Ghana By Taxi

A few days ago I got back to Benin after enjoying my “first real vacation” since joining the Peace Corps. It was really exciting to get out of here after over 9 months... but by the end (believe it or not) I was very happy to be back.

Along with my fellow travelers I left Benin early in the morning with plans to reach Kpalime, Togo by sunset. - - Unfortunately this is West Africa and nothing goes as planned.. so after uncountable marriage offers and one surprisingly painless border crossing we found ourselves checking in at the Peace Corps Headquarters in Lome instead. It was Easter Monday and we were told that if we stopped at the Immigration office the next morning we would be able to get our visa extended and not have to pay again on the way back. This did not happen but we got to see Lome so I guess it was ok in the end. (If you are traveling in Togo.. the visa thing is true.. but it takes about 3 days not the 10 minutes the border police tell you.. so if you are on a schedule don't waste your time with bureaucratic nonsense in Lome – just my opinion)

Togo in general is just like Benin.. only maybe a little greener. Kpalime is a small town in the South-ish close to the Ghanaian border. The reason we went to Kpalime specifically is that this town has a little treasure known as The Belgian Restaurant – with Belgian food... and Belgian beer.. and a really really friendly Belgian family. The only photo I took during my 2 days in Togo was of the meal I ate in Kpalime. They made me a vegetarian lentil burger (not on the menu) and I had the first palatable beer to come my way in over 9 months. I love you Belgium.

The bulk of our trip was spent in Ghana – where they speak English – and serve fried rice out of street carts – and soy milk is everywhere. To the deprived PCV its also important to note that they have smoothies.. shopping malls.. wrap sandwiches.. and a movie theater.

If you ever get a chance to go to Ghana.. Go.

My stay in Ghana can be divided into 3 parts:

Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary & Wli Waterfalls

Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary is a wildlife sanctuary located in the Hohoe area of Ghana. According to our guide the sanctuary was actually started with the assistance of Peace Corps Volunteers back in the day. The tour includes some up close time with their monkeys and a 10 minute walk through their nature preserve.

Wli Waterfalls are the largest in West Africa. There are two cascades the top cascade is 85m (the tallest in West Africa) and the bottom cascade is about 60m. You can hike to the bottom and there is a great picnic area and opportunities to go swimming if you so choose. The hike to the top supposedly takes close to 4 hours and is a pretty steep hike. We chose to do the hike to the bottom and a 20 minute hike up to a view point... it was really rough.

The Coast

I am not sure what was more beautiful the Coast or the Waterfalls.. Ghana is a very beautiful country. The town “Cape Coast” has a really great vegetarian restaurant near Cape Coast Castle called Baobab House. (Like I said we spent most of our vacation eating). There are 3 castles along the coast of Ghana that were built during Portuguese colonization to be used for slave trade. The other two are in Accra and El Mina. We got a chance to see all three during our trip – the one in El Mina is the oldest building standing in West Africa.

While at the coast we stayed at a place called Stumble Inn. Like everything else in Ghana this place was BEAUTIFUL. We had dorm style sleeping right on the beach and there was a restaurant that served breakfast lunch and dinner at a reasonable price with multiple vegetarian options. You sit at a cabana overlooking the ocean where you can be served your food or really just hang out. Unfortunately :( I spent the whole time here being very sick. Quite frankly, I don't know if there is a better place I could have chosen.. They had toast. They had tea. The managers (two American volunteers) went to find me a fan. They gave me bananas with my toast that I ordered for breakfast to help me get healthy again. It was an awesome place. I would have preferred to be healthy and sitting in the sand.. but if I had to be sick at least I could hear the ocean and eat toast. There is not toast in Benin.

Accra

Osu Castle - Accra

As far as I am concerned Accra could be an American City. Maybe it has been awhile.. but I think it was wonderful. I probably spent a bit too much of my time while in Accra just eating great food and staring in awe at the aisles of their grocery stores. There are some really beautiful national monuments in Accra and some market places that are worth checking out. Really though, we went for the food.

We made a straight shot taxi trip back to Benin from Accra on the last day of our adventure and aside from a small thunderstorm the ride back was uneventful (that's a good thing). Other than the dust in my house and some new satellite dishes in my concession little changed while I was gone.

I want to say back to normal life for me..

I'm not sure if that applies.

<3 Z