Ghana Vacation

The second half of my mom's West African adventure was spent in Ghana. I have been looking forward to a beach vacation for at least the last year and had even planned a trip with some girls in April but had to cancel because of too much work. As I have said many times, Burkina is usually very hot and very dry so I often sit in village dreaming of when I can jump into the ocean, play in the waves, walk in the sand, and eat good food. I was able to do all this during our two weeks in Ghana and more.

We took a bus from Ouaga to Kumasi, a long bumpy ride lasting 16 hours only made worse by the fact I was sick and my whole body ached. I wasn't able to do anything our first day in Kumasi but my mom enjoyed walking around this huge, busy city so unlike Ouaga. The next day we traveled several more hours by bus to Cape Coast and I started feeling better and was fine the rest of the trip. In Cape Coast we got our first view of the ocean and it was magnificent!

Cape Coast Castle is one of the most well preserved of dozens of slave castles located along the West African coast. This also happens to be where President Obama and his family visited on their first official visit to Africa last summer. This fort was built by the Swedes in the mid 1600s, later taken over by the Danes, and then the British before Ghana gained its independence about 50 years ago. It wasn't originally built for the slave trade but later dungeons were built to house hundreds of captured slaves before being led out the Door of No Return to a waiting ship and transported across the Atlantic to the Americas. The castle had a great museum with information about the slave trade and our tour guide was also well informed. Its difficult to imagine the cruelties carried out in this place and the effects on the rest of the world including the changes in African societies, the industrialization of the US, and the power held by the Europeans.

From the castle, you can look down on the beach and see hundreds of fishermen with their wooden boats and green nets. Mom and I were fascinated by watching these men go about their work preparing boats to go out to sea and untangling their gigantic nets. One afternoon as we sat at a restaurant on the beach, we watched over 50 men spend at least 2 hours trying to get a large boat from the beach, over the breaking waves, and into the calmer sea. We were told this was the inaugural voyage for this boat which is why it took so much more work than normal but were still surprised and how difficult it was to get the boat past the cresting waves.

Another day we took a side trip to Elmina, a fishing village just down the coast. They were holding an annual fishing festival so thousands of people and their boats were in town for the huge event. This village is also home to the oldest European structure in Sub-Saharan Africa, a trading fort built by the Portuguese in 1482. This fort, like in Cape Coast, was later converted into a slave castle and housed thousands of enslaved Africans before they were transported across the ocean to a life of servitude if they survived the passage.

From Cape Coast we traveled west along the coast to Takoradi, a large port for ships bringing cargo that spreads throughout West Africa. We then took a long taxi ride on a dirt road to find a small hotel called the Hideout which had been recommended by a friend. It definitely did feel well-hidden and we were happy to arrive after wondering just where we were trying to go. The Hideout is across the river from the village of Butre and usually its easy to go between the two. Unfortunately it had been raining a lot and the river was swollen and had washed out the bridge the morning we arrived. There were small wooden canoes that could take you across but even locals told us they were scared of the river now so we decided to just look at the village and the ruins of another castle from the distance. In Cape Coast and Butre, we stayed in small huts very close to the beach and heard the roar of the ocean and crashing waves all night long. Awesome!

From Butre we went to the town of Busua just a few kilometers down the coast but another long ride because of the flooded river. It seems like Busua is the place to go in Ghana if you want to hang out at the beach. Unfortunately it was cold, gray, and occasionally windy most of the days we were at the beach. I still put my bikini on every day and played in the water. I had been dreaming of this for months! I did find it ironic that it was cold at the beach after months of sweltering in the heat and imagining how good it would feel to go swimming.

We headed back to Kumasi a couple days before Mom flew out and did some last minute shopping. The Kumasi market has been called the largest market in all of West Africa and I would believe it. We spent several hours and saw just about everything imaginable for sale except for arts & crafts or other souvenirs. I also was impressed that we weren't ever really hassled here which I have found to be the case at every other market I've visited. We visited the National Cultural Center the afternoon before our night bus left for Ouaga and found lots of souvenirs including clay beads, batik and tie-died fabrics, a carved wooden statue, and other jewelry.

It was a great trip and I'm happy to have been able to spend time with my mom. We ate lots of great food, played in the ocean, saw some live music and dancing, learned some history, did lots of shopping, and had time to lay around the beach and read. I've been wondering why I couldn't have done Peace Corps in Ghana since we heard there were PCVs in several of the towns we visited. I guess you probably appreciate it more when its vacation though!