Weekend activities

Saturday I went with Amy, David, Maybell, Kristen, Tasha, and Lizzie to Kakum National Park. They were from all over: Canada, Scotland, USA, and Ghana.

The main attraction at Kakum National Park is the Canopy Walkway. I’m out of shape so it took a lot of huffing and puffing to climb the mountain to the start of the canopy bridges but it was worth it. “The canopy walk consists of a 350m-long, 40m-high wood-and-rope walkway suspended between seven trees and broken up by a number of viewing platforms.” (Palin, Michael. Ghana. Guilford, Connecticut: Bradt Travel Guides LTD, 2009.)

The trip to get to Kakum consisted of taking a tro-tro, which is a van full of people, from Winneba to Cape Coast. At the Cape Coast junction, we took two cabs for the seven of us to Kakum. We would have taken a tro-tro up but the two cab drivers wheeled and dealed with Amy to take us up. It would have been cheaper to take a tro-tro but with tro-tros you need to wait until they are full before they leave. The advantage of the taxi is that we could leave once we were all ready.

I took the opportunity between when we got off the tro-tro to when we got in the taxi to find a bathroom, which is always an adventure. There was a gas station across the road so I headed that way in hopes of finding the much needed facility. The lady in the station directed me around the corner where a man was collecting fees for the use of the toilet. I didn’t have the necessary 50 pesewas (about a quarter U.S.) but I had one cedi (50 cents U.S.) so he took that and waved me in. I was in no mood to haggle so I rushed in leaving my 1 cedi behind. The first door I went through would not open all the way because it hit the sink but I made it through and the stall door would only open half way because it bummed into the toilet. With my camera backpack on and my belt pouch in the way, it was impossible to squeaze through, so hastily took them off to get through the door. Then it was a rush to get every thing unfastened in time.. Upon exiting, the toilet attendent gave me my change. At least it was a regular flush toilet

My first day in Ghana, on the trip from Accra to WInneba I ended up needing to go as well. I had the taxi driver stop at a gas station. A very nice lady in pretty local attire lead me around the corner of the building and pointed to a small square building in back. I went into the first room and it appeared to be a single shower room. Finally, after looking in four other rooms, I decided that you pee squatting and then turn the faucet on to wash the pee down the crack in the floor.

Back to the outing to Kakum. After the canopy walk, we stopped at a restaurant for lunch. For five cedis you could touch a crocodile that they had there. I wasn’t interested in touching him but I was more than happy to photograph Kristen touching him.

The food wasn’t that great but the crocodile I saw in the water and the birds in the trees were very cool. I wasn’t sure if the birds were eating fruit from the trees for feeding little ones in the their nest. I took plenty of pictures.

On the tro-tro trip back to Winneba, I sat next to David in the front and I let him play with my little camera. It’s always fun to see what interests children when they get to take whatever pictures they want. It seemed that David’s main interest were big trucks and buses but there was one girl while were were waiting for the tro-tro to fill up that seemed to catch his interest as well.

For those of you interested in what things cost, here’s a run down. The cost of the tro-tro from Winneba to Cape Coast was 4 cedis. The cost of the taxi from Cape Coast to Kakum which included the driver waiting around while we toured, the drive back including a stop at a restaurant for lunch and crodile viewing cost me 30 cedis. The trip back to Winneba was another 4 cedis. The cost of the Canopy Walkway for an adult, non-Ghanian was 40 cedis.

When we got back to Lagoon Lodge, I uploaded my pictures to my computer and then picked the ones I wanted to upload to Facebook. After that I had no energy left.  If you would like to see more pictures from Saturday, you can find them at this link: Canopy Pictures.

I had a delicious supper of Lagoon Lodge special fried rice. I was only able to finish half of it, so I gave the rest to Amy. It cost 12 cedis and the bottle of water was 2 cedis.

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Sunday morning I ventured out. I walked the 20 minutes to where I could catch a taxi and asked him to take me to the Catholic Church on North Campus. I had been told that Mass was at 9 but when I got there at 8:45, I found out that it started at 8. The cab cost 4 cedis but I only had 20 cedis. I asked one of the guys standing outside the church if he had change for a 20. He ended up paying the cab for me. I was able to contribute 1 cedi. He also told me that I wasn't that late and invited me in. As it turned out, Mass here is two hours long.

I loved seeing all the beautiful dresses, hats and hair styles.

I ended up missing going up for communion because I was waiting for the people in the row ahead of me and the person next to me to go and they never went. It was too late when I realized the priest was putting the communion up. It seemed like very few people went up for communion.

After the two hour service I was hoping to use the bathroom before starting my walk/taxi ride back. I asked one of the ladies where I might find it. She took me around back and showed me a wood structure that was occupied by guys (I could see the top of their heads). There didn’t seem to be any markings differentiating men from women and I suddenly became self-conscious and decided I could wait until I got back to the lodge.

I started walking with the church crowd hoping that I would eventually see a taxi I might take back to Lagoon Lodge. At a main road I found one, asked his price for taking me to Lagoon Lodge which was 4 cedis as well. This time I was smart and asked if he had change for my 20 cedi. He did.

Once back in my room, I decided the next thing on my agenda was to organize my stuff. So I dumped my suitcase out on the bed and started figuring out where things could live for the next 3 weeks. In the process, I discovered the Bradt book on Ghana that I thought had been stolen from my side pocket. It had slide down to the bottom of a different pocket than the one I thought I had put it in. It wasn’t until the suitcase was completely empty that I noticed it through the fabric.

I went for a walk this afternoon in hopes of scoping out the location of the ATM on the campus that is near here that takes VISA cards and to get credits for the phone I have. As it turns out, the ATM is not far from the Lodge which is very convenient.

What I found out regarding my phone is that I need a new sim card because the one that is in it has not been used for more than four months. I tried to get a new one and to get it registered but the guy I needed to talk to was out of the shop. So Robert and family are still going to have to wait for a phone call from me.

I took the heat of the afternoon to try to catch up with my blog and while I was working on it we got a very refreshing rain. Once the rain stopped, another friend that I met, Kelsy and I tried to walk down to the beach but part way there, it started to sprinkle again. So I will have to check it out another day.