From Here to Timbuktu with Sid Suarez #1235

The allure, fear, and excitement of visiting Timbuktu, Mali, a place that has been closed to visitors for the past 12 years since al-Qaeda attacked in 2012, and numerous attacks since then, drew Sid Suarez in. When you consider extreme-travel destinations, Timbuktu, Mali, would be on the list, as it had been closed to tourists for over a decade. A small window of opportunity opened up to visit the “Tuareg Music Festival” in 2024, after it had been long dormant. When you get the chance, you seize it. Sid answered almost immediately that “he was in.”

 

What started as a phone call about one slot left on a 3-hour tour to Timbuktu turned into one of the most gratifying and rewarding extreme travel adventures to date for Sid. He hopped on a twice-weekly charter to Timbuktu and retraced the steps of Mansa Musa, one of the richest men in history (1312-1337), worth approximately 400 billion dollars. He landed at the military-controlled airport, with 16-foot blast walls and soldiers guarding the city. The charter flight included military generals, dignitaries, and headliners for the show. Sid was seated next to “Bombino,” who, according to Rolling Stone, is one of the top 200 guitarists of all time, playing his “desert blues” style, influenced by Jimi Hendrix and Mark Knopfler. He witnessed one of the most exhilarating two-day concerts of his life, with virtuoso performances almost completely devoid of Westerners. Bombino, from Agadez, Niger, sang songs proclaiming the rights of Tuaregs and rebellion. The other acts, the crowd, and the military presence made this two-day concert unforgettable.

The thrills and excitement of the trip were not limited to the Tuareg Music Festival. Sid and his group also visited the “Legend of Al Farouk” monument and met with Government Ministers to promote the virtues of visiting Timbuktu after it had been closed to tourists for over a decade. The Minister of Tourism and the Mayor of Timbuktu greeted them, and the interview was featured on Mali National News.

 

Their two-day trip continued with visits to the world-famous Djingareyber Mosque. Built-in 1327, with 106 columns inside, it is one of three madrassas composing the University of Timbuktu and was inscribed on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1988. Another stop along the way was the Mosque Sankore, founded in the 14th century as one of the world’s first universities.

Continuing on, they met the fearless librarian named “Sissa,” who is collecting and preserving 30,000 volumes of manuscripts of the known written history of Mali, passed down over the centuries. This painstaking work categorizes writings on Astronomy, Medicine, History, Science, Math, Jurisprudence, and other subjects spanning the past thousand years. Other notable events included the camel trains just outside the city, carrying blocks of salt through the Saharan Trade route, as they have done, in the same manner, over the past millennium.

Rounding out the adventure was a trip to visit the Dogon Mask Dancers in Siby, Mali. The group was very fortunate to witness the Dogon mask ceremony, as it was a main goal of this trip. The Dogon tribe of Mali is known for its mysterious animistic religious beliefs (worshipping spirits and nature). Their dance rituals consist of carved wooden masks, each with unique meanings and roles for the members. The Dogon number about 600,000, and the majority of them live in the rocky hills, mountains, and plateaus of the Bandiagara Escarpment. They are mainly an agricultural people; their few craftsmen, largely metalworkers and leatherworkers, form distinct castes.

Sid Suarez, member #1235, is an aerospace engineer and enterprise software systems consultant with a passion for extreme tourism and cultural immersion. His adventures include attending a seance with the Bwiti Tribe in Gabon, trekking the Karakorum Highway in Pakistan to visit the mythical Hunza Valley, also known as “Shangri-La,” touring the “Red Zone” in Somalia, enjoying tea and peanuts with a nomad in the Sahara Desert, witnessing the sacred “Bull Jumping Ceremony” in Ethiopia, and appreciating the beauty of “Swan Lake” at the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow. He seeks profound, once-in-a-lifetime experiences that broaden his understanding of the world and provide unique stories to share with fellow adventurers.