Ivory Coast: Assinee-Mafia Wildlife Park

Assinie-Mafia (yes it has Mafia in its name) is a small village about 120km east of Abidjan famous for its white sand beaches. But before the beaches, the first stop was a wildlife park – more like a zoo. I am generally not a fan of zoos, but this one was dedicated only to local fauna, and thus was my only chance to see it (short of going into dangerous jungle in the north of the country). There were three types of crocs – super aggressive Nile crocodile, peaceful and calm little forest crocodile, and thin-jawed gavial. Several snakes including cobras, pythons, green mambas. A wide variety of birds, including birds of pray. A few local antelopes. And most importantly – chimps (which deserves a separate post on its own, since I spent 40 minutes with them).