Guinea's beautiful scenery: Dalaba

Also wanted to show just a few more of the beautiful sights from Guinea...

In March I was able to get off an extra day from work and Melodee found a car for us to rent, so she, Steven, Juan and myself got to go up to Dalaba, about 8 hours upcountry.  Melodee grew up in Guinea and spent several of her younger years growing up in the Fouta region, which is where the mountains are.  :)  and we know I like mountains.  :)  She took us on a tour of her favorite spots: good places of play on rocks, where to eat good dinner, deer meat from roadside stands, the best fresh made yogurt I've ever eaten (we literally just slurped it out of the cups), a pretty cool waterfall, picking strawberries, and much more!

The town of Dalaba - little Switzerland back in French colonial days

A pretty good perch to watch the sun go down...

Sunrise from the cabin was also pretty spectacular

We got up early in the mornings in hopes of seeing the monkeys as they came down the mountain to the valley.  No luck either day, however the 2nd morning we heard the deep bark of an alpha monkey.  I might have gotten a little bit nervous...imagining monkeys jumping out as we trekked down the trail to the cabin...

The next day we hit up a farm and had fresh carrots, strawberries and something kinda like spinach, and I made a tasty salad.  I was honestly very excited because I had just been talking about how when I returned home I really wanted a strawberry spinach salad.  And I got one a lot sooner than I expected!!!
As we traveled up country to the waterfall, we passed by Pita, which is where the amazing yogurt is, but also home to Guinea's own fabric makers.  They have a distinctive weave pattern of blue and white, kind of a linen type feel.  Juan and Steven bartered for a bit, but it was a bit pricey, so we got a couple pictures instead :)  You can see how long the looms are set up to make the fabric.

We spent both nights in a cabin run by the Christian Missionary Alliance, having a bonfire both nights and making a delicious new smore version of tortilla, M&M's, and a roasted banana :)   I got a little carried away with the time lapse feature on the camera and made multiple attempts at writing things with my headlamp...Juan's version of Jesus turned out the best though.

The waterfall at Sala was an adventure to get to, then of course a pretty awesome adventure to explore, jump off rocks, see how far out on ledges we could get, etc.  

So needless to say we had a fabulous time, despite the long long drive, and I'm so thankful for a chance to see a little more of upcountry Guinea - this area was inhabited mainly by the Pular tribe, which came down into Guinea >100 years ago, bringing Islam, and displacing the Kissi tribe (I learned this part from Faya, our dayworker who is Kissi) to further into the forest region.  The Pular have been very successful with their farming in the area, and the potato capital of Guinea supplied us with delicious potatoes!  (We had fried potatoes one night and they were amazing.  Or maybe we were just hungry...)