Ghananana, Ghananana, Heeeey, Goodbye!

Roughly once a month (every six weeks or so) the ship has a holiday. Last ship holiday I went to Possotome and got all hurt and whatnot. This time I got to go to Ghana. The "promised land." It was a much better time.

We gathered in Reception on Thursday morning. Our group of eleven travelers to Ghana were all excited. After filling out what we had to in order to disembark, we were on our way.

For some reason, a man besides the driver was coming along with us. He wasn't a part of our group, and the minibus was too crowded with him in it. Dennis, our Ghanaian host on our journey, told the driver to leave the guy. So he did. We never quite found out what that guy was doing there.

Togo beaches

Our grand and glorious adventure was now underway! We made great time through the border from Benin into Togo. We enjoyed the beautiful sights of the Togo shoreline as we drove past. Then it was observed that we were going rather slowly. I thought we were just obeying the posted speed limits, but then again, TIA (this is Africa), so I should have known better. Soon we pulled over. Turns out our engine was overheating. We all piled out of the minibus and sought shade where we could. We were delighted at this turn of events because it made our Africa traveling experience all the more authentic. After maybe a half hour or so of our driver dumping water on the engine we were back in action!

Unexpected engine trouble = PHOTO OP!

Milling about.

SHADE!

We arrived in Ghana and settled into our rooms at the Tema YWAM base. They had saved us dinner, spaghetti and meat sauce with veggies, which hit the spot. Some of the nurses went to bed, but a group of us hit up Southern Fried Chicken, which is the place to be in Tema. We had drinks and ice cream there.

YWAM room

The next day we ate another YWAM provided breakfast and headed to the jungle. After a looooooooong drive, we arrived at Cape Coast. The first stop was Kakum National Park, where we enjoyed a canopy walk. It was amazing to walk over the bridges and see the huge trees and be so far above everything.

Hike to the canopy walk

Tree I like.


Bridges

Afterwards, we went to the slave castle. It was a fascinating and tragic place. For over 200 years, the Portuguese and the Dutch shipped out thousands of slaves to the Americas, Haiti, and any other colony that needed free labor. It's unimaginable how much death and horror the place saw. It was a huge old building, and I enjoyed the tour.

Slave castle


Line of sight shot.

Beautiful sunset!

That night we stayed at an interesting hostel type place called Han's Cottage. They had a pool, which we enjoyed in spite of the slightly green shade of the water. There was also this Belgian couple who renovated a huge truck thing into the craziest RV ever. They have been traveling since 2007, spending their retirement working their way south through Europe and into Africa. I had heard about them from some Canadians that I met a couple of weeks ago, so I was amazed to see them there!

How to RV in Africa

HUGE!

The next day, after another looooong drive, we arrived at Boti Falls. Before we enjoyed the water, we went on a hike to see the other interesting attractions. The hike reminded me of the Manitou Incline, because it was pretty much straight up in some placed. We arrived at the umbrella rock as a field trip was preparing to leave. All the kids wanted pictures of us. I suspect it is because we're white. Anyways, I finally understood whiny celebrities who hate attention. It was really annoying to have people just stand next to you and put their arm around you without your permission. Weird. Next was the three headed palm tree, which was basically exactly what it sounds like. After that we hiked back to the waterfall. It was beautiful. We passed signs that warned us not to swim, changed into our suits, and got in.

Umbrella rock, dead ahead!

Yep. Three heads.

Ominous.

I have experienced few things that were as exhilarating as being so near that waterfall. We weren't allowed to go under it, but we got close. It created its own wind, which made it hard to stand on the rock as we were trying to pose for pictures. Everything was so green, and it was in a cove. It was like the Garden of Eden.

So amazing and unreal!

FUN!

Cool tree

We went to Accra for the night. We chose to stay at a hotel called the New Casanova Hotel, which was decent. We had dinner at a "fast food" restaurant, which really wasn't fast, but it was very good! We stopped by the mall and everything was closed. This was a bummer, until we realized that there was a movie premiere going on. It was for the Ghanaian move Sting in a Tale. We chased down one of the actors and got our pictures taken with him, which is really cool because evidently he is pretty well known in Ghana. I, however, can't remember his name right now.

After that excitement, we went out to a place where we could dance. It was a restaurant place on the street. They had no room for us, so they brought out a table and chairs into the parking area. We were having fun dancing when we noticed some street performers. They were dancing like crazy. It was so cool. We soon sat down and just watched. They were doing all sorts of acrobatic stunts. It was amazing. We also met some beggar children who we think might have been in the sex trade. That was really sad and we got together and prayed for them later.

The next day we headed home. I inadvertently offended a border woman in Ghana by handing her my passport with my left hand. Then the border guy going into Benin wasn't in a good mood, so he gave us a hard time for a while. All was resolved eventually, and we got back to the ship safe and sound.

It was a great weekend in the "promised land!"