Travelling to Korhogo

We are in the Ivory Coast and this morning we woke up in our beautiful hotel: Hotel Mon Afrik at Bouake; the main reason why we are here in Bouake is to meet the Baule who live in these lands.

Immediately after breakfast, we check out and leave; shame because we would gladly have spent another night here, in the company of the duiker and the bushbucks living in the garden and at the pool.

First we went for a ride to the market, today is Monday and, after the market with reduced service on Sunday, everyone is here to shop and the stalls are full of goods.

The colors, the perfumes, the smells, the hospitality and the curiosity shown towards us make us have fun and make us love the African markets; people are hospitable and we have fun talking to them, maybe buying something, taking some pictures or just exchanging a smile.

After the market we went to a Baule village where we attended the Bo dance and the Goly dance.

There are no words to define this experience, it was exciting and fascinating to attend these dances to the incessant rhythm of the pumpkins covered with seeds and shells, the drums and with the sound of the horn.

The masks are beautiful and dance moving fast, an exhilarating experience, we are enjoying the Ivory Coast a lot and we are only at the beginning; during this trip we will see other dances from other tribes, we cannot wait!

After the dances, we say goodbye to the village people who hosted us and then we go; the time has come to go North.

Today we will have lunch along the way, this morning we had some sandwiches made at the hotel and, when we reach the town of Katiola, we stop to buy bananas, pineapples and papaya at the local market and, with the occasion, we walk around the stalls; African markets are irresistible and we have too much fun joking with the local population.

A two hour drive from Bouake we stop at the distributor of Total, next door there is a small kiosk, that is closed, but has comfortable tables and chairs, under a perfect structure to shelter from the sun.

We went to the Total's little shop to buy something fresh to drink and then we sat down to have lunch while our guide cut us the pineapple and papaya, that we ate at the end of the meal along with the bananas; the scent and the taste of the fruit here is quite another thing compared to what we find at us, it's spectacular, I could only live on pineapples all the time.

After lunch we leave again, we still have about two and a half hours of road.

Shortly before arriving at Korhogo, our destination today, we stop at the side of the road; not far there is the house of a Senoufo feticheur.

In reality the term feticheur contains both the figure of the doctor, who treats diseases, and that of the sorcerer, who foresees the future and who protects from evil; but for the Senoufo these are two distinct figures; we find ourselves at a sorcerer, the sorcerers usually live outside the villages and, when people need them, they visit by bringing gifts and asking for help.

This sorcerer welcomes us where he usually receives the faithful and tells us about his activity and willingly answers our questions; not far from us there are some pebbles and some pots, it looks like a kitchen, but it is not like that; inside the pots there are potions and concoctions that will be used if necessary.

Inside the house there is a courtyard where there is a fetish on which a snake is drawn; while on the external walls are drawn figures that make us understand that here is a sorcerer.

We continue to Korhogo and shortly after we arrive, we check in at the hotel and rest a while, but today is not finished yet: tonight we go to  see a Senoufo dance that is part of the Poro ritual, this dance is also known as the Dance of the Panther.