At the virage, I switched to a 4×4 vehicle with a driver who probably already overcharged me for the first ride, but then really took me for a ride by vastly overcharging me for the two-hour ride to the ancient city of Aoudaghost.
The city was beautiful, surrounded by eroded mountains of layered brown stone with caves and also by unusually orange sand dunes, probably due to the presence of lots of iron. The driver let air out of the tires to get more traction in the sand. (That’s a picture above of the guy who overcharged me so much.)
November 15, 2007, Bus station in Ayoun el Atrous, Mauritania
The journey by bus from Bamako to Nioro du Sahel was fairly uneventful. A pleasant elder gentleman sat next to me and we chatted in French much of the way. I also occupied my time by swatting mosquitoes with my map of Mali until the window was so much covered with their bloody carcasses that it became difficult to take pictures free of the evidence of their untimely end. As we left Bamako, the terrain changed gradually from larger trees and bushes to more of a savannah environment, punctuated by the occasional baobab tree and its sister tree, apparently called the mobili.
At this desert outpost called Nioro du Sahel, I and a Mauritanian business woman named Amie changed to a car, actually a Mercedes, into which they packed a total of seven people, three in front and four behind. I felt really squished compared to the bus, even though riding in a luxury car. We went through the border and many police checkpoints, also without incident.
Then, we arrived at Ayoun el Atrous and I stayed the night at the Hotel Aioun after some difficulty in changing money with the taxi driver. I wanted to wait until the next morning to change US dollars to Mauritanian Ougiya at the bank. Well, it turned out that the bank only changes Euros and doesn’t accept dollars or even CFA from neighboring Mali. A number of money changers offered me poor rates of exchange until I found one named Mohammed, an insurance guy, who was really the only one serious about changing dollars. He changed at the rate of 220 ougiya to the dollar, the best rate I could find, but I later found out the official rate if more like 260 ougiya to the dollar.
Then, off I went back to the bus station, or garage as they call it here, to find a car for the Tamchekett virage, i.e. the turnout for Tamchekett.
Today I visited Neil in Richmond. We ate a nice cafe in town and cuddled and played a bit at various points during my visit. We set out on a hike up a hill near his house. Along the way, we spotted some interesting erosion patterns as well as great views both inland and toward the bay. I realized I have to do more hiking so I can work myself up to handle some really nice hikes like a repeat of the Na Pali Coast hike on Kauai.
Neil is reading a great book called “The Barbary Coast” written in 1933. We ate dinner at a little Mexican restaurant with his brother and female partner, discussing the Bush administration and the lousy response to the economic downturn as well as the aggression in Iraq. Neil dropped me off at BART and I headed right home.
At home, I was kind of sleepy, but roped my housemate Jack into watching “Forbidden Planet,” an early and really camp, cheesy sci fi movie.
Yesterday was game night at Guy and Jey’s place. Matthew picked me up from work to go to Lance’s place. We waited for Lance to preen before heading out to Guy and Jey’s place. There was a good crowd, most playing a game called Cranium. We also played Pictionary and Aquarius, the rules of the latter calling for the person with the longest hair to play first. I got tired after awhile and Nathan, Lance, and I headed back on the Muni L train and Owl bus. Enroute Nathan told Lance and I some great stories.
Lance and I got off in the Castro and took the 24 bus to his place, picking up some organic chocolate hazelnut ice cream and Odwalla Strawberry C Monster juice along the way. I was exhausted, yet chatted a bit with Lance’s housemate Sammy, who is a great artist, if a bit dark in the subjects of his artwork. Lance and I made love a couple of times during the evening and I got up early to head back home to meet up with Neil for the hike.
I’m nearly finished reading “The Black Gryphon” by Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon.
