My time in Africa is quickly coming to an end.  I'm now back in Accra after my west African tour.  For those who are not too geographically inclined, here is a simplified map of where I went.



The voyage started with a road trip to Lome in Togo, as seen here.  Then we flew (after getting a boarding pass on standby moments before the flight took off) to Bamako in Mali (which is literally just downriver from Timbuktu), then continued on to Dakar in Senegal and from there finally made it to Conakry in Guinea.

I spent a week in Conakry at the Hotel Camayenne.  The hotel was nice, but the frequent power outages weren't great (nor was getting stuck in the elevator!).  The week was spent working at the IOM office (International Organization on Migration) interviewing refugees from Liberia and Sierra Leone.  Here are some pictures of Conakry.

On the way back to Accra, the plane stopped in Abidjan in Cote d'Ivoire, things appear to have calmed down a little there for the moment.  The flights were fine, except that someone stole my sneakers our of my bag!!  I'm now staying at the M Plaza hotel in Accra which is nice for a change. 

Here are a few photos from the beach near Accra.

I'll be returning to Canada this weekend and will soon be missing the warmth of the African sun.



My old room at the Novotel was nice enough, but by no means spectacular... the faded leopard print carpeting leaves something to be desired.  You can see the view from my room there.

The High Commission facilities are quite nice (particularly since the immigration section is newly built).  Here are a few pictures from there.

I attended an official visit to a chocolate factory that was very nice.  Not quite the willy wonka experience I was hoping for (couldn't find an umpa lumpa anywhere!), but the free samples were quite enjoyable.  Here some shots from the tour.


Feel free to check back at my time last year in China or Australia the year before.