Several years ago I went to Guinea Bissau. The plan was to spend a few days traveling inland before spending the second week of our holidays sailing among the Bijagos Islands.

We spent a couple of days where several shops were selling traditional masks, including the famous Nimba. We then went to Bafata and then eventually we boarded a little ship to sail to Bolama and Bubaque.

When we were traveling inland, one of our travel companions had a terrible psoriasis on his leg, which looked like he had been taken a bath in burning oil. In one of the villages, one of the local traditional healers gave the man, carefully wrapped in a piece of plastic, a smelly cream. The cream was made of snake skin. Our companion put the cream on and, in a couple of days, was fully healed.