mali 8: timbuktu -> douentza
we awoke restless in the desert - early, because we had booked seats in a 7am 4x4 (quatre-quatre, or cat-cat) to douentza, from where we would stage our trek into dogon country. we grumbled a bit about timbuktu's limited tourist potential when "sleeping under the saharan stars" meant being swarmed by beetles, scorpions and mangy (but cuddly) kittens as you huddled together for warmth on a plastic tarp, with only a thin gruel of rice and sauce for comfort. that, and the fact that at about $25 per person, it was the most expensive outing of our trip so far. we reckoned that, given the brevity of our journey (2 instead of 10km) and quality of accommodation, we would ask the guide who arranged the trip for a discount. before we set out, however, we hit the tuareg pipe:
when we got back to timbuktu, the 4x4 was waiting. we loaded up our stuff and the guide showed up for the second half of his fee. then things got complicated. we asked for a discount for the aforementioned reasons. the guide refused, pointing to the negotiation. we pointed out that we did not get what we negotiated and that the so-called 'guide' didn't guide anything except, perhaps, a land rover of tuareg traders to our exact location the desert, for which, no doubt, he received some kind of commission. hence, having failed to live up to the terms of the contract, he should discount the trip. he was incensed. first, he ordered the 4x4 not to leave until he got what he felt he was owed. this was bad because the road to douentza went through some pretty harsh desert and was bad to begin with - not a place you wanted to break down in the middle of the day, hence the early departure. second, he threatened that if we did not pay him, some 'tragedy 'might befall us along the road, or in mopti, or basically anywhere we went. we did not want to find our recently purchased tuareg daggers lodged in our backs. sarah, ingeniously, broke down the guide's argument and turned the crowd of passersby against him - negotiations about money aside, who could condone threatening a group of tourists? eventually, the conversation became less about the money and more about saving face for the guide - he couldn't accept a discount under pressure, because it would embarass him. eventually, he agreed to a token discount which would allow us to get on our way and him to save face. amidst his profuse apologies, he pocketed the rest of his 'fee' - of which the tuaregs who actually led the trek saw only a fraction, probably. on the way out of town, we left a message at the police station that if we didn't arrive safely in mopti, they had the name of a guy to start the investigation. and with that, we were off, the six of us crammed into the luggage compartment of a land rover juryrigged for four.
after a long hot journey through the desert, the land became lush, wet, green and very hot. we pulled into douentza as the sun was going down. though mainly an eclectic strip along the paved road heading back to mopti and eventually bamako, douentza was an oasis after the remoteness of timbuktu. we took up residence for the night in a well-touristed hotel in a stand of palms, staking out spots on the roof with our mosquito nets. then, we descended into the courtyard for dinner among a group of blond, sunburned nordics. after drinking a flag and eating a meat skewer, i crashed gratefully into the foam pad below the lime green net.
posted by Jon @ 03:55
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