Album: Bamako
Bamako is the bustling capital of Mali, a city overflowing with humanity and culture. Only main streets are paved, car and motorcycles create major congestion, and trash piles are heaped along the roadside or overflowing from drainage ditches. Understandably, a visible haze lingers over the city. But, when trudging through the almost unbearable heat and humidity, we encountered so many friendly people! Everyone has a story or is willing to help - with such poverty, family and community is all they have. We started the Mali trip in Bamako and also spent a few more days after returning from Dogon Country and Djenne.

Album: Dogon Country
Our 4-day, 3-night hiking tour of Dogon Country was one of the most memorable parts of our trip to Mali. Our charismatic, knowledgeable guide, Guindo (a Dogon himself), led us from village to village where we met locals who were preserving ancient cultural traditions through their work, music, art, and performance. Dogon Country was not as untouched as the villages of the Atlas Mountains, though, because tourism reached here long ago. With tourism has come an awareness of the outside world - we were hounded by children for money, water bottles, and pens - however, tourism has also brought tourism dollars which have built numerous schools and provided other types of vital aide.

Album: Djenne
Djenne became our destination when we started chasing a phantom music festival. The original plan was to make a beeline for Timbuktu after Dogon Country, but safety warnings about Al-Qaeda in the north steered us away. Djenne is most famous for its enormous mud mosque, but we mostly settled there when we learned that the first annual music festival never made it off the ground, but a famous marionette festival happened to coincide with our visit. It also turned out to be a great shopping stop for silver and embroidery!

Album: Siby
We spent a day in the village of Siby - a one-hour taxi ride from Bamako - hiking, repelling down cliffs, eating with the locals, and dipping in a natural pool that was a 1-hour motorcycle ride through bumpy, dusty dirt roads. A great way to escape the noise and pollution of the city!