Our First West African Friend

As I previously mentioned, we chose to use a tour company called Riverside Mali for our tour through Mali. You must remember that tourism in West Africa is a fledgling industry. Many countries in the area have been ravaged by civil war for much of the last 2 decades (or longer), which has kept the tourists at bay.

How we chose Riverside was very "2007" - we searched the internet and found them. Then of course we tried to find A review or two of Riverside. This is where our due diligence ran into difficulty. We couldn't find a review any where. That made us a little suspicious. Was Riverside a real company? Were they out to scam a couple poor Canadians?

Our next attempt to figure out who Riveside was included searching other tour companies we had found - did they have reviews. Nope. It appears no one has written a review of their travels through Mali. Fine. Let's try and find out who owns them. We had some success with this angle. The owners are a French couple who came up on various other websites in regards to Mali. The wife was behind the campaign to have Timbuktu placed on the new list of the 7 Wonders of the World.

Now with that info, we established contact with Riverside. First by email - Kim asked for some information on the tours available and pricing. A response came from Dicko - great! One of the things that Riverside "markets" on their website is tours of the Niger River on jet skis. Hooked me with that! Dicko says that the jet skis are not worth it. We find that kinda weird - the are a much more expensive option - perhaps Dicko is really working for us!

Now instead of email, Dicko figures a phone conversation would be easier. So Dicko calls Kim (who is THE French translator for MacAfrica 2007). They have a chat about Canada - Dicko hasn't had many Canadians visit him. He asks about our weather and is truly amazed that it gets as cold as it does here and we live through it!

Once we decide on the tour program we want, it is time to get some money to Riverside as a deposit. Once again a little tepid about wiring money to them. Kim gets on the phone with Riverside's bank - PNB Paribas in Toronto. No luck finding anything out. Then calls PNB Paribas in Paris. Once again no luck. Who cares at this point - let's fire some money to them.

With everything in place, we figure we won't hear from Dicko until we are in Bamako, Mali. Not so. Dicko calls Kim almost weekly. To chat. How's the weather? How else can I help? They exchange photos of Mali and Canada. Once again he can't believe that there is that much snow here (Kim sent a picture of her skiing!).

We aren't sure if Dicko is just super friendly or if we are big spenders from Canada so give'em the gold treatment or if it is part of the slickster scam?? One of our friends who spent time in West Africa told us that they are just really friendly and many of them get a phone number and just call to chat. No agenda, just saying hi. He recently called to wish us much happiness for the new year as Ramadan is near it's end and then they will be feasting!

We are very excited about spending 10 days with Dicko touring through Mali!! He is going to be great!!