The southwest of Burkina Faso, around Banfora, offers a number of hiking opportunities, particularly around the rock formations and waterfalls of Sindou. It's also a great area for motor bike, mobylette or bicycle tours (weather permitting). The area around the Karfiguéla waterfalls is suitable for camping. Outdoor accommodation makes a nice change and the scenery is spectacular, particularly in the rainy season.

If you're in Burkina Faso in an odd-numbered year, don't miss the FESPACO film festival. Ouagadougou tarts itself up and puts on its metaphorical lippy to host this festival that showcases up-and-coming West African film makers. Though none of the participants have Spielbergian fame, a number of FESPACO-winning directors have gone on to collect awards in the more prestigious categories of the Cannes Film Festival. The festival usually begins the last Saturday in February. In even-numbered years Burkina Faso's second largest city, Bobo-Dioulasso, hosts La Semaine Nationale de la Culture. Both traditional and contemporary forms of music, dance and theatre, meet and mix in this week long cultural extravaganza. It begins the last week in April.

Every Friday morning, the Moro-Naba emerges from his palace in scarlet robes and, with due pomp and circumstance, re-enacts what in French is lyrically called la cérémonie du Nabayius Gou and in English, somewhat more phlegmatically, 'the false departure of the emperor.' In a nutshell, the story is of a Mossi emperor who mounted his horse preparatory to going off to war, changed his mind, dismounted, and re-entered the palace. It seems a rather ignominious moment to immortalise by daily repeats, but there are nuances and subtleties to the story, and to a Burkinabé it symbolises the survival struggle of the Mossi monarchy.