nice things in Bamako

I went to Bamako at the end of October with a group of friends. There was a fantastic English women's retreat that we attended (not as in British, but as in in the English language). It was mostly women from all over Mali and some from other neighboring countries as well. This is an annual event, and it was my 3rd October here, but my 1st time going to this retreat. I hope that I can go again next year!
I love our town, but it is a bit exciting when I get to go to Bamako (the capital and Mali's big city, about 6-7 hours away) because there are a lot of things there that we don't have here. After the women's retreat we spent another day and a half in Bamako. We packed that time full of activities and it was great.
The upper photo is necklaces, taken at the Artisan's Market. It is really cool there, you can watch the artisans working on leatherwork, trunks, shoes, metal, African drums, jewelry, paintings, fabrics, ect.
The bottom pic is from a new place that is appropriately called "ice cream", and it is a real ice cream parlor. I had no idea that there was a place like this here! This was really quite good ice cream, and LOOK at all the choices! Wow. There is no ice cream in our town. (unless you can make it yourself, which I won't) So this was a great treat, it was just hard to decide which flavors I wanted. I think I settled with double chocolate and coconut. Delicious. I will definately be going back there on my next trip to Bamako.