and the rest.....

where were we....oh yes. we had just left timbuctu. when we arrived back in bamako, lp and i promptly took the longest (and best) showers ever. it was glorious. words cannot describe a steaming hot shower after 3 days of cold showers and then 3 days in the desert- bask in the thought. we ate a HUGE lunch (all i requested were veggies. that's it) and we watched a movie with tim, then went to bed early. also glorious- sleeping in a bed after basically camping for a week. on monday, lp and i did absolutely nothing. we woke up late, ate breakfast (that the cook made for us!), and laid out at the pool pretty much all morning/early afternoon. we showered (2nd best shower ever) and then walked to the store to get a beer and then back to laying out and reading. that night we all went to dinner at a great little outdoor place where i had fish and fries - that was one of my staples in mali. the next day, lp and i decided to go to kangaba, which was supposed to be a hiking/camping area. tim let us borrow the car and as we drove we saw the greatest place in the world:

(it says "no stress" and "pirate club" on the sides)

the day was really hazy so this is what we saw when we hiked

the next day we decided to meet tim for lunch at one his favorite places. this place had yams that were smashed and mashed into dough-like balls and then covered with a sauce (peanut or spicy tomato). you then tore off pieces of the dough ball and dipped it in the sauce. pretty good but really weird texture. anyway, they gave us some water:
yup, it was in a bag. hilarious. you had to tear it open with your teeth and then suck the water out. after that lp and i went to the national park and museum. it was pretty and we stuck around for a little while and then went back to tim's to hang out and read more. the next day (thursday) tim took off work and he, lp, cheik and i went to a fancy french restaurant. it was pretty adorable and had interesting things to eat, like porcupine. that's what i ate. seriously. it was pretty good. no spikes. and the restaurant was super cute!

inside (yes, we were the only people there. cheik called and told them we wanted to come for lunch, so they opened for us. so vip.)

these were the "christmas trees" that were all over. it was totally made of tinsel. of course, i loved it.

there were also lots of animals around outside. like a monkey.

after lunch, we went to cheik's village and his family home. it was small but pretty (like a lot of the other landscape around!).

his family house

backyard

the rooster that lived there

cheik's brother, tim and cheik

as you can tell, it was very rustic. it was also very cool that we got to go to the village, as there aren't too many white people (or "toubob's" as we're called there) that get to visit. when we got home, my feet were KILLING me with itching. apparently because about a million mosquitoes bit me.
on friday, we left around noon and flew to senegal, where we had an 8 hour layover. we left the airport and tim's friend's came and took us to their house where we hung out for a while. then lp and i went to find a late dinner on the beach. fresh fish!!
the end of our story is that we got to the airport and were almost first in line but our emailed itinerary didn't have our full names on it, so we had to run around to a get an actual ticket. when we got it, we'd obviously lost our place in line and ended up getting the WORST seats (the sucky middle seats-yuck!). we got on the plane and they came to ask lp to come look at our bag- because we had batteries in a flashlight. are you kidding? when we finally get home, our luggage is not there to meet us (of course). luckily, it got here the next day, but we were glad to get home!!!!!

timbuctu

sorry it's been so long, but here we go again.....

wednesday january 5, 2011: we wake up EARLY. tim had arranged for us to catch a ride with 2 girls who were friends of people he worked with. they had paid for a guide up to timbuctu and for the festival and there was room in the car for lp and i, so we got in (sidenote: this part of the trip was so lucky for us. it was apparently really hard to find a ride if you weren't with a tour group). so we get up and get in a land cruiser with these 2 girls, our driver and his cousin/brother/whoever in the back. our drive takes us down a dirt/sand/rocky/bumpy road that is probably the WORST drive i've ever heard of or been on in my entire life. picture us going about 60 mph, through bumps and potholes, sand, rocks, all that for 6 hours. my bottom flew out of my seat a few times (I WORE MY SEATBELT!!!) and if i had a weaker stomach, i would have lost it several times. finally we come to a long road with water on either side-the road into timbuctu! we have to drive down this road and take a ferry over to get to the city, but of course there's a huge line for the ferry so we get out and look around.

the road

the line for the ferry

the houses where the people who sold stuff on the road lived

donkeys

our ride

the rumor was that we would have to wait for anywhere from 1 to 4 hours for the ferry. luckily though, our driver knew "people" and got us to the front of the line (VIP, ya'll!). i thought we'd get to take this cute little boat over:
but he got us and our luggage on the ferry first and off we went!!!

this little girl was inching up on lp. i almost had to fight her. ha!

timbuctu!

our driver drops us off at our hotel and it is great!! we went in a had dinner (oh, we hadn't eaten since like 9 am. it was about 6 by this time) and it so good! we ate roasted chicken and french fries with a beer. it was the perfect end to the day!

after meal tea they always serve. it's brewed 3 times and it is super sweet. i couldn't stop drinking it.

the next day our driver was supposed to come get us at around 11, show us around and take us to the festival. he showed up at 12:30 and by 2 we still hadn't eaten. we were super angry and had it out with him, which ended up in our favor. we ate lunch (or whatever you call a meal at 3 pm) and then headed out to the festival. when we pulled up, there are people and camels everywhere!

our tour guide, abu

we are shown to our tent and then lp and i are on our own. in the desert. in timbuctu. we speak NO french and mali is a francophone country, so this is the part i'm worried about. luckily, everyone was so so so sweet and nice and many of the people spoke "a little" english. let's just say that their "little bit" was waaaaayyy more than my "little bit"! we had a guard for our tent who we made friends with really quick to make sure nobody messed with our stuff. his name was nana.

lp, mohammoud, nana

the tents

our tent!!! note the thing in the background to the right. that was one of our "toilets" - a hole in the ground

sunset in the desert

our chefs

Tuareg's. these are a group of nomadic people who live in the desert. as they often travel, they use camels. well, actually dromedaries, which is a camel with one hump.

that's the moon up top!

we ate dinner before the festival started. dinner (and lunch) was typically rice or couscous with a vegetable sauce. and dirt. i really dislike couscous and i'm not hot on rice, so during the festival i was not very pumped about the food. anyway, we ate and then headed down to the festival. the music started around 9 or 10 each night, and lasted until about 2 am. it was super cold at night, even colder than we had expected, but luckily they lit fires around the music area and our sweet guide got us blankets from somewhere (i don't know where and i don't really like to think about it, but it was a dirty time in my life so i wasn't too concerned at the time).

fire

band

the next few days were all pretty much the same: wake up around 7-8, eat breakfast (bread and jam), come back to tent and take morning nap, wake up, walk around for a bit, eat lunch, take after-lunch nap, get up, walk around for a bit (or read in tent), eat dinner, go to concert, come back and go to sleep. here are some highlight photos:

our restroom

some of the other tents

mid-afternoon performance at our lunch tent. yeah, we ate with the VIP's!

oh! one afternoon lp and i got to take a camel ride!!! it was so much fun for me, as i had wanted to do it since i heard about camels being there. we were able to go out for about 45 minutes! it was scary and fun!

getting on my camel

yay! we're riding camels!

backside camels

sand, sand, sand. and one lone man.

low flying planes

the kids entertained themselves by flipping down the dunes. i'm jealous i was too old to participate.

our "beds"

oh yeah, i also forgot there was a camel race one day. i didn't know camels raced, but apparently they do and we got to see it. i will tell you that camels are not that fast, so this race was not the most thrilling thing in the world, however, it was something to do!

here they come!

after three days of being in the desert, peeing in a hole, not showering, sweating, dancing, and just generally being dirty, i was ready to take a shower. i mean, i smelled terrible. luckily, we had a hook up and got a seat on one of the only 2 flights to bamako that sunday (when the festival was over). the girls we had ridden up there with had to take a 2 day car ride back to bamako!!! needless to say, i was so happy to get on a plane that would take me to a shower in an hour. we got our boarding passes and i was a little nervous:

it's definitely the first time i've had a boarding pass with no name, but we ended up getting on the flight and back to bamako. as i've said, we smelled pretty bad and when tim picked us up i tried to tell him this. about 5 minutes into the car ride, he let us know that we really did smell as bad as we had thought. showers were our first activity at the house!! more on the rest of the trip next post!