johnnyrivers

Here it is! The final gallery! Shots taken from...ummm...everywhere!! Check out this visual recap of my semester in Ghana...and Cote D'Ivoire...and Togo...and Burkina Faso... and Mali... Life is good ^_^ Enjoy!... read more

The Dogon is incredible… I’m not going to waste time trying to explain the awesome hiking adventure we had there. Words cannot do this magnificent beauty justice. So I’ll let my pictures do most of the talking! Our basic schedule from Sunday afternoon until Tuesday Afternoon composed of hiking the land, visiting the villages, meeting the locales, sleeping on rooftops, watching the stars and counting shooting stars, learning about the local culture, cursing the heat of the desert, occasionally riding horse carts, always dreaming about water, laughing at our guides eccentric behavior and laid back attitude, and simply looking in awe at the glorious natural beauty that composed this land. Our trek took us through the villages of Konsogou-Ley and Begnemato on Sunday, Indeli, Yabatalou, and Ende on Monday, and Teli on Tuesday morning. We ended ... read more

"Great! After sixteen long hours, we've finally made it to Timbuktu! Where are we gonna sleep?" That was the general sentiment that prevailed Friday at five o'clock in the morning. Our growing anxiety however was soon put to rest when we met up with a guy named Ali. Interestingly enough, I had actually talked to him on the phone in Mopti . Funny thing was we never discussed what time or where in the city we would arrive. So as to how he knew our exact time and place of arrival is still a mystery to me to this day...oh well! Ali greeted us and told us about accommodations that he had already arranged. They were cheap and we were exhausted, so we readily agreed! He guided us through the city to this really cool private ... read more

The road to Mopti was...eternal? Yeah, that's a good word for it! Long and hot, dry and dusty. We soon found that the further north you go, the more expensive water got...which is kind of a "no duh" statement since we're traveling into the Sahara desert...hmmmm... At any rate, crossing the border was a pain, not because of any large amounts of paperwork, but because of the excessively spread out process of starting and stopping. We would drive for twenty minutes, and then everyone would pile out of the tro so we could have one guy check out passports. Then we would all pile right back in, drive another twenty minutes, get out, sign a one page document, and then get back into the vehicle. Then we would drive another twenty minutes, get out again, get ... read more

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the crowning glory of my West African experience. My ultimate adventure of epic proportions...the bank-busting, high-flying, sometimes frustrating, yet always exciting, triple country tour, affectionately dubbed, The Mali Finale! An escapade that spanned three countries, twelve days, and over twenty townships. How'd I travel? You name it, I probably took it. Private car, public bus, four by four trucks, cramped fifteen passenger vans, ferry boats, horse and cart, motor bike, camels, taxi, tro tro... Our goal was two-fold...Make it to the legendary Timbuktu and explore the massive rock escarpments and native villages of the Dogon Country. This trip was so big, that it will easily span eight separate entries... okay, actually I'm just too lazy to write it all at once! Ergo this entry is super short...but don't worry, they'll ... read more