Sacred Crocodiles

turtles at their best :)
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Chapter 5: Sacred Crocodiles

Our first short (day) trip out of the city happened a couple weeks ago, but we never got around to posting about it. We went to see sacred crocodiles!! They are said to be sacred because their faith is linked with that of the village people, in the village of Bazoulé. Whenever a crocodile dies, it is said, an old person from the village dies as well. They are also caracterized by the fact that they suppositively do not attack humans. Part of the experience is actually having a seat on one of the crocodiles (the biggest one). Jan and I both did it, though the crocodile started moving a few seconds after Jan sat down so it was a little scary. Also, one can buy a live chicken a feed it to the crocodiles. Suppositively it is the only way to initially get them out of the water. I think it's the smell of all the humans by the shore that gets them moving. :) We bought the chicken, and then felt bad for it cause he kept being used as bait, and then he'd get set free and try to run away from the guide and the crocodile in what appeared to be a panic state (i guess the term "running like a chicken with his head cut off" comes to mind). In the end, the crocodile devoured the chicken. Unfortunately, we don't have many pics of all this cause the camera decided to stop working right as we were about to sit on the crocodiles. :(

I sat on a crocodile!

the big crocodile creaping up.
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As you see, we also encountered some turtles doing the nasty. It was very nice to get out of the city. :)

ps. there are more pictures posted than those you see on this page. click on a picture and you'll be able to view all the other ones.