Burkina Faso. It is Lena´s dream for years to go to Burkina Faso and on Thursday the third her dream was coming true. The border into Burkina was easy to pass. Everybody was really friendly and helpful except the guys who were responsible for the laissez passer. They just let me wait and wait. When I finally got the laissez passer it was dark and still 140km to Bobo Dioulasso. We went for it. But honestly, driving by night is not funny. But one experience was amazing. We went trough some small villages and we didn´t realise until we saw all the people moving on the road. The secret were the street lights. They didn´t have any. The only light they had were the lights in their shops or just there cooking fire. These villages turned up like ghost towns. We were passing through 4 maybe 5 of them. Traffic was almost not existant. What we saw were totally overloaded Peogeots 404 pick-ups. Too much, some of them didn´t have any light. I still wonder how they managed to stay on the road. Later we learned this road should be avoided by night. There is a lot banditery going on and people actually ask for police escort. Luckily we didn´t know at the time. After more than 2 hours driving in the dark it was just about time Bobo Dioulasso turned up. We were passing some very nice big houses. We passed a bakery which was for sure still open. I popped in, actually to ask for the direction but I couldn´t resist the croisants I saw in the lay out. People were incredibly friendly, everybody I asked was just nice and very helpful. We had the direction of a lodge in Bobo. After asking a couple of times we found ourselfes in front of the door.The place is called Le Pascha and is turned over by a swiss guy from Geneve.
The place is clean and in winter there might be some shade but towards the hot season most of the trees were loosing their leaves. The spot was nice, we were in walking distance to the grande marche in the center of town. Bobo is much cleaner than any city we were in Mali. Still there is some polution but far better then what we were used to already. Bobo´s got an amazing theater and music scene. We went to a few concerts in town. We even met people we knew from Nouadibu in Mauretania. The bands were always a mix between local people and Europeans. Ok, to be honest, they were all french. 
We were the only Germans in town. At least we didn´t meat any. The following days we were exploring the city. We did a lot of walking. Somehow it is normal in Africa to walk a lot. I think we did at least 5-15km a day. Often we wanted to go out at night but at the end of the day we were just too tired.
On Thuesday morning it was time to say good-bye to Rose. We had a very good time with her and somehow it was sad to watch her leaving. She was going more to the north to a place close to Nouna where she was going to work on a help project. Lena was planning to go on by her own too. I didn´t really know what to do. I was still looking for a help project but it was somehow not easy to find any in Burkina. I had some directions but they were all not in Burkina. We met a german couple on the camp-site. They gave me some very important informations about places to stay in Burkina, Togo and Benin. I planned to leave on Thursday the 10th but on Wednesday I learned my bank card is not working,... again. The last time it was blocked by my bank in Spain.
They found it strange someone was taking money at an ATM in Mali. I called a friend of mine and the problem was sorted. But this time It was different. The ATM´s didn´t even take my card, and the one who took it didn´t accept my card. So this was good news. I went into town early the next morning but it was still the same. I tried every single bank I found and I ended up at the Banque International de Burkina short BIB. I was introduced to a very friendly man who spent at least one hour to find out what was wrong with my card. At the end he told me my card will not work in Burkina Faso. Somehow my bank has to declare the card in Burkina to make it work. I had a word with my bank but they didn´t really know what I was talking about. So not the best knews.
Burkina didn´t really look like one of the poorest countries to me. Maybe Bobo Dioulasso is some what different. I´ve got the feeling the town is quite busy. Everybody is making some buisness. But Bobo is a touristic place as well. We met many french people here. Half of them were spending the wintermonth down here and the other half is living here. Once we spotted a supermarket and we thought we could maybe buy some nice stuff but no, they charged ridiculous prices. Washing powder 20€ for example. So we just left again. Live here can be very cheap. It depends what you want. At our camp-site they charged for a normal meal 3000-8000 CFA. In town we went to various restaurants, ok when you call actually 2 tables and 5 chairs put at the side of the road a restaurant, and paid 300 CFA for a plate of rice with sauce or fish. Vegetables at one of the stalls who were all over the place were fresh, very tasty and cheap. Our daily vegetable and fruit shopping hardly went above 2000CFA but than we´ve got potatoes, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, bananas, advocados and papaya which sometimes last for two or three days. Fuel prices are almost on european level.
In Bobo I had to say good-bye to Lena. Burkina was the country she wanted to be and she decided to go on by her own taking buses or hitch hiking through the country. I had a good time with Lena as she is a nice person and a very good travel mate. Thank you for everything.
I didn´t ecatly know what to do. I could have stayed longer in Bobo, but I decided to move on. I left on Saturday morning and went to Ouagadougou which is the capital of Burkina Faso. I stopped at midday in one of these restaurants on the side of the road. It was incredibly hot inside the car. I had to spill water over my head. Getting wet clothes or a wet seat was not really a problem. Everything was dried out within minutes. As I left early in the morning I arrived already at 3pm in Ouaga. I was looking for a place called Ok-Inn. The place was actually easy to find. Ok-Inn is a I don´t know how many star hotel which allows travelers to camp on their ex minigolf compound. They had nice showers and a real toilet. In return they expect you to have dinner now and than in their restaurant. I didn´t go for dinner but every evening I took a beer in the bar. My plan was to get a visa entente in Ouaga which covers five countries: Burkina, Niger, Benin, Togo and Ivery coast. But as I arrived on Saturday I had to wait until Monday before I could go for it. They offered free Wifi as well at the hotel. Free Wifi sounds good but it was not a very reliable connection. I had an interesting response to one of my mails, offering me to work on a water project. This sounded like exactly what I was looking for.
The only problem: the project is in the south part of Senegal. I had a choice to make. I called Deanne, she is the woman running the project to ask her if it is possible to enter Senegal by car without a carnet de passage. Some people I met said you can other said you can´t. Deanne told me she would find out for me. Actually I would like to go there as I could pass at the chute de Gouina on the way to Senegal where I liked it very much. On the other hand I would have to skip Togo and Benin. Where I really wanted to go right from the beginning was Ghana. But I met many people and they were all telling me the same thing. Ghana is not giving out any Visa at the moment. The only possibility to get a Visa is in your home country which would be Germany for me. So this was totally out of question. Anyway, on Monday I was exploring the city. Ouagadougou is a very large city. I havn´t seen many high buildings not to mention sky scrapers. Ouaga is totally different than Bobo. Bobo is a „very“ touristic place which Ouaga isn´t. I haven´t seen a single white person. I was on one of the markets and the people were very cool, they didn´t hang on to me like they did in Bobo especially close to the grand marché. And I heard only three persons calling me „Les blancs“. In Bobo I was called the white 100 times a day. I asked myself many times if this is a sort of racial-hatred, but all the time when I said hello to the guys they were somehow friendly, so I didn´t know. People though compared to Bobo were much more serious. In Bobo they laughed a lot and as soon as I spoke to them they were smiling. Not in Ouaga.I stayed three days in Ouaga and than made my desicion to go to Senegal. I left very early on Thuesday morning. Back to Bobo is was 360km. I arrived already at 2pm. This time I went to Casa Africa. A lodge and a camp site, close to le pascha, but far cheaper and with much more flair. It might just be the fact the place is turned over by a local guy. As soon as I stopped there was this guy showing up trying to sell me some CDs. You get used to the fact that is doesn´t matter where you stop there is always someone trying to make buisness. The only other customer was a german guy travelling by local buses. I just stayed one night. The next day I had some serious driving to do. It was almost 550km to Bamako and the border in between which takes always around two hours to pass it. So it was only a short visit to Burkina Faso, but I have to say I liked the country very very much and I hope to come back one day for a longer stay.
The link underneeth will lead you to picassa photo stream.
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