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Published: April 27th 2009
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So the past 2 weeks I spent backpacking through Burkina Faso and Mali with 3 American friends that I have met here, Jessica, Berkley, and Max. We left the Monday morning after Easter Sunday and decided to take the most direct route to Burkina Faso as possible, which we discovered on the way home that was the best decision we made the whole trip. So Monday morning we departed the STC bus station at 9 am for Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou (pronounced Waga-doo-goo).
The bus ride is supposed to take about 24 hours to get completely through Ghana and half way through Burkina, so we knew it was going to be an adventure. Between breakdowns and rainstorms, it took us a little closer to 27 hours. Luckily I brought along some benadril so I took one of those and was drowsy enough to get a decent night of sleep. The Immigration process into Burkina was a little interesting. I was worried because technically my visa was expired for Ghana by 2 days. Rumor has it that there is a 7 day grace period so I was sort of banking on that. Turns out either there is a grace period or
the Ghanaian immigration officer just turned a blind eye because they didn’t give me any problems at all. The Burkina border was even easier. This was the first place I realized that my lack of French was probably going to be a problem, but I got through the visa forms with Jess. They were all super nice and we handed them our money and received our visas with smiles.
Once we got into Ouagadougou we found Sedou, the best taxi driver in West Africa. He spoke a little English so between his broken English and our broken French we were able to get a lot accomplished. We first went to a different bus station and bought tickets for the next day to take us up to Mali. Then we drove to a couple different hotels where he found us a good deal. The interesting thing about the hotels in Burkina is that they are negotiable. Well sort of, it’s the off season for tourism so they are willing to negotiate so they can fill up some rooms. We were able to convince the lady at the Elite Hotel to let all four of us stay in one room for
15000 cefas, which is 30 dollars. This hotel is the nicest I’ve stayed in since I’ve been here! First of all its an actual hotel, not a guesthouse or anything. The rooms had a TV, AC, and our own bathroom! AND there was a computer in the lobby with free internet access! So I was able to get an email out to my family to let them know I was still alive.
Ouagadougou was a really nice city, it’s the capital of Burkina Faso and its just really fun to say. Its not nearly as busy as Accra and if you didn’t tell me I would have never expected it to have been the capital. Everyone is really low key and for the most part they let you do your own thing. No one is chasing you down the street or grabbing your arm trying to convince you to buy from them or go in their store or let them be our guide (for a price of course!) Also there is definitely a French influence. The street sellers are selling baguettes instead of loafs of bread and they greet everyone with a “Bonjour!” They smoke a lot more too!
In Ghana its seen as very rude to smoke in front of other people, but they are very French in the aspect that almost everyone pulls out a cigarette and lights it up regardless of if they are outside, in a bus, or in a building. Another interesting thing was that the taxis are all green. I just really like the people in Burkina, they are all so nice and welcoming. According to the guidebook, Burkina is supposed to be like the third poorest country in the world, but you would never expect it. Its very clean compared to most places in Ghana and the people are very proud of their country.
For a late lunch we ate at the Italian Le Verdoyant restaurant which was absolutely amazing. It was this little outdoor Italian restaurant that is raved to have the “best Lasagna in Africa.” Most importantly, it had incredibly fast service with a smile which is something I really miss. We split 2 fire roasted pizzas and lasagnas. It was absolutely delicious!! The lasagna was no Stouffers, but it was the best I’ve had since I’ve been gone. We went back later that evening for dessert where I got
the best sorbet I’ve had in my entire life, a scoop of mango and a scoop of passion fruit… in a cone!!
We walked around the town a little bit where we saw the Grand Mosque and wandered around the streets. A thing we quickly noticed was that there weren’t many cars here, everyone rides either a bike, motorbike, or moped. They easily outnumber cars 100 to 1.
Everyone was pretty tired from the long bus ride so we went to the supermarket to get some stuff for breakfast and I was happy to find a small box of frosted flakes and a bottle of mango juice. We then went back to the hotel where I took a warm shower (yes!!) watched some soccer and news in French and called it a night.
The next morning we had to wake up at 4:30 so we could leave by 5 to catch our bus. We got in a taxi and he took us to the STMB bus station. We walked in and something didn’t seem right, but we thought maybe it just looked different because it was dark. Then we realized we were at the wrong station, we are supposed to be at the STBF station! We start panicing a little bit just because its 5:30 and the bus is supposed to leave at 6 and the taxi driver that said he knew how to get there really didn’t know where he was going. We pulled out our map and slowly found our way, but we got there just in the nick of time. Now we were off to Koro in Mali!
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