Weekend Adventure #2 – To Cape Coast… A Solo Journey

For my second weekend in Ghana, Janis, Sylvain, Janie and I decided to head to Cape Coast.  Seeing that the three of them all live in Kumasi that meant that I would have to take the journey to Cape Coast by myself.  Although Cape Coast isn’t too far away, transportation is never as easy as you would hope in Ghana.  Emma had traveled to Takoradi the previous weekend and spent a night in Cape Coast, so she gave me a list of places that I should take tros to in order to avoid going through Accra (which is always preferred).  So with my list of places I had never heard before, and my blue backpack I headed off on my solo journey to Cape Coast.  My first tro was to Koforidua, a place I had been twice before, in order to catch my next tro to Asamankese (or that was the plan).  One of the nice things about traveling in Ghana is that if you just look lost, someone will come up to you and show you where to go.  I mean there’s definitely no sense in trying to hide (a white person in a sea full of Africans tends to stick out a bit) so it’s just best to make the best out of it.  In Koforidua I had to walk to a different tro station and showed some people at the tro station a list of places I need to go to get to Cape Coast, which they of course laughed at (basically, being an Obruni here, regardless of what, I still get laughed at, so it’s something that you get used to after a while).  They told me that instead of going to Asamankese I could take tro directly to Swedru (the next place down the list).  I thought myself, “one less tro… that’s a great idea!”, until of course the tro to Asamankese left over half an hour before the tro to Swedru.  The road to Swedru took quite some time, as the road was very poor, consisting almost entirely of potholes in the once paved road.  Before leaving Emma told me how her whole journey to Cape Coast took all of 4 hours, which I now don’t even think is possible, seeing that it took me 4 hours just to get to Swedru.  I had left Mampong at 14:00, hoping that I would get to Cape Coast before sunset at 18:30.  However, once arriving in Swedru at 18:00, and watching the sunset from the tro as I waited for it to fill up, I realized that wasn’t going to happen.  The road to Cape Coast was much better, except for all the turns in the road, which made passing slow vehicles a little treacherous.  But I arrived in Cape Coast in one piece, which is really all that matters.  The tro made several stops in Cape Coast and the man sitting next to me asked me where I was getting off.  I told him that I didn’t know and all I knew was that I needed to get to Efutu which is a town somewhere north of Cape Coast.  The man was very kind as he stayed with me on the tro until the last stop and when I got out, he fought off all the taxi drivers trying to pull me into their taxis. He then pulled one taxi driver aside and told him to take me to Efutu.  The ride to Efutu wasn’t too long, although I know I ended up paying more than I should have for the taxi ride there.  Along the way I was stopped at a sketchy police check point.  They made the taxi driver get out of the car and talked with him for about five minutes.  When they were done with him, the policeman started talking to me.  For some reason he wanted me to bribe him to let me go through, without saying those exact words, but I just kept saying that I didn’t understand what he was trying to say.  Eventually he got frustrated with the whole thing and let us go.  The taxi driver then spent the next 5 minutes apologizing for the behaviour of the cop.  By 8:30, I finally reached Hans Cottage Botel, the place Sylvain had booked for us for the night. 

Hans Botel is quite an interesting place.  It’s about 20 minutes away from Kakum National Park and situated on a lagoon full of crocodiles.  It also had a swimming pool and an internet café.  It has a wide option range of rooms, from suites with A/C and DSTV for a typical North American Price, to dormitory style accommodations,  for 6 cedi (about 5 dollars) a night.  We stayed in the dorms.  Because the facilities were so nice, it would have been nice to stay in there for more than just one night so that we could actually use them, but because the place is a little out of the way from Cape Coast, it just wasn’t practical.  After arriving at the Botel, I called Janis to see where they were.  At this point, they were still in Accra.  You see the journey from Kumasi should have been an easy one, just a 4 hour STC ride from Kumasi to Cape Coast.  However, a bridge along that route was out due to construction, so they decided that the best way to get there would be to go through Accra.  They thought wrong.  They left Kumasi at noon, and arrived at the Botel close to midnight (catching on to the joys of Ghanaian travel yet?). 

(our room at the Hans Cottage Botel)

(a picture in our room)

(not quite the same effect)

(I think Sylvain found his true love)

(they had a Canadian flag at the restaurant)

(I was very happy about this)

(at the botel)

(i need the translation of this)

We headed out the next morning by drop taxi to Kakum, the first actually touristy tourist attraction we’ve been to (a far cry from Krobo Mountain).  By shear coincidence, where ran into the two Israeli medical students who were also doing an exchange in Kumasi with Janie and Janis and ended up joining their tour group.  The remainder of our tour group consisted of a German man working for Heineken out of Lagos in Nigeria, an elderly couple from Europe and their son, a Japanese guy that the Israelis had met at the hotel they were staying at who has spent the last 2 years traveling and two other people who’s stories I forget.  The canopy walk consisted of 7 tree-top platforms linked by wood and rope walkways.  Before starting the canopy walk, the guide explained how it was very safe and was designed by two Canadians from the Peace Corps.  Although it was a little nerve racking, it was a really cool experience.  What would have made it a little better though, was if there hadn’t been a hundred Ghanaian students screaming behind us (like I said, the first real tourist attraction we went to). 

(the canopy walk)

(taking pictures while walking)

(view of the canopy)

(on one of the platforms in Kakum)

After the canopy walk we then went on a one-hour nature walk.  This walk was a little different from our previous hikes, as it did not involve climbing any mountains, and the elderly couple kept the tour at quite a leisurely pace (it was wet so people still ended up falling though… but luckily not me this time… and there were no cacti involved). 

(centipede carcasses in front of a scorpion hole)

(spiky tree)

(big tree)

(me in front of the big tree)

(ants in Kakum)

After Kakum we took a taxi back into Cape Coast, to the Savoy hotel, where we would stay the night. From there we headed out walking in the rain in search of the Cape Café, a place that serves western style food and also has workshops for Ghanaian women where they teach them how to perfect their craft skills so they can earn more money.  After an extensive search on foot (then in a taxi when the rain became too much) we found out that the place is now closed (lie #20742 from the Bradt Guide).  We then headed to the Castle Café for something to eat.  I don’t think I had seen so many Obrunis since Amsterdam, it was quite a shock to the system.  It was funny though, as some of the people I had seen at the Botel, and also at Kakum were now at the Castle Café (which I guess is not entirely unexpected, as every table seemed to have a copy of the Bradt guide on it).  Once the rain had stopped and we finished downing our food, we headed out to Cape Coast Castle (which was right next door).  Cape Coast Castle was a British built castle and was the majoring hub for the trans-Atlantic Slave trade.  It was very interesting going there, and then to Elmina Castle the next day (which is a town close to Cape Coast that was control by the Dutch) as the Cape Coast Castle was specifically built for the slave trade, whereas Elmina Castle was originally built as a regular trading post, which was then converted to hold slaves.  It rather sad, but the slaves who were housed in the Castle intended to hold goods had better living conditions than in the Castle built to house people (I would have taken pictures to compare the two, but my camera died while at Cape Coast Castle).

After we finished touring the Castle and the museum in the Castle we decided to walked down the road following the shore line to pass some time.  Along the way we met a group of Ghanaian Rastafarian shop owners, who we spent about an hour talking to.  They were quite funny to talk to (probably because they were all baked) and were trying to convince us to come to their ganja party that evening.  Preferring not to get arrested in an African country, we declined.  They did however show us their coconut bong, which was absolutely hilarious to see!  Because it was so funny Sylain wanted to buy it, but that was a personal use coconut only, so instead he bought a ridiculous Rasta hat instead.  As it was getting dark by that time, we headed back to the Savoy to grab another bite to eat.  

(the view of Cape Coast from the Savoy Hotel)

(The Castle Cafe)

(Cape Coast Castle)

(the Door of No Return)

(outside the Door of No Return small boats would come to take the slaves to larger boats for transport across the Atlantic)

(slave shackles)

(each slave was branded)

(showing how they packed the slaves onto the slave ships)

(a painting in the museum)

The next morning, we all went our separate ways, Sylvain and Janis to Takoradi (as they were spending the next week on the west coast), Janie back to Kumasi, and myself to Elmina before heading back to Mampong.  I managed to get lost a few times, but there was always a Ghanaian to show me the right way to go.  My tro ride from Koforidua to Mamfe was very interesting, as I spent that hour talking with an older Ghanaian man, who used to be in charge of all the refugees in Ghana.  We started talking about the Ghanaian medical system and improvements that need to be made in order for their country to move forward as well as the immigration system in Canada and Ghana.  The conversation was quite interesting, so it made the hour long tro ride fly by and before I knew it, I was in a taxi for the short ride back to Mampong.

When It Rains... It Pours

We’ve all heard the old adage ‘when it rains it pours’, but you don’t know pours until you’ve experienced the rainy season in Ghana.  With the exception of my first two days in Ghana, it has rained every day I have been here.  So far, I have been fortunate enough to be caught in two downpours, the first being 3 days after my arrival in Mampong.  Although technically I only have to work until noon, I have made a habit of staying at the hospital until the doctors finish with the pediatric clinic, which can be anywhere from 1-4 pm.  On one such day, I was leaving the hospital while it was drizzling out.  By the time I reach the dirt road to my place that drizzle turned into a downpour.  And when I say downpour, I mean a dirt-road-becoming-muddy-river kind of downpour.  Not wanting to spend the rest of my afternoon as a drenched rat, I quickly headed for my house, arriving at the gate in record time, just to find out that I couldn’t get in.  By this time, my attempt at avoiding the drowned rat look had become an utter failure.  Not knowing what to do, I headed back up the river road to take shelter under the overhang of another house… and there I waited… and waited.  At first it was rather relaxing having nothing to do but watch the rain fall a foot in front of my face, but about 30 minutes into standing there, watching the rain fall got a little old, so I decided to give Janis a call to pass the time.  When the rain let up a bit I headed back to my house to try the gate again, and then headed back up the road when I still couldn’t get in.  Eventually, while it was still raining (but not pouring), I decided to head back to the hospital and hang out with the doctor for the afternoon.  When I arrived, they had a good laugh over the misty look I had decided to sport for the afternoon.  About an hour later I got a call from Emma saying that the gate was now okay and headed back home.  Dry clothes have never felt so good!

My second rain drenched experience occurred almost a week later on an excursion to the wood market in Aburi.  As I mentioned earlier, well I was at the wood market on my first weekend adventure, I had got one of the craftsmen to make me a custom hand-made African drum and I had told him that I would come and pick it up the following week.  Knowing that I would be spending the following weekend in Cape Coast, and going to the bead market in Koforidua on the Thursday, Wednesday was really the only day I could go and pick it up.  That Wednesday, after I was done for the day at the clinic, Mother Nature spent the early afternoon trying to decide whether she would downpour or not.  During one of breaks in the rain, I headed out to Aburi, hoping that that was the last of the rain for the day.  Guess what… I was wrong.  It started spitting once I arrived in Aburi.  While walking to the wood market, that afternoon drizzle quickly turned into another Ghanaian downpour.  Knowing the rain could be in the forecast, I remembered to bring my rain coat, although when I rains that much, there’s still little hope of staying dry.  When I arrived at the wood market, one of the craftspeople offered me shelter in her shop.  When I got inside I fully expected to be pushed into buying something from her shop, but she wanted nothing but to offer me a dry place to sit.  The first seat (a hand carved wooden seat of course) was under a drip from the tin roof, so she quickly offered me another place to sit on another one of her finely carved products.  Even though of voices were barely audible over the rain pounding against the corrugated tin roof, we started chatting.  I introduced myself and told her that I was a medical student from Canada living in Mampong and working at the hospital there in pediatrics, and I had been to the wood market once before, and was just there today to pick up a Drum I had ordered.  The woman’s name was Sister Aduela (sister is a common way to refer to a friend), and she started telling me about the wood market, about how it can get quite busy there some days,  and on a given day she can see anything from buses full of tourists stopping at the wood market, to lone travelers just passing through.  She also explained to me that all the wood carvings that you can buy from the cultural center in Accra are bought from the wood market here and re-sold by dealers in Accra.  She also told me how she is friends with a lot of the volunteers in the area and some come to buy from her, while others just stop by to say hi.  All the while we were chatting the woman’s son was staining his latest creation, a piece about shoulder high of intertwine elephants, monkeys and lions.  The people in the shop were so warm and welcoming, that I had wished that I had brought along extra money to buy something in the shop, but because I didn’t, I decided that the next tie I went to the wood market I would definitely buy something from her.  When the rain lightened up, I headed out to the shop at the end of the wood market where I had ordered my drum.  While waling back with my drum and bag it started raining again, but I decided to keep walking (instead of taking shelter again) as by that point I just wanted to head back home.  It started pouring quite hard, so I took a drop taxi back to the tro station where I caught a line taxi back to Mampong.  Although the afternoon hadn’t gone exactly as planned, that’s what I have come to expect in Ghana, and would have had it any other way.

Weekend Adventure #1 – The Akuapem Hills (June 12th-14th)

This past weekend Janis, Sean, and some of their IFMS exchange friends went traveling in the hills.  Janis took a tro down from Kumasi with Janie, a third year medical student from Quebec, and Sylvain a friend of a mutual friend of ours.   The tro picked me up across from the hospital, and we headed on the short tro ride to Aburi.  When we arrived we checked in and took a tour of the Aburi Gardens.  It was quite beautiful there.  They have trees from around the world including cinnamon and all spice. I have to say that was the very first cinnamon tree I have ever seen.  I also tried cocoa for the first time.  It is white and slimy, but actually quite delicious. In the VIP Garden they have some trees there planted by Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles.  The coolest tree there though would have to be the strangler fig.  The strangler fig grew around another tree and slowly over a 50 year period, this tree died and decomposed, leaving only a shell of the strangler fig.  It’s cool, because you can climb inside and see out all the way to the top. 

After the tour of the gardens we headed out to the wood market.  The wood market consists of a strip of many little shops along the main road from Aburi to Accra.  It’s quite a it different than the markets I’ve been to in the Dominican.  In the Dominican, you’d go from shop to shop, everyone selling the exact same thing, and none of the people selling it actually played any part in it’s production.  Here, however, although each shop still sells similar wood carvings, every carving in the shop is made by the people selling it, and at prices that you can find no where else in Ghana.  I didn’t buy anything that day, as I live so close to Aburi and didn’t want to bother with carrying what I bought around during my weekend of traveling.  But it was nice to check out what everyone had (and by everyone I mean everyone) and chat with the locals while the rest were busy bartering.  While walking around I also watched a Ghanain checkers match between two of the shop owners, it was quite entertaining.  Many if the shop had hand made African drums in them, which I knew I wanted to buy at some point (what a shock… Lisa wants to buy a musical instrument), but none of the drums I saw was quite what I was looking for.  I starting  chatting with one of the drum makers, about how I live in Mampong, and want to buy a drum, but couldn’t find quite what I was looking for, and he offered to make me one, and have it ready for next week.

            After the wood market, we headed back to the garden for supper.  By the time we got our food it was dark and we were greeted by these interesting bugs that seem to be found all over the hills.  They have bodies like giant ants and cream coloured removable wings.  Once they lose their wings, these giant ant-like creatures can be found walking around on the ground everywhere.  These bugs are especially attracted to light.  While walking by reception we were greeted by thousands of these bugs flying around the lighted doorway, and about a million wing-less ones in a pile at the door at least half a foot deep.  It was absolutely disgusting!!! Janis and I were quite grossed out by this site, and one of the local, seeing this, started laughing at us.

(they brought this helicopter to the garden for children to play in)

(me, Janis, Janie, Sylvain)

(our room for the night... it was suppose to have hot water... it didn't even have running water)

(inside the Strangler Fig)

(outside the Strangler Fig)

The next morning we headed off to Krobo Mountain.  Krobo Mountian was home to the Krobo people who settled there for protection from the slave raids back in the 1700s. However, it had largely been abandoned since the end of the 19^th century.  Getting to Krobo Mountain involved a combination of various taxis and tros, eventually leaving us at the junction of a dirt road leading into the reserve.  Because it had rained in the morning, the dirt road turned into one consisting entirely of water and mud.  The Bradt Guide (better known as the Ghanaian Bible) said that the walk to the base of the mountain should take about 10 minutes.  Well, anyone who has actually used the Bradt Guide in Ghana knows that it tends to lie… a lot. Between 30-45 minutes later, after getting a nice coating of mud on my sandal-clad feet, and somehow managing to slice my heal open, leaving it a bloody mess, we arrived at the base of the mountain.  Although the Krobo Mountain Community Reserve was only established in 1999, the Bradt guide hinted that it may now be abandoned, as in 2002, one traveler was greeted by nothing but a murdered body.  We, however, were a little more fortunate, and were greeted by a barking growling dog, and two men with machetes.  After speaking with the men, we found out that we were actually suppose to pay for the tour back in Somanya, but that they would take us up anyways.  It was easy to figure out that no one had been up the mountain in quite a while, as they had to cut us out a path using their machetes.  The trek up the mountain was definitely not the easiest hike I have been on, basically an hour and a half straight up, and it didn’t help that the rain had made all the rocks and mud quite slick.  On the way up we passed by some of the ruins left from the Krobo village, which was quite cool to see.  You probably wouldn’t even notice they were there if someone didn’t point them out to you, as  they have been taken almost entirely over by the local vegetation.  Speaking of vegetation, I would have never thought that cacti was part of the local vegetation of a Ghanaian, rainforest, but it is…. and I have become well acquainted with them too.  As I mentioned before, the morning rain had made the  mountain quite slippery.  On the trek up, we passed this clearing consisting of cactus plants and sloped rocks.  Upon approaching the clearing, you could see that it was pretty slick.  Well I, being the disaster that I am, managed to lose my balance whilst crossing this clearing, and so intelligently decided to break my fall with a cactus.  Let me tell you, those things hurt as much as you’d think they hurt.  Pulling 5 of the needles wedged >1cm in my hand… good times… good times. Once we finally reached the top it was all worth it.  At the top there was a giant cross.  It was cloudy day, and we were in the clouds, which gave everything a very eerie feeling.  If you walked over to the edge and looked down, you couldn’t see the ground below because of the clouds, which made it seem as though we were much higher off the ground.  Eventually the clouds cleared up a bit and you could see Lake Volta in the distance. After chilling at the top of the mountain for a bit we headed back down the mountain.  When were almost at the bottom Janis slipped and fell into the mud.  She was wearing relatively short shorts and ended up getting mud in places that you should never get mud in.  When she told me this I couldn’t stop laughing (yes… I am such a good friend).  When we reached the bottom she attempted to de-mud herself, which was the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time. The rest of us (there was 6 of us, plus the two guides) just stood around and laughed.  Sean also took a video of it (feel free to ask him to show you).  I can’t remember the last time I laughed that hard.  I could barely stand up, which made the guides start laughing at me as well.

            Once Janis finished cleaning herself we headed back down the mud road to try and catch a tro or a taxi.  We had been waiting there for some time and were sitting on the ground at the side of the road when out of nowhere this little girl about 10 years old comes out of the bush carrying a bench on her head.  She put down the bench beside us for us to sit on and headed back into the bush.  That sort of kindness is what has struck me the most about the Ghanaian people.  I have found that Ghanaians as a whole are the nicest people I have ever met.  They seem to really try and take care of foreigners.  I have had people walk with me for over 15 minutes (in the opposite direction to where they were going) to take me to the place that I am looking for when I have been lost, and wanted nothing from you at the end.  Yes, of coarse there are some people who try to take advantage of you because you are white and know that you have money, but that seems to be a very small proportion of the population, most people here just genuinely want to help.  After waiting at the side of the road for quite some time, when came across a guy on a bicycle and started chatting with him.  Because we weren’t having any luck with a ride he said that he’d ride his bike down two the main junction and flag down a taxi to come pick us up.  Shortly after our taxi arrived who too us to the tro station to head off to Koforidua where we spent the night.

(Krobo Mountain)

(the muddy path)

(mud + blood = bad combination)

(starting up the mountain)

(slipper rock + cacti = bad combination)

(at the top)

(the aftermath)

(cactus + hand = bad combination)

The next morning we headed off to Boti falls.  Sylvain had said that there was a hike that we could take to an umbrella tree that he had done before and said that it was a pretty easy hike and there would be no mountain climbing like the day before.  He lied.  Some parts were pretty easy, but there were certain sections that were quite a climb.  When we were about 10 minutes from the top I ended up twisting my ankle and started to take the painfully long trek back.  Walking back with only one good leg took forever, but eventually Janis and I got back and headed down the 250 stairs to Boti Falls.  It was quite gorgeous there.  Boti Falls is very dependent on rainfall and when you go there during the dry season, it is not much more than a trickle.  Luckily (or unluckily) I am here during the rainy season and it had rained quite heavily during the two previous days, so the Falls were in full force.  We hung around the falls for a good while before heading back to Koforidua.  Once back in Koforidua I took a tro back to Mampong for supper.

(children at Boti falls)

(starting off on our hike)

(the hike... no climbing involved... ya right)

(the view halfway down the 250 stairs to boti falls)

(Sean posing)