I just took the best vacation of my life. No joke. I spent four days in what's known as Dogon Country in Mali.
Dogon Country is comprised of the Bandiagara Escarpment 200 km long. The Dogon people live on top and at the base of the cliffs. The most striking villages are those in the cliffs themselves which are very reminiscent of Mesa Verde in Colorado. Before the Dogon people came to live around the cliffs another people known as the Tellem lived there. You can still see what looks like tiny houses high in the cliffs. These were actually used by the Tellem to hide their valuables and were not actually lived in. No one really understands why the Tellem left, but they were succeeded by the ancestors of the present day Dogon. These ancient Dogon built the villages in the base of the cliffs, which are uninhabited today.
Getting to Dogon Country from Ouahigouya is "easy". There are bush taxis that leave for Koro, Mali everyday. They don't have a scheduled time for departure, leaving instead when all the seats have been sold. We got to the "station" by the cinema at 6:30 am, but didn't actually leave until close to 9 am. We ended up waiting for two women who had purchased tickets the night before, then we had to go fill up the tires with air, then get gas, then pick-up one more person, etc.
Finally we made our way to the border. On the Burkina side we had to stop and unload at the gendarmerie, customs and border and in Mali at the border and customs for a grand total of 5 stops. To make things interesting the two women we waited for didn't have their IDs so each stop took forever. The authorities wanted the women to pay sums of money for not having their identification and the women tried each time to get out of doing so by saying they had no money (not true). As for us Americans, we had to purchase our visas at the border for 15000 cfa each. This turned out to be very easy with no hassle, not at all what I expected.
Dogon Country is comprised of the Bandiagara Escarpment 200 km long. The Dogon people live on top and at the base of the cliffs. The most striking villages are those in the cliffs themselves which are very reminiscent of Mesa Verde in Colorado. Before the Dogon people came to live around the cliffs another people known as the Tellem lived there. You can still see what looks like tiny houses high in the cliffs. These were actually used by the Tellem to hide their valuables and were not actually lived in. No one really understands why the Tellem left, but they were succeeded by the ancestors of the present day Dogon. These ancient Dogon built the villages in the base of the cliffs, which are uninhabited today.
Getting to Dogon Country from Ouahigouya is "easy". There are bush taxis that leave for Koro, Mali everyday. They don't have a scheduled time for departure, leaving instead when all the seats have been sold. We got to the "station" by the cinema at 6:30 am, but didn't actually leave until close to 9 am. We ended up waiting for two women who had purchased tickets the night before, then we had to go fill up the tires with air, then get gas, then pick-up one more person, etc.
Finally we made our way to the border. On the Burkina side we had to stop and unload at the gendarmerie, customs and border and in Mali at the border and customs for a grand total of 5 stops. To make things interesting the two women we waited for didn't have their IDs so each stop took forever. The authorities wanted the women to pay sums of money for not having their identification and the women tried each time to get out of doing so by saying they had no money (not true). As for us Americans, we had to purchase our visas at the border for 15000 cfa each. This turned out to be very easy with no hassle, not at all what I expected.
Mali border check point with our white bush taxi.
We finally made it to Koro, Mali around 1 pm where we met our guide Oumar. Oumar is the "official" Peace Corps guide for Dogon and now I know why. He's Dogon himself coming from the village of Endé, speaks great english and is super knowledgeable and relaxed. After eating lunch and waiting for the sun to set a bit (3:30 pm) we took off in an old white station wagon to our drop off point where the road became too sandy for the car. Amusingly my door wouldn't stay closed so I ended up holding it shut the whole way. That afternoon we hiked to the village of Nombori and began our hike to Téli (about 30 km).
Camel cart
Quick stop at a village on our route.
We met two thirsty ladies carrying firewood not too far from the start of our hike.
roof sleeping is comfortable!
View from Nombori. It felt as though the sand was trying to swallow the valley. Dogon is located in the region known as the Sahel, not far from the Sarhara.
The mound is/was a fetish or god. Sacrifices are poured on top and in the center is the head of an animal or something like that.
vegetable garden
ladder
meeting place
marché area
rock resembling a camel
hand dug well next to fields
upset donkeys - they were eating ants and then something went awry
pain de singe (aka baobab fruit)
basket weaving
indigo ball and fabric before dyeing
door
mosque
hunter's home - baboon and other skulls
1 comment:
Wow! That place looks amazing and so glad you had such a great vacation. I guess I never thought that there were people around the world who lived in cliffs besides the Native Americans we have here. Very interesting!
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