Fresh baked bread
Things started to return to normal today and many more people were out on the streets…even street food returned! We got our Timbuktu stamps and discovered that we can no longer visit the mosque because a Spanish couple had gone in “making love”, not sure if they actually had sex, kissed, or just held hands. I suppose it doesn’t really matter; just that they considered it disrespectful and have since closed it to keffirs. After the normal haranguing of the touts, one was actually quite friendly and offered to take us around and pay us whatever we like. So we accepted and he took us to the three great mosques of Timbuktu (didn’t go in of course) and also the explorers houses. Several European explorers were fascinated with the famed city of Timbuktu and took on Tuareg disguises in order to gain entrance into the town.
We told Alkaidi that we wanted to try a local dish, so he arranged for a Tuareg woman to make some tô for us. We went to her home, which was no more than a few tarpaulins spread to watch her prepare the dish. She was beautifully dressed and hennaed for Eid.
Preparing a local dish for us
She probably wasn’t much older than I was and had nine children. We spent a few hours, every now and then helping the kids with the large pestle to grind the grains. The time spent with the family was very nice; better than the meal. It does take some getting used to the popping sensation one gets while eating granules of sand. Considering that they do live pretty exposed to the elements, I’m sure they are used to the sand sneaking in to their meals.
It will be our last day here in Timbuktu, so we just had to get out and see the sand dunes.
leaving my mark in the Sahara: ?????? ? ????
There aren’t so hard to find; they are literally creeping in on the city any way. Later we stopped by the artisan place; I couldn’t leave without getting a Croix de Tombouctou and a Tuareg passport necklace. Shopping around I found one guy open who had both so I tried to speed up the bargaining process as much as possible. I already knew the price I wanted and just kept repeating it in Arabic, French, and English. He got a kick out of my Arabic bargaining; Syria taught me well. Eventually I got both at a great price and didn’t take too long since everyone was already in the car waiting for me. Tomorrow we leave for Sévaré.
