Ganvie Things to Do

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As you pass through the main “street” of Ganvie, you will pass the floating market right in the centre of town. Most of the sellers are women who sit in their small canoes surrounded by their goods which can be anything from fruit and vegetables, meat, fish, wood for cooking and fabrics to hardware and pottery.
Many of the women wear very wide brimmed and glamorous looking straw hats to shade them from the sun and their clothes are very bright and colourful.

There are many fish farms on Lake Nakoue and you will pass them on the way to Ganvie. They are owned by the local people. At one time the government tried to say that because the farms are on water and not land that they are the property of the government. However the local people won the argument saying they are the property of the ancestors.
The farms work naturally. The area of water is enclosed with a fence made from palm trees. The fence rots and creates food in the water that the fish like, so the young fish go into the fish farm through holes that are big enough to let them through. They stay because there is more food there and then grow too big to get out.
The fish are harvested at between 3 and 18 months, depending on how much the farmer needs the income. The farmer surrounds the area with a big net held down by special pins to catch the fish. The fish are then sold at the market in Abomey-Calavi or in the villages.

This statue was built by the UN in 1998 to commemorate the festival of lake villages, which was held in Ganvie. It shows 2 men on the back of a bird. It is built high enough so it doesn't get wet when the water level in Lake Nakoue is higher.
You can get a good view of it from the hotel Germain, which is on the far side of town opposite the school.

Lake Nakoue is 52sq km and is next to the sea. The water is salty 9 months of the year and fresh the other 3 months.
Water Hyacinths grow naturally when the water is fresh, and they clean the water of impurities. They actually like dirty, polluted water, the dirtier the better. When the water is salty the salt kills the water hyacinths and they return when it is fresh again.
In some parts of Africa, the water hyacinths have become a pest. This is because they grow like crazy if the conditions are right and the dirtiest water is usually around towns and villages. They spread rapidly and are very strong which makes it difficult to get boats through, so local people have transportation problems. A fish has been introduced into some areas that will eat the water hyacinths.

A must see in Ganvie is the daily life itself. Watch the people how they go on with their daily duties. Its incredible that people can live in such a place, especially for someone like me who are not used to such life.