got to see Togo, but we won't be making plans to visit again soon.

We relaxed the afternoon away and showered off the day's stress and disappointment.

Talking with other guests, we heard all kinds of stories. One tour guide got arrested. Another couple had a tour that was as bad or worse than ours, but more than twice as expensive as it was through the ship. We heard tales of armed police looking for a gratuity/bribe. Corruption runs rampant in these West African countries. Sailing from Togo didn't create any pangs of desire to stay longer.

We returned to the room after a nice dinner in The Restaurant and found this guy.

Tonight's show was a second performance from comedian Ralph Harris. It was another entertaining and interactive show as he engaged several audience members - some who got it and some who were clueless. Either way, he was funny.

We will be at sea for the next four days as we sail toward Banjul, The Gambia.