Ouagadougou, the coolest capital name in the world!

---

Burkina Faso, the former Upper Volta, which was linked to Ivory Coast at one point, and still feels inextricably linked to. We arrived though Bobo-Dioulasso from Mali, on a long road journey, which felt like we sere covering the whole country, but was probably the fresh wind rather than the speed, as we only covered little more than 200km in some 8 hours or so, Trvelling took the whole day, and we arrived late at night.

Bobo Dioulasso turned out to be a very relaxed town, and a good base to explore the surrounding region. we rented mopeds for a day to see "sacred fish", a big thing here (catfish), and nothing special to my eyes. We went to lovely rock formations the next day, a waterfall, which was one of those sublime relaxing places, where not only does the sun feel just the right temperature, but you have hints of childhood memories and and rich natural forest smells dancing in and out of perception. A truly unforgetable day, but not constituted of anything extraordinary. In fact my thoughts half way thought the second day of touring were that Espirito Santo, the main state I grew up in Brazil, would be just as successfull in its touristic exploits as Burkina Faso.

The country side has Cashew plantations and many mango trees, Cassava is also omnipresent, and Brazil is in the air everywhere. I imagine my mom would recognize the Brazil from the past more readily than me, as Brazil really has left Burkina Faso bahind for now, but optimism is in my mind, and if complaining and corruption ridden Brazil can do, surely so can Burkina Faso.

The EU has pumped some money into the country, and institutions (court building), and infrastructure (a number of main highways), seel to make an awful lot of difference. at least coming from Mali, very similar, but much larger, and probably poorer.

Us the Tubab, (white people), as all the children in Mali kindly tatooed in our brain is the Bambara (I think) for White Man, we have a great barrier to climb on meeting most people. They want money and think we're made of it. and innevitably, being followed by groups of 4 people per person!!! at times, can be intimidating, but more to tyhe point extremely difficult to open oneself to chat to the locals. Having said that, and just after complaining to a friend on email, and perhaps subconsiously helped by it, just after that I have had a lovely couple of experiences just exchanging a few ideas with guys on the street. And boy can people surprise you. And the thing is to remember that, which is awfully difficult day to day. But I shared musical interests and a very similar taste really with another random guy, and others have good political comments on anything you throw at them, -very inconsistently mind you, but a breath offresh air and a hope for the future when it happens.

---

Photos

Me near Bobo-Diolasso
Beautiful Rock formations

Karfiguelia Waterfall in Southern Burkina Faso
Reminding me of Childhood in Brasil.