Before heading out of town, one last visit to Ouagadougou's "Grande Marches" (market) with its baskets, tie-dyed cloth - the Centre Artisanal with batiks, bronze castings and carvings. Then the street vendors selling Dogon carvings, masks and chairs. Shopping is exhausting when there is almost too much to choose from.

City tour over, we drove to the north, visiting the Mossi people and their giant clay granaries. The Mossi are one of 60 ethnic groups in the country and have the longest royal dynasty, dating back 900 years.

At every stop to stretch our legs, Roberto would run from 4WD to 4WD urging everyone to..."drinka...drinka" (Roberto has a strong Italian accent) and practically forced water down our throats to keep us well-hydrated. The 4WD's carried boxes of bottled water at all times.

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Many air and land hours later, we landed in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, and were met by Roberto Cerea. Roberto and Alberto are the local tour operators for Mountain Travel and operate their own agency (Transafrica) based in Togo. Cheap Flights from Airfares Basement

A brief paragraph on Roberto...then I'll continue raving about him and his organization through the rest of the articles. You would have to search long and hard to find a more personable, warm, caring, organized individual. It was primarily based on our experience with him that we scheduled another trip to West Africa a year later - Ghana, Benin and Togo. The man was tireless in his concern for our group...sometimes I wonder if he ever slept! There was nothing you could ask of him that he wouldn't try to get done.

Roberto, far right

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