Bissau Carnival (11 days)

Arrival at Bamako, the capital of Mali. Assistance at airport and transfer to hotel
 

The Classic visit of Bamako includes the art center, and the best ethnographic museum in west Africa we will include the les visited but interesting market area with the Neo-Sudanese beautiful example of colonial architecture the “Marche Rose” and the recycle area where a new kind of artisans recycle western waists in useful popular items. Departure in direction North West in direction of Kita and Manantali, to the les visited part of Mali, evening arrival. Overnight in small villas that have been built for the technician working on the dam.

Manantali dam has created a lake more that 40 miles long and between 3 and 5 miles wide. The water, rich in fish, has attracted Bozo (fisherman ethic group) that has settle villages on the edges of the lake. With them we will do an excursion on a motorized canoe and visit the remote settlements. The lake is edged by escarpments and small creeks.

Different kind of islands merges from the lake: just rocks or large and flat island covered by lushly tropical vegetation and large mountains with vertical ridges emerging from the water like monoliths.

Afternoon visit to the hydroelectric power stations that produce the energy for tree African capitals: Bamako, Dakar and Nouakchott. The engineers will be happy to show and explain us how works the dam the gigantic turbines and generators.
Return to our villas.

We will follow a small track in the vegetation to climb the Tambaoura escarpment crossing canyons and rocky hills that hides beautiful villages with the adobe dowels decorate in bas-relief painted with different natural pigment from brown to blue indigo. The villagers: Peul and Malinke come to great the rare traveler passing and invite us to visit their huts. A "lost track" where rarely vehicles are seen will bring us to the border of Senegal that consists in the river Falémé. Our 4x4 vehicles will ford the large river to joint the les known part of Senegal.

Discovery of the more remotes ethnic groups in Senegal. Protected by mountains and rivers, at the border of Senegal and Guinea lives the lasts animist tribes of the country: Bedick. These people try to preserve their original African culture en animistic religion; totally surrounded by en environment more and more under the pressure of islamisation.
Early morning departure for the village of Ibel to star a 40 minutes steep walk that brings us over the mountain to Iwol village. In XII century the ancestors of Bedick immigrated from Mandé (Mali) to the actual territories.
With the rapid growth of Mali Empire and his internal and external wars some minority groups were forced to emigrate to survive, and this eastern region isolated and protected by nature had been the ideal final settlement for them. Iwol is the largest and a well conserved Bedick village, located on a mountain can be reached only by foot. A tall sacred tree protects the village that is inhabited by 4 different large families (clans): Keita the family of chiefs, Camara and Samoura the families that organize ceremonies and dances, Sadiakou the clan in charge of the traditions. Bedick women have interesting adorns: a complicated hairdo with plait, adorned with beads, string of colored glass beads and in the nose a porcupine spike. In the shade of his hut will meet a member of the chef clan that will introduce us to the history and every day life of is people. Retour to the vehicles and departure in direction south to cross a small border post with Guinea. Arrives to the Bassari villages and star visits.

Overnight near a Bassari village. Research on DNA says that Bassari origin is in the Bantu group from Central Africa end costal regions of Guinea Gulf. The cycle of life of Bassari follow the ancestral calendar rimed by the seasons the periods of initiations. Each person belongs to his initiation group that shares a common brotherhood. Bassari lives in tiny villages in a rocky hill environment, villages are rolled by the “elder’s council”.

Guinea Bissau border crossing. Guinea Bissau is a former Portuguese colony, one of the poorest and isolated countries in West Africa, which became independent in 1974 after long guerrilla that opposed the PAIGC (independence party leads by Amilcar Cabral) to Portugal of Salazar. We will spend the night in Bafata.

We will reach the capital in the morning where a speed boat will wait for us.
Our three days of navigation will start from Bissau: we will continue our navigation in direction of the legendary archipelago of Bijagos. Distant on average 40 miles from the coast, it is the most important archipelago of the continent, composed of 16 islands with villages, and dozens of small wild islands. Between the islands the low tide discovers large banks of sand. The colours of the archipelago have a primitive beauty: the dark green of the forest, the white of sands, brown and ochre of rocks, the blue of the ocean.
The inhabitants of the Bijagos, thanks to the insulation of the archipelago and the absence of transport and the attachment to the traditions, were no too much influenced by the external world. The women still get dressed with the saiya, a skirt out of fibre of straw. The life of the villages is characterized by the use of the masks, often used in secret ceremonies and which are kept jealously.
We’ll go discovering the islands in searching of the most isolated villages. We may attend old secret ceremonies of these people who carve ritual statues and practise the rites of initiation.
In the island of Rubane we will star to enjoy the carnival that in the Bijagos archipelago has transformed the original Portuguese use of mask in a real African style festival.
The third day the speed boat will come to pick us up to bring us back to Bissau.

Full day dedicated at the climax of the Carnival in the capital with the best “Barios” challenging each other. An unforgettable mix of Portuguese culture and African magic sensibility to masks….. in the crowd of the “fiesta popular”.
Meal at “Pensao Central”, which -settled in a colonial building-, keeps serving the same (tasteful) menus since half a century.

Early morning City tour: Bissau is a quite small town. Streets in the centre kept the atmosphere and the Portuguese architecture. Transfer to airport and assistance to check in for the flight to Dakar.