Benin -- Ganvie

This is Ganvie, a fairly famous attraction right outside of Cotonou, Benin, the biggest city in the country. It's a village comprised of stilt houses built on a lagoon that was originally constructed by a tribe seeking to escape from a warring tribe. That happened about 200 years ago I think but the tribe has stayed ever since, living off fishing and now tourism. Ganvie was described as horribly touristy in my guidebooks but I didn't find the impact from tourism that striking -- as you can see from the photo the place is not swarmed with visitors or filled with tacky souvenir shops. But since tourism in West Africa is not of the magnitude found in the US or Europe, perhaps the relative number of visitors compared with other parts of Benin made it seem touristy.