by Phil Paoletta | Mar 31, 2022 | Food and Drink
Who would have thought that northern Mali could be some kind of culinary heaven? While the desert is typically considered a survive-on-what-you-can type of place, the populations of northern Mali have developed a few mouth watering dishes thanks to centuries of trade...
by Phil Paoletta | Dec 30, 2021 | The Gambia
We are writing this right in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. No one is doing much traveling in West Africa, let alone the rest of the world. That said, Gambia’s tourism sector had already been ravaged by the bankruptcy of Thomas Cook. Once we are all...
by Phil Paoletta | Dec 23, 2021 | Guinea, Mali, Tips
When it comes to African rivers, the Congo and the Nile tend to split time in the spotlight. But the Niger — the 3rd longest river on the continent — deserves just as much attention. Bubbling up from the highlands of Guinea, and flowing out into the...
by Phil Paoletta | Dec 12, 2021 | Senegal, The Gambia, Tips
There’s more than one way to skin a cat, and in this case, there is more than one way to enter Casamance from Gambia. Most people take the Trans-Gambian highway, which starts up in Kaolack, Senegal. This highway, also known as the N4, crosses the Gambia in the...
by Phil Paoletta | May 22, 2021 | Tips
Missionaries and colonists once referred to the coastal areas of West Africa as White Man’s Grave. Mortality rates were exceptionally high, and a unicellular protozoan parasite known as plasmodium falciparum was one of the main reasons why. Several hundred years...
