This time last year I was getting ready for a trip to Mali and Burkina Faso – two countries in West Africa that are off the radar of most tourists. But now is your chance to discover Burkina Faso for yourself! In connection with the annual Passports with Purpose fundraiser, I am partnering …
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If you’ve been following along for a while, you may recall I was a bit nervous for my trip to Mali and Burkina Faso in West Africa in November. Not only had I never previously traveled to sub-Saharan Africa, but I was visiting Mali in the midst of an Ebola outbreak and Burkina Faso just …
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I will freely admit that I really had no idea where I was going as I sat in the front seat of the car driving along a bumpy, pothole filled “road” leading miles away from Banfora and all other signs of modern civilization. I had spent the morning enjoying the sunrise over Lake Tengrela, looking …
It was still dark out when Ibrahim met me at my hotel in Banfora. An early start was crucial in order to be at nearby Lake Tengrela both for the sunrise and to catch a glimpse of some hippopotamuses (hippopotami??). The lake is just a short drive outside of Banfora, off the asphalt road and …
Bobo Dioulasso is the second largest city in Burkina Faso and the first city I stopped in as I arrived from neighboring Mali. The name of the city comes from the names of the two tribes that first settled there centuries ago – the Bobo and the Dioula. I was very curious to see how …
Border crossings always make me a little nervous. I was pulled aside and questioned going from Moldova to Ukraine, fought past dozens of pushy Uzbek women going from Tajikistan to Uzbekistan and was worried I wouldn’t even make it from Georgia into Azerbaijan. While nothing truly horrible has ever happened, I still wake up with …
Every piece of clothing in my backpack seems to be covered in a layer of red, sandy dust – just like my shoes and sandals and backpack and camera and pretty much everything else I brought with me for my two week journey through Mali and Burkina Faso in West Africa. The last two weeks …
I have butterflies in my stomach as I write this. It’s just over 12 hours until I leave for Mali and Burkina Faso and I am really nervous – more nervous than I can ever remember feeling before a trip. And no, it has nothing to do with Ebola. I was nervous about this trip …
I admit, I feel a little weird telling people I am going to travel to West Africa next weekend. I feel like I immediately have to qualify the statement with a “but I’m not going to any countries where Ebola is!” And that statement almost would have been true. While the first case of Ebola …
I am going to West Africa next month. On November 23, I will arrive in Bamako, Mali and spend one week there before moving on to neighboring Burkina Faso, eventually flying out of Ouagadougou on December 6. I booked my flights back in September and finalized an itinerary for the whole trip in the last …
