We finally got out of Freetown!  Our first upcountry visit was to Bo, the second largest town in Sierra Leone.  A friend offered to take us but the visit almost didn't happen because the gas stations were not selling fuel due to a dispute over lowering the price of gas.  We went to bed disappointed but awoke to our friend waking us the next morning saying he had managed to get gas.  So off we went.  It was a grueling almost 5 hour trip over some pretty bad roads.  The road is being rebuilt but large parts consisted of either mostly potholes or roughly graded  dusty stretches.

Bo was a very friendly place to visit.  I liked it because people didn't mind having their pictures taken.  Bob liked it because he met some Human Rights activists and so he got a better pictures of what had happened outside of Freetown.  We walked around the center of town, stopping to talk to people in the busy market. I bought an Obama poster for Bob at one of the stands. Even here Obama is popular.  A lot of the shops advertised that they were in the diamond trade which made think of the infamous role that diamonds have played in Sierra Leone's war.    

Since there were few car taxis the only way to get around was to take motorcycles, which we  did.  We tried to find drivers who had helmuts until we realized that most helmuts did not have straps and were mostly worn for show.

We only stayed one night but it was great to get out of Freetown and see a bit more of the countryside.  The only bad thing was the long return trip.