Loading up our bachée, the most common kind of transport in Mali. It was a 3 hour trip to Sam's village in Dogon Country.
Their main crop is green onions. The plots are all separated like this for irrigation... when they water it, it stays in the little area and doesn't wash off.
This cave under the rock goes all the way through. When we first got to the village, these kids were singing, so we went to check it out...
And as soon as they were done, they demanded some money for their little show!
Dogons are known for their wooden sculptures. There were lots for sale!
This is the village we stayed in, literally on top of the rocks. We got off the bachée and this guy led us to the PCV's house.
walking through the village
The view from the PCV's house
walking back down the rock to lunch
waiting for the rest of the crew to catch up
The scenery was amazing, just so different than anything I had seen before!
You can see the mosque on the left, and more onion fields on the right
Fence tied up with scrap fabric
Fetching water
some more fencing in the village
Pretty standard Dogon building...
...but it's funny to see a car parked here!
We helped her pound millet
Sunrise on Christmas Eve, the view from the roof where we slept
See that tree trunk ladder over there? We used one like that to get up and down from the roof!
Walking to market. The Dogon calendar is on a five day week, so the market rotates between different towns every five days. Market day was on Christmas day here!
More women walking to market
we bought some delicious mangoes from this woman
You can buy Obama shirts all over Mali (and sandals, and backpacks, and lots of other Obama stuff!)
Colorful market
A lot of artisans were selling indigo fabric like this
Dogon Cultural Festival
dancing at sunset
Christmas dinner! They roasted a goat for us
The women in the village danced for us after Christmas dinner
I took these photos in "Night Snapshot" mode, which captures a couple seconds of motion. There are some cool shadows!
We got to dance too
Sunrise on the first day of our hike
The haze cleared up, just in time for our first day of hiking!
And we're off! We went down that canyon on the left.
Down we go...
at the bottom of a looong flight of stairs
the Tellem people used to live in those buildings built into the rock face. Dogon legend says they could fly... pretty logical, since they are way up on the cliff!
some of the souvenirs to buy
The doors and window shutters were really cool... they all had carvings like these.
looking back at the cliffs
see that well way down there? that's their closest water source. it's a long way from the village!
More Tellem structures. The Dogon use them as burial sites. Those white streaks in the rock are offerings for their ancestors.
The track got really sandy, which sucked for those of us wearing Chaco/Keen sandals
The next day we headed back on the road...
...and up the rocks to Yugo
walking through the canyon
the amazing view from the top
traversing the plateau
weaving the indigo fabric that the Dogon wear
a cool water drain
we headed down and across the valley after lunch
these kids walked down with us
sunrise on Day 3
the view from our hotel
we walked through this village and back up to the plateau
on our way up through the village
Our guide explaining the significance of the figures on the doors
We made it back! Had a great lunch, chicken and sweet potato fries, to end an awesome hike and an epic trip.
