Its strange to think that a year ago, I was spending Independence day with my family on Stretch Island. Of course, this year was much different, but it was still a great time. A large group of us all traveled to Manantali, a town on the west side of Mali. Manantali is located on the Bafing River, and the Peace Corps house, our base for the weekend, is like a camp site, looking out over the river, and surrounded by trees. The ride out to Manantali takes you through Kita, and then about 100k past it. The road to Kita is paved and while windy, is really pretty nice. Just past Kita, though, the road turns into a bumpy, tumultuous dirt road. On our journey, while we were lucky to have Peace Corps transport, we got drenched with seasonal rains. Our car, a relatively new 4x4, swam through the muck and mess. We finally arrived, the mattresses atop the car soaked through.
We spent the first evening watching the World Cup games at the local American club. The next day, we went for a hike up into the hills around the village, where we got to see some great views of town and the river. On our way down, we saw monkeys up where we had been sitting, playing in the trees. Later, we went to the river, until the hippos across the way disappeared under the water, which we took as our cue to take our leave. Apparently hippos are extremely territorial and aggressive, even though they are not carnivorous.
The next day was July 4th, which we spent hanging out, recovering from the day before and then playing down at the river. The current was fast, and if you planned it well, you could jump in up stream and float down past the rocks to a prefect resting point. After lunch, we played games, went to the American club for ping pong and foosball and pool, and then spent the rest of the day having our own Olympics and dancing the night away.
The ride back to Bamako was much less fun and exciting as the ride out, but we made it back in one piece, and in one day.
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