Today we drive to Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. There are not too many pictures of Burkina Faso, as we spent most of our time in the two major cities, and we did not often carry the digital camera around with us in these cities (as with many of the other cities).
We headed on our way at 8:40 AM into Bobo to so some shopping for the cook group. We joined the cook group in their shopping so that we could give them a hand as we did not have too much time. And we were in for some excitement. While in the market, someone tried to pickpocket Craig, who, however, was quick and noticed and grabbed the man's hand and chased after him to make sure he did not get anything. The pickpocket was unsuccessful. After we let him go, the locals in the market gave us a big cheer and the thumbs-up. They, as anywhere else, do not like pickpockets and were glad to see that he had been thwarted. As we walked through and out of the market, the locals continued to smile and give us the thumbs up.
After getting the shopping loaded up on the truck, we headed on our way. It was quite a long drive and we had lunch on the side of the road. We arrived in Ouaga just before 5 PM and went to a campsite called Ouaga Camping. We think it must have had better days and is not used very often these days - it is in serious state of disrepair. The most amazing thing was the set of rules that they laid out for us - see sign on right (double click on thumbnail to enlarge).
And as you can see from this photo, we are not sure we would mind if our privileges were denied. To a certain extent, it seemed like it had been turned into a junk yard for trucks.
Right next to our campsite was some sort of drinking place as the music that they were playing was blaring into the campsite. As we could not beat them, some of us decided to join them. We walked out onto the street and up to the bar. It was a pretty basic place and, of course, only filled with locals. There were quite a few guys and it appeared that all the women were there in a professional capacity, so to speak. We had a drink, listened to some of the music, watched Alan dance, soaked up some of the local color and then headed back to try to get some sleep. It was not easy because of the music.