Gaoua Warnings Or Dangers

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Finding a good guide isn't easy. Some are bossy, others relaxed; some explain little, others too much, and still others are socially smooth and others inept. Unfortunately, we found an inept Lobi guide in Gaoua. He was charming at first, speaking a little of French and English, showing how clever he was. But, we had just arrived in town and I told him that I would find my guide in town. The next morning, he walked with us to town, begging us to hire him. I was reluctant to do so, given his youth. I wasn't sure that he knew what to do, and besides, we had not yet surveyed the system. At the time of my visit, none of the guidebooks said much about Gaoua at all. After the market, we hired him to take a scooter ride into the countryside, but soon I found that he was drinking from a little bottle and driving recklessly with my wife on the back of his scooter. Later, he made jokes in the villages, making the villagers angry at him. He made our visits to the villages more difficult than if we had been alone, so we paid him what was agreed and bade goodbye. But, that wasn't enough, that night he came with some friends, insisting to the hotel keeper that we owed him more money. At first, we stood our ground and refused to even talk to the young man. Because he hung around so long though, we considered his demands--an additional $8-, a huge sum for him but a small sum for us to get rid of him. Don't hire the guy in these photos! Later, when I described our experience to our guide in Bobo Dioulasso, he immediately named him and labeled the fellow as troublesome.