After a week in Kenya during which we made the needed time zone and dietary adjustments, we started our climb in the rain forest at the base of the mountain, one of five eco-zones that you pass through on the way to the top (the others being Moorland, Heath, Alpine Desert, and Glacier). Joined by Sandy, a friend of DH, we started out as a somewhat compact group of 3 along with the required guides and porters but we quickly hooked up with Annie and Carol, a pair ...

To set the stage, I'd have to confess to an almost ambivalent attitude toward climbing Kili (or any other mountain for that matter). Although I admire the frothing enthusiasm that many people have for climbing and hiking, it’s just not an inner child that I’ve been able to get in touch with. DH and I have climbed smaller mountains before to see lava rivers, explosive volcanoes, gorillas, etc. but for the most part the climbing was a necessary evil...

Outside of a quick visit to the huge Dantokpa Market including yet another walk through a Fetish Market (we saw a complete hippopotamus head drying on one of the stands!) our day in Cotonou was largely a day to clean-up, repack, and rest in preparation for the long journey home (which kicked off with a red-eye flight from Cotonou to Paris). Just to ensureStanding in an airport lineup where movement was barely perceptible served to ensure that we would not soon fo...

Today we finished off our last chaotic border crossing. I've got to think that running the gauntlets that are major West African border crossings gives one a preview of a Mad Max apocalypse in motion. People running in all directions, everyone shouting instructions and no one actually listening, overloaded vehicles just daring a customs official to undo the one rope holding all of the legal and illegal cargo in place, livestock desperately searching for grass...

With the sands of our adventure time draining out quickly, we have two countries to visit and the central theme is, wait for it, 'voodoo' thus completing our three legged and rhyming travel stool of Timbuktu- Ouagadougo- Voodoo. This was not, however, the Hollywood voodoo of black magic, zombies, and curses. The more famous voodoo sites of Haiti, Dominican Republic, and New Orleans can trace their roots back to West Africa via the slave trading routes bu...