Hotel De L'Amitie Ouahigouya

... start time for our trek in Dogon Country was once again African time so at 9:30 our guide showed up and announced that they had been unable to find the original driver (millet beer- they make everything out of millet around here) and , as a result, had to go find another. After a number of stops to pick up various bits and pieces for the Europeans (most urgent of which were cigarettes), we bailed out of the Landcruiser for a walk through Djiguibombo (how can you not love that ...

We got up early today for our travels to Ouahigouya, Burkina's third largest city that is know for its vultures! Sanga’s father’s village is 15 minutes from the city that is located in a hot desolate part of Burkina. We arrived at the village to find once again that most of the people were out working in the field. We saw an older Aunt who was in a room laying on a bed with a few kids when we got there. She got up right away and was most happy to ...

Whilst Oliver seems somewhat recovered from pootomouth others in the truck have fallen, especially poor Rach who was up most the night and feeling terrible today - not what you want on a drive day. Needless to say she is up on the beach with Josh trying to get some shut eye. Got up at 7.30 and had a freezing cold shower... one way to ensure waking up. Having packed up the tent the day ...

Dream Rating: &nbsp ; ; C- Background This day we left Djenne in the morning for the ferry across the river and a long drive through quintessentially African scenery of dry scrubby savannah with baobab trees populated by pastoralist tribes. We were processed out of Mali and arrived at the Burkina Faso border post on the other side of a wide no-man's land just as it was closing. The border guards agreed to process our visas that night and allowed us ...

Dream Rating: &nbsp ; ; B+ Background We spent the full day in Dogon country doing morning and afternoon treks from village to village along the base of the Bandiagara Escarpment and resting for several hours around noon in a village named Tirelli. In Tireli we also went to a Dogon Mask Dance performance. Before dusk we arrived in a village named Ireli that had an auberge that would be our home for the night. Dinner was in a ...

The Dogon people are a favorite subject among anthropologists for their Animist religious beliefs which have survived despite being surrounded by other tribes that converted to Islam and for their elaborate rituals and ceremonies, most notable of which is the mask dance. We were treated in Tireli to a re-creation of one such mask dance which is performed several times each year with some ...

Dogon country is one of the top destinations in Mali and all of West Africa. The region consists of roughly 700 villages in east central Mali, most of which can be reached only on foot, which are situated both above and below the Bandiagara Escarpment's cliffs. The area is stunningly beautiful in out-of-this-world African sort of a way and is also incredibly hot. Because of the lack of roads, especially below the escarpment, the usual way of visiting the Dogon ...

Dream Rating: &nbsp ; ; C- Background We spent the morning driving the rather short physical distance from Savare to Dourou, the village where we began our trek through Dogon Country, over some very rough unpaved roads. Our Malian guide Grand Pere arranged lunch for us in the village and we began our trek around mid-afternoon after the hottest part of the day was over. The trek involved a flat hike through several ...

Hey! Voici quelques rapides nouvelles en provenance du Mali où je rentre du Pays Dogon, en partance pour Tombouctou en bateau... Le pays Dogon, c'était vraiment sympa mais comme à mon habitude, il m'est arrivé de drôles d'aventures! En arivant à Mopti samedi soir, après un nouveau trajet de 12h de bus, un petit jeune, Omar, m'aborde en se présentant comme guide et me propose de m'emmener à l'hôtel, m'arrachant aux griffes des taxis trop nombreux. Nous discutons pendant la soirée, il me ...

That Sunday I set off for the border with Mali - a ride that was going to take me about 3 days. As usual, Sunday turned out to be a good day to leave on, as the traffic was a lot lighter, although it had the disadvantage that school was out, meaning that there were a lot of boys around on bicycles. One poor lad, as usual, took up the challenge when I passed him, and immediately sped up, passed me, and then slowed down after doing so, so that I had to ...