by Calvin Sun | Feb 5, 2023 | Burkina Faso, February 2022: Mali, February 2023: The Western Africa Hopper - Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, Way Way Off the Beaten Path
This morning we explored the old neighborhood and grasp the feeling of what life was like in old Burkina Faso, or as it was known during the colonial times – the Upper Volta. Burkina Faso, the name given by Thomas Sankara, can be translated as “The land of the...
by Calvin Sun | Feb 4, 2023 | Burkina Faso, February 2023: The Western Africa Hopper - Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea
Waking up early at 5:30am for a 6am departure from our hotel in Banfora, breakfast became an afterthought as we drove out for an early sunrise boat trip on the Tengrela Lake. Trusting our fate to the lake, we paddled out to see local herd of...
by Calvin Sun | Feb 3, 2023 | Burkina Faso, February 2023: The Western Africa Hopper - Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, Way Way Off the Beaten Path
After breakfast in Ouagadougou we set off at 7am for a grueling 10.5 hour drive to Banfora via passing through Dedougou and Bobo Dioulasso, with a handful of stops and a quick half an hour lunch. The ride was forced to be interesting over intense...
by Calvin Sun | Feb 2, 2023 | Burkina Faso, February 2022: Mali, February 2023: The Western Africa Hopper - Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea
I always follow through! I had originally planned to visit Burkina Faso last January right after my trip in Mali but when a coup d’etat took place in Burkina Faso’s capital city on January 23, about 2 days before I was supposed to visit, I ended up...
by Calvin Sun | Jan 16, 2023 | Blitzkrieg!!!, Côte d'Ivoire, January 2023: Côte d'Ivoire, Layovers, Way Way Off the Beaten Path, Weekend Trips
With extra time and running an hour ahead of schedule after a late morning in Yamoussoukro, Dayo and I agreed to cram in a 4 hour onward drive and detour to visit Grand-Bassam: a UNESCO World Heritage site and town in the southeastern part of the Ivory Coast,...