Category Archives: Uncategorized

I will miss the goats. They are such comedians. A papaya flower. It smells heavenly. In Banfora, they charge their phones with sap. [The sign says Airtel (which is a network operator for cellphones) Rechargez ici! Sap sap. I think sap means something in Jula, which is the local language in Banfora, but still. Isn’tContinue reading “details of Banfora”

I’ve already dropped all these hints about how terrible the guide that we hired in Banfora was. And honestly, now that it’s time for me to write about him, I don’t feel like it at all. Now, a month later, I don’t want to recall his arrogance and rudeness, how he treated us like weContinue reading “the worst guide in history”

The last sight for us to see in Banfora, before it was time for us to go back north, were the Pics de Sindou. They are actually not in Banfora, but about forty minutes further south, close to a town called Sindou. Basically, it’s the same concept as the domes of Fabedougou, only on aContinue reading “the last sight-seeing in Banfora (December 8th)”

In Sweden, the four Sunday’s before Christmas are celebrated as Advent. I’m sure it’s a church thing everywhere, but I don’t know if it’s actually celebrated in the same way anywhere outside the Nordic countries. I guess you’d have to be very religious to feel the need to have so many pre-parties to celebrate theContinue reading “a makeshift celebration of second of Advent (December 7th)”

Sunday afternoon in Banfora was spent on the grand market. We had lunch at a place covered in funky art called Mc Donald. I had a hamburger, of course, decent. And some tamarind juice. I had no idea, but one of all those wild bushes that I had been shown during my transect walks inContinue reading “Grand Marché of Banfora (December 7th)”

Anything following the sun rising over Lake Tengrela was bound to be just fine. We took a morning walk by the lakeshore. Despite the vegetation being quite different from the north, the villages here looked quite similar to the ones near Ouahigouya and Kaya. Then we went to a banana plantation. And maybe all theseContinue reading “morning visits (December 7th)”

We went up at five in the morning, way before the sun, and were driven to Lake Tengrela. It almost hurt, getting out of bed. For what reason? Why, to wake up the hippos of course. The boat we went out in was a canoe-like, flat-bottomed and leaking wooden boat. A local fisherman sat inContinue reading “moon and sun over the hippopotamus lake (December 7th)”

Mr. P preferred the Domes of Fabedougou. Swimming in waterfalls isn’t really his thing.

I don’t only want to do sight-seeing when I’m a tourist. I also want to try the local foods and drinks. The traditional drink in southern Burkina Faso is called bandji. It’s a kind of palm wine, made by tapping sap from a certain kind of palm tree. And that’s it. The sap gets tappedContinue reading “exotic drinking (December 6th)”

Being further south, and therefore having a climate that is more strongly affected by the Intertropical Convergence Zone, Banfora was obviously a lot greener than Ouahigouya or Kaya. But there was also a difference in topography. In Banfora, there are actual mountains and valleys. In the valleys, there are vast sugar cane fields being irrigatedContinue reading “domes and waterfalls (December 6th)”