Another Roadside Attraction

Oh, we forgot to mention that across the street from the Zoo is a set of three caves that were once inhabited by cavemen, apparently. They have since been transformed into a instructive little jaunt through evolutionary time.

In the first grotte, there is a brief explanation as to why one might dig here.

The sign reads: "L'Archeologie, C'est Qoui?"

The second cave has a fine display explaining human evolution, complete with a skull of an australopithecine from Kenya.

The third cave contains a mock up of life for the average caveman.



There was a nice painted evolutionary timeline that had a surprising degree of, brace yourselves, accuracy.


The exposition finishes up by undermining all the pretty good information which had been disseminated in the previous exhibits. It has a few cavemen living alongside what we believed to be a brontosaurus, although its been a while since any of us were in the second grade so we could not be sure. This is obviously misleading for little kids who might be learning about dinosaurs (or cavemen, for that matter) but it provides a great opportunity for the toubabs to pose infront of a dinosaur and act terrified. The security guy must think this is some sort of european tradition, as we were followed by others doing the same. He probably sees a good bit of this:





FYI: Sam is the one who has not been pooped on by birds...

Offroadin'

We have been doing a bit of driving lately. We took the road between Kayes and Bamako three times in just over a week. There is a new road, which is beat up by American standards but one of the best roads in Mali, that gets you there somewhere between eight and eleven hours later. Had we taken that road three times there would be nothing to report. Alas, we did not. There is another, slightly more tiring way to go. The back way takes a bit longer (i.e. two days) and is on a more, shall we say, traditional Malian road. A traditional Malian road is one that can make even riding in a Land Cruiser uncomfortable.


In rare spots the road is paved...


In various spots it was once paved...


In many spots it simply a jeep track...

And in some spots it disappears and you pick your own path.


Don't get us wrong, it is a prettier ride and there are actually things to look at as opposed to on the paved road. There are plenty of cute little villages, as seen in National Geographic.

There is also the "world famous" dam at Manantali. This is a relative term reserved for those whose world is confined to its shadow. It is likely none of our readers has ever heard of it although it does power those parts of West Africa which have been "electrified" as we would have said about a hundred years ago.

All in all, we recommend this ride to anyone, just not more than twice a week if it can be avoided. Your neck and back will thank you.

At the Zoo

We decided years ago that a good way understand countries more might be by visiting their zoos. We figured that it is quite telling how a society treats their animals. Not sure if this is true but it sounds like a deep insight. Some places we felt treated the animals well, some not so much. Then there are places like the zoo in Bamako. We have no idea what the conditions in this zoo indicate, as we had never encountered anything quite that surreal.

Sam, Mark and their friend Kelly (many of you Jackson Hole folks remember Kelly as the bubbly girl from the Apres Vous lift) headed out for an excursion to the Parc Zoologique. They saw a few big ticket animals like lions and chimps,

some regional favorites like the hyenas and the jackals (although there was a glaring abscence of the country's namesake, the "mali" or hippopotomus), as well as the famous Bamako zoo donkey exhibit. They were allowed to get much closer to these large animals than any of them really should have felt comfortable with, as you can see from the photos (Kelly's hand pictured with the banana for scale).

In fact, Sam almost fell into the used jeans exhibit!


There was also a rather interesting (read: horrifically bloody and foul smelling) butchering area where the meals for the attractions were prepared fresh daily. This was a pretty unique sight, as dead animal body parts of any description are generally discouraged at many of the world's finer zoos.

They were intrigued by a sign for the rare african manatee.

Not getting out to the ocean all that often they figured that they should check it out. Alas, it was not to be. The pen, pictured, appeared to have been abandoned a while ago.

It was only later in the day, out past the cheetahs, that they made a gastly discovery. It appeared that what remained of said manatee was to be found in what remained of a glass case. The case had been broken open to expose the corps to the effects of the harsh african climate. This resulted in a curious mix of decay, mummification and outright scavenging by various carrion feeders. Needless to say, a bizzare sight in the extreme.