travels, tro-tros, the most beautiful beach

day 16.

On Friday, we went to Kakum National Park and the Elmina Castle with our entire EAP group.
At Kakum, we went on the canopy walk where we were dozens of feet (120ft at the hightest point) up in the air walking on a rope bridge overlooking the rainforest. The trees in Kakum were marked with scientific names (finally some botanizing!) and were like nothing I had ever seen. The whole forest was covered in vines and the many roots were exposed and snaking across the forest floor. On the rope bridge, we could see what looked like endless rainforest in every direction. It was an overcast day (as all but today have been so far) which created a light mist over everything and made it that much more exquisite, though I imagine a sunny day would be spectacular too.

From Kakum, we went to the Elmina Castle (or St.George Castle). It was the largest of the slave castles in West Africa and while it was used for that purpose 12-14 million slaves passed through it on their way to the U.S. We went on a guided tour of the castle where we learned about it's history and walked though most of the rooms. At one point the guide locked half of our group in a tiny room that had a skull and crossbones over the door. This was the room where slaves that had misbehaved (resisted rape by the governor, refused to do as told, etc) would be put. They would be kept in there until the last one had died and then every one of them would be taken out and thrown into the ocean. The room was completely dark and eerily silent.

We left the castle and the bus dropped those of us who wanted to travel for the weekend off at a tro-tro station. Matt, Matt (who we call Sauce), Travis, Carmen, and I had a plan. We wanted to make it to Nzulezo, the stilt village 30 minutes from the Cote d'Ivoire border. We wanted to make it as far as we could the first night so we boarded a tro-tro to Takoradi. It was going to be dark in about 45 minutes and the mate told us it would only take 25 minutes so we figured it would be fine. This is how we accidentally took our first tro-tro ride at night (sorry Mom, won't do it again, believe me). Let me say a few words about tro-tros: no seatbelts, always broken speedometers, 15-20 people, no a/c, speedbumps mean speed up, double lines in the road are just decoration as passing happens almost constantly, drivers slow down for nothing but police so honks are used to alert other cars, pedestrians (children too), bikers, goats and chickens...despite all of that they are actually good drivers as we have hit nothing or crashed yet. It is frightening during the day and so much worse at night. I have found that sleeping is the best option or else I am constanly gasping at all of the close calls. We luckily survived the hour and 20 minute ride and make it to Takoradi where we stayed in a cheap hotel.

The next day we boarded another tro-tro early in the morning and make the 4 hour trek to Beyin. In Beyin we had to wait a few hours for our canoe to be ready to take to the stilt village so we played cards and watched the local children climb coconut trees. Soon enough the canoe was ready and the five of us along with the guide and his mate made the 1 hour canoe ride to the village, singing songs most of the way. The ride was incredible, we were surrounded by some of the last remaining wetlands in Ghana paddling our way to a 500 year-old village. The village is indescribable. About 500 people live there each family in their own house constructed of rafia trees. Each house is about 5 feet above the water and there is one main "road" that runs through the whole town. We stayed there for the night, they fed us dinner, we met the chief's son, and played cards with the locals. At 7 the next morning we took the canoe ride back to Beyin on our way to Busua, home of the nicest beach in Ghana.

After another long and frightful tro-tro ride, we made it to Busua where we checked into the cheapest hotel since we realized we were all almost out of money (though we did splurge and eat Ghanaian pancakes from Dan the Pancake Man for lunch). To conserve money, we spent the majority of the day on the beach: sunbathing, body surfing, and again making friends with the locals. It was the warmest ocean water I had ever been in and the most beautiful beach. We ate dinner for 1 cedi each and breakfast was a shared loaf of bread.

Somehow we made it back to Legon today all in one piece, without having showered in days, with no money, and with smiles on our faces. This was really our first "find your way home" experience and we made it successfully. Double high-five to us. Now it is back to the real world: registration for classes and meeting the new students. School starts in one week.