mali 2: mopti, city of la griffe
1. mopti is sort of like a regional capital, a beautiful city situated on an inland delta of the niger river - the old quarter streets snake among substantial mud-brick mansions and dilapidated mud-brick compounds. the new quarter port is extremely active with small hand-poled pirogues and larger, motorized pinasses. besides walking around the town, we were in mopti to negotiate passage by riverboat to timbuktu, a 3 day journey.
whereas most african towns (well, small ones) have one market day per week, mopti is a daily center of commerce, everything from slabs of salt caravanned from the sahara by camel to more mundane forged metal cooking implements. in mopti, as everywhere in africa, prices are not fixed, but fluctuate according to relationships and bargaining fierceness; there was a floor price for white people which we could never negotiate below - they would rather lose the sale. it was exhausting but sort of fun.
we went to examine the boat that was leaving the day we wanted (tuesday) for timbuktu - it seemed like a pretty good deal - three days of transport, including meals, and the six of us would get a whole "compartment" that normally seats about 20 people. of course, the boat wouldn't leave until it was full of cargo, which at this point it is not. they use these boats to transport largely millet in huge 50kg sacks and bags of cement. these would be loaded in the hull up to the gunwales and upon them we would sleep. sacks of millet - cozy!
after we negotiated the boat, we took some time to wander the old quarter, home to the grand mosque and a quartier of large mansions. like DC, the wealthy live shoulder to shoulder with the destitute. we also took time out to school some little kids in foosball.
we left mopti in the evening, content with our plan to travel to djenne on the morrow and return to catch the boat to timbuktu the subsequent day. at this point, we were doing ok: we were staying at an inn run by a former missionary who harbored colonial aspirations - but, he was attuned to the health needs of foreign travelers, and made us mexican food and indian curry, all you can eat, for about 10x the price of african food - but, he had a pool. and it was worth it!
posted by Jon @ 14:10
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