mali 6: disembarkation
great sunrises on the river
once we got further down river, we began to see some sail-pirogues, which were a change from the pervasive hand-poled pirogues.
it more or less conveys the passage of time on the boat - cramped quarters (although relatively spacious) - reading books, watching the scenery, suffocating from the
heat, trying to catch up on sleep, etc.
after 3 days on the river, we finally arrived in kourioume, which is the port for timbuktu - my guess is that timbuktu actually used to be on the river, but it changed course and now the river is about 20k away. as the look on sarah's face suggests, we were pretty exhausted when we got there, and still we had to haggle over the ride to town - out of principle; who was going to pay the 50 cent baggage fee? not me!
we managed to pick up several new tuareg "friends" during the brief journey form kouriome to the auberge where we were staying; once some new white people roll into town, every single person finds out about it and the "guides" and salesmen will wait outside your hotel from 6 in the morning for you to emerge and, hopefully, hire their services or buy their wares. man - we thought the sell in mopti was tough, but the real claws came out once we got to the desert. eventually, you just had to insult whatever tuareg was following you so he would leave you alone. this was somewhat nervewracking, as their wares mainly consisted of knives. but unlike the mopti sell, which was hard up front, the tuaregs are silky smooth in their approach, with lots of
smiles below blue-turbaned heads. but the hotel was something of a sanctuary, as they would stop following you at the gate. the walls were thick and they cut the heat.
posted by Jon @ 16:57
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