Week-end getaway

the oldest mosque in Bobo.
see all photos »

Chapter 6: Week-end getaway

As Jan wrote in the last entry, we finally had our first full week-end out of Ouaga, our first African traveling experience… Hurray!! Our goal was get to Banfora to see flashing green sugarcane fields, idyllic waterfalls, and amazing African landscapes, but simply getting there turned out to be a big part of the adventure… as it usually is in Africa :). As the “arnaques” piled on (don’t know the equivalent in English, but it basically signifies getting screwed) we even started counting them. I think we got to 15. Here we go.

Nothing here ever goes as planned

river by the old town, where pigs walk around and people wash their clothes as well as themselves. a little further down were the naked men.
see all photos »

The plan was to take a bus to Bobo-Dioulasso, 500 km West from Ouaga, where Jan was waiting for us, and then complete the remaining 85 km to Banfora by motorcycle. So on Friday, Veronique, Lionel (two other Oxfam volunteers) and I took a more expensive air-conditioned bus, but 5 minutes into the ride we found out the A/C didn’t work. “C’est gaté” as they say here. The motorcycles left on a different bus 3 hours after us, and it was a huge surprise to us that they actually got to Bobo on time. When things work out here, the shock is a lot greater than when they screw up. :) Only one bike’s dashboard got broken.

the forest, on the way to the guinguette.
see all photos »

Bobo has more tourist attractions that Ouaga (which has 0), so the first thing we did was a guided tour of the old Bobo village, in the middle of town. We hired two amateur guides for way too much money and set off on the tour, which ended up being a big disappointment. What was most important to them was to bring us to every place that was selling local handcrafts for us to buy. And of course people were pissed that we didn’t buy. By accident Jan and I were both pointing our cameras at men washing themselves in a little creek buck naked. We had no idea! Oh man did they get mad! We went our way, but five minutes later they caught up with us and started harassing us. They were furious, yelling and gesticulating at us, and even tried to rip Lionel’s camera from his hands. Our guides defendant us a little, and we were allowed to leave. The whole thing was extremely unpleasant, and we worried that the naked guys were going to cast a bad spell on us, commonly called a “Wack”. We are very not superstitious, but this is Africa, and things are different here. Strangely enough, all kinds of mishaps started happening to us from that moment.

first flat. :)
see all photos »

That same afternoon, not even an hour later, my good friends the cops stopped me again. “T’as pas tes plaques!”… Apparently, in Bobo it is illegal to drive without a license plate. But half of Ouaga does it and it’s totally ok! They wanted to seize my bike (imagine the mess that would have been), but I argued and argued, and they finally me a 7000FCFA (about 15$) ticket. We were actually on our way to “La Guinguette” (sounds totally Quebecer haha), natural pools in a dark forest in which we could swim, but the whole ordeal made us waste too much time and it had become too dark to go. No big deal. We would go tomorrow morning.

second flat. :)
see all photos »

In the morning we drove the 15 km of bumpy African dirt road to get to the Guinguette. Man, what a rush! Both Jan and I love riding our motorcycles, and this was so much fun! Unfortunately, the Guinguette was closed for maintenance (yeah, whatever), so we couldn’t swim. We still walked in through the unguarded entrance, walked around the forest, and took lots of pictures. It was a very peaceful place, with little rivers and suspended bridges, and we were all quite happy to be there… until two guys came and started threatening us. Ok, here we go again. They said they were guarding the Guinguette and that we were trespassing. The only way they would not seize our bikes was if we gave them 1000 FCFA each. Oh man… what could we do? Our gut feeling was telling us they were fakes, but we just didn’t want trouble! With the way things are here, even if people are fakes, they must have some uncle or distant relative somewhere that is in a position of power and can get us in trouble. So after some arguing, we paid, getting screwed once again. We later met the real guard. :)

third flat. :)
see all photos »

The unfortunate events didn’t stop here. On the way back to Bobo, where we were to drop off our friend and guide, Souleyman, I got a flat… shit. Being kilometers away from the city wasn’t really reassuring, but we actually found a mechanic after walking only a couple kilometers… Many of these mechanics can be found on the sides of roads all over Burkina, and now we know why… :) They changed the air tube, and we were finally off to Banfora! We were all very excited to do such a long route by motorcycle. The feeling one gets while driving a certain speed on a nice long paved road in the middle of the African vegetation is just pure freedom. We all felt wonderful and happy… until I got my second flat… and this only 10 km out of Bobo! It was getting freaky… did we really get Wacked!?!? Jan and Lionel drove back to a little village and brought back two mechanics, who changed the air tube again, and I took the bike for a test drive …which lasted about 10 seconds because I got my third flat. Oh my god!!! Wtf was going on?!?! We are all very rational human beings, but this just wasn’t making sense… The mechanics figured it was the inner railing of the wheel that was causing the flats, so they covered it with some tape, put in a new tube, and I went for another test drive… We were all holding our breath, too afraid of the outcome of this test drive. Surprisingly, everything seemed in order. We had fixed the problem!!! After over-paying the mechanics, we drove off, laughing at all that had happened. The ride was great; we passed little villages, bigger ones, children waving to us by the road, an immense bush fire, and then, while the sun was setting and we were about 10 km from Banfora… I got another damn flat. Number four, for those who are counting. We stopped, not saying anything. Jan and Lionel went once again to get a mechanic, all in silence. Our spirits weren’t dampened, because this was just too goddamn funny, but come on…! This was just impossible. He replaced the tube once again, double-lined it with the old tube, saying it was the little scratches inside the tire that were causing the flats. This is the first mechanic that didn’t rip us off. And we got to Banfora safe and sound. Finally.

very impressive bush fire.
see all photos »

We didn’t see anything we had planned on Saturday, but Sunday was a great day. I bought a brand new tire, we went to see hippos in a lake, refused to get ripped off (haha), and then drove to the famous Banfora waterfalls. We bathed in the waters, chilled, relaxed, and indulged in the stress-free environment we were in. This whole journey to get here was all worth it.

To conclude this little week-end getaway, we drove back to Bobo, and took a more expensive air-conditioned bus back to Ouaga, but of course the A/C was busted. :) It wouldn’t be funny otherwise, right?

fourth flat. still smiling... :)
see all photos »

We all can’t wait to go on another adventure. Next destination: northern Burkina, the beginning of the Sahara, during the Christmas break.

ps. there are more pictures than those you see on this page, click on one and you'll be able access them.