Paradise in the Bush

We had been on the road for two days and already gotten in some seriously wonderful hiking and iPod jukeboxing in the car when we crashed for the night at a hotel a day’s drive from the infamous Timbuctu. That night our supervisor got a call from the office saying that a warning had been issued for Timbuctu and foreigners were advised to steer clear of the area for awhile. Apparently some Algerian rebels had descended on it and our visit would be like asking to get car-jacked…
So, sadly, we decided that other plans had to be made. Our resourceful supervisor, however, managed to get us a boat trip on the Niger river for the day and it was amazing. We just chilled out, enjoyed the water (from a distance of course, cause actually getting IN would load us up with amoebas), played some football at one of the land stops, and watched the sun set on the water as we dangled off the edge of the boat, singing to the Creator of the incredible scenery.
The next day we decided to head back to the capital and take it easy till time to start the training. On the way in, though, we saw a sign advertising a hotel with a basketball court, a swimming pool with a slide, and AC called “the Paradise of Mali.” Too curious to let the chance for basketball slip by us, we veered off-road and bounced down a bush-road following occasional miniature signs with the initials of the hotel on it and an arrow pointing towards the almost non-existent path. We continued our search for about an hour into the bush when suddenly the “road” came to a dead end into a compound (gathering of a few huts belonging to one family) which was surrounded by the river. After asking about our hotel and learning it DID lay just on the other side of the river, we loaded all up into a large canoe they had and glided to the other side, very carefully…
A little apprehensive of what kind of “paradise” there could possibly be this far into the bush, and secluded by the river, we stepped out of our canoe only to find a beautifully clean, sparkling blue swimming pool--- complete with slide!!! Individual rooms with AC. Basketball and badmitton courts. A small zoo. A honey shop. And a restaurant with some amAZing food. It was like little kids at Christmas, and we only had till morning to enjoy our private paradise!!! We had thought we should get up early to get back to the capital, but after only a few hours of swimming and playing we had already decided to push back our departure till later in the morning. By the time midmorning rolled around, waiting till after lunch seemed like a much better idea, and so we continued to play. Each time we changed our minds to stay a little longer, we had to relay the message to our boatmen, who had to come get us in order to take us back to the car still waiting on the other side of the river. We started calling Paradise “Hotel California” because we just couldn’t seem to leave (and it seemed like the greatest kept secret in Mali to be functioning so far into the bush that we felt surely no one’s heard of it because no one’s ever made back to the other side of the river…). But we eventually DID leave and drove back to Bamako, all of us jokingly thanking God for the Algerian rebels…