Cocobeach
The town is very small, containing just a fishing village, a small market and a number of adjacent beaches. It is one of the major travel destinations in the region owing to the Crystal Mountains inland from the town, which contain some of the oldest rainforests in Gabon. These were able to largely escape the drying effect of glacial periods of the Quaternary due to the persistent fog from the Benguela Current providing moisture during the dry season.
Like a good portion of Gabon, Cocobeach has a tropical monsoon climate (Köppen Am) with a long wet season from September or October to May and a short dry season due to the cold, foggy Beneguela current during the southern hemisphere winter.
Compared to more southerly parts of Gabon, Cocobeach is somewhat wetter, with around ten to fifteen percent more rainfall than Libreville and a dry season usually several weeks shorter. Although no reliable climate data exist, it is often thought that annual rainfall further north may reach as high as 4500 mm.
Map - Cocobeach
Map
Country - Gabon
Flag of Gabon |
Since its independence from France in 1960, the sovereign state of Gabon has had three presidents. In the 1990s, it introduced a multi-party system and a democratic constitution that aimed for a more transparent electoral process and reformed some governmental institutions. Despite this, the Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) remains the dominant party. With petroleum and foreign private investment, it has the fourth highest HDI in the region (after Mauritius, Seychelles and South Africa) and the fifth highest GDP per capita (PPP) in all of Africa (after Seychelles, Mauritius, Equatorial Guinea and Botswana). Its GDP grew by more than 6% per year from 2010 to 2012.
Currency / Language
ISO | Currency | Symbol | Significant figures |
---|---|---|---|
XAF | Central African CFA franc | Fr | 0 |
ISO | Language |
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FR | French language |