Dec Trip to Sikasso - Le mamelon and market

The mamelon is a hill in the center of town and at the bottom of it is the main market in Sikasso. The hill was sacred to the Kenedougou kings and we visited the French colonial tower that stands there now.

Dec Trip to Sikasso - Shea butter soap

We were able to visit a shea butter soap factory during our visit to Sikasso. Watching the process from shea nut to soap was almost as fun as watching the children playing around it - everyone looked out for everyone else so children weren't burned even though their playground had boiling vats of oil. The kids were excited to see us and eager to touch and interact with us.

Dec Trip to Sikasso - Grottes de Missirikoro

Visiting the Grottes de Missirikoro, about 12km southwest of Sikasso was one of the highlights of the whole trip. This natural grotto has been used as a mosque for Muslims and also a place of worship for animists for centuries. At the eastern entrance, animal scarifices take place (look carefully at the pictures) and at the western entrance, deep inside the cave is a mosque still in use. Different local families take care of the caves and we met two older men living in different parts of the cave, during our visit. Around the side of the grotto, there were ladders to climb to the top for a great view of the areas. Fred took the boys on that adventure while I stayed back and admired the beautiful baobob trees.

Dec Trip to Sikasso - waterfall

While my parents were visiting Mali in December, we had an amazing trip to Sikasso and Segou. Sikasso is in the south of Mali and primarily used as a stopping point for those on their way to or from Burkina Faso or Cote d'Ivoire. Because of that, it's not a huge tourist destination which was perfect for us - a chance to see a different side of Mali from the more popular destinations in the north that we would travel to next. I'm going to break our Sikasso visit into a few blog posts, with the first one being our visit to the waterfalls, Chutes de Farako. During the dry season, the waterfall is small which gave the kids a chance to climb down to to the river's edge and skip along the rocks usually covered in water.