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 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 | 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,...
by Calvin Sun | Jan 16, 2023 | Blitzkrieg!!!, Côte d'Ivoire, January 2023: Côte d'Ivoire, Layovers, Uncategorized, Way Way Off the Beaten Path, Weekend Trips
The world’s largest basilica . . . . . . just got SERVED. After a morning walking around the country’s economic capital of Abidjan, we drove up 3 hours to reach Yamoussoukro, the political capital city of Côte...
by Calvin Sun | Jan 16, 2023 | Blitzkrieg!!!, Côte d'Ivoire, Getting that VISA, How Did You Do That?, January 2023: Côte d'Ivoire, Layovers, Way Way Off the Beaten Path, Weekend Trips
The end of 2022 was coming around and nobody was yet taking up my offer to repeat our Caribbean adventure last January. So my gut started talking and I began to consider postponing the original plan in favor of a different excursion. Poking around options...
by Calvin Sun | Dec 20, 2022 | December 2022: Senegal, The Gambia, & Guinea-Bissau, Guinea-Bissau, Way Way Off the Beaten Path
Bissau, the eponymous capital city of Guinea-Bissau. After a weeklong road trip across mid West Africa beginning in Dakar and as far north as the Mauritanian border at St. Louis, we rest our weary legs for 2 days here. From our lodgings at Casa Cacheu, we...
