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Into Dogon Country
Entry 23 of 25 | show all | print this entry |
The next morning, I made up my mind - I was going to go with Hamadou, even though I did feel that the number of choices I'd had for a guide was slightly limited. When he came back we set down to write out a contract detailing the towns along the falaise we would visit, and how much it would cost. (as the guidebooks recommend you do)
At this point I made an unfortunate discovery - I'd understood Hamadou's price to be 8,000 CFA per day (or about $16 US), which seemed remarkably cheap, as the guidebooks quoted something in the range of 12000 or more per person, depending on the number of people in the group etc. However, he had been saying that it was 18,000, which was a bit more than I'd budgeted for.
It seemed a genuine misunderstanding, since I'd say in hindsight that it would just not be possible to get a guide in the whole of the Dogon for 8,000 CFA per day, so we sat down and after some more discussion settled on a price of 15000, per day, with a bonus of 20,000 at the end if I was happy.
We would set off at 7 the next morning on a horse cart to cover the 5-8 km (I'm not sure which, but walking it would have taken up too much time) across the plain from Bankass to the bottom of the escarpment, and then spend 8 days trekking up, down and across the falaise from West to East, beginning with a climb up to see the village of Djiguigombo. In the meanwhile, Eric would deliver my bike and spare bags to Bandiagara, where he would arrange leave them at the 'BraMali' brewery depot when he next picked up a consignment of beer for the campement.
How do I sum up the next 8 days ? Let's start with Hamadou - he was quite a thin guy, with slightly bandy legs, and a face that leant more towards Arab features than strictly African ones. He had obviously been in the business for a long time (15 years according to him), and he knew his way round Dogon country like the back of his hand, and was continually being greeted by friends and other guides in all the villages we came to.
He was a very proud and honest sort of person, and I kind of got the impression that he'd become a bit jaded with the business of catering to tourists, and the whole tourist mill that the Dogon country can quite easily turn into. In some ways this was a good thing, as I got a bit more of an honest trek, without going through the clichés of watching mask dances put on for tourists with fake masks etc. - In a way I prefer this, as I'm the sort of person who prefers to stumble upon things by accident, because although quite often you don't see as much that way, what you do see has a bit more tendency of being genuine.
However, he wasn't the sort of guy who readily volunteered much information about the things you did see around the villages, especially on the Dogon customs and beliefs, which was a bit frustrating, and his English, though serviceable, wasn't particularly eloquent.. However, that said, I was happy enough with the tour I got, all things considering. Just being able to experience the Dogon country was privilege enough.
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