... not a very useful metaphor here, so instead the hippopotamus is used as a model!
Last weekend I went to Banfora, popular tourist/holiday destination not very far from Bobo, about an hour and a half by coach. It was very nice to get away. Banfora itself is a small town much like other towns here, but is surrounded by beautiful and tranquil landscape and some tourist hot spots (by local standards).
There are the Cascades, a waterfall which is spectacular by local if not by international standards, and which provides some very pleasant natural swimming pools,
where you can while away an afternoon swimming and watching others - locals and visitors - playing in the rock pool.Followed by a tasty snack at the local McDo's..
And then there is the hippo lake, where you go out in a little wooden boat (pirogue) and if you are lucky, and go early enough in the morning, you can see hippos - first spotted as a pair of nostrils, but then, with luck heaving themselves in and out of the water. Great fun to watch, hard to catch with a pocket camera.
Lots of birds and trees which I cannot name but enjoyed seeing.
Nice relaxing weekend away, good to be out of town and in open country for a change.
Just read all 19 of your blog posts in one go. Very informative, interesting and well illustrated, not least by the "tip of the hippoberg"! Glad to hear you are surviving the various privations and frustrations and are finding positives too, including your recent excursion into the countryside.
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