My Weekend In Cape Coast!

Now, time to tell you all about my weekend trip to Cape Coast!

Friday afternoon Kamal and I set off for the STC bus station, when we got there we had to wait an hour and a half for the bus to show up (it was 45 minutes late . . . right on time for Ghana Maybe time) then we got on the bus. When we got on the bus, the bus reversed about 10 meters and then made a loud noise and started smoking . . . sooo we all had to get off the bus. They assured us that another bus was coming right away, 2 and a half hours later a bus came. People were so angry during these 2 and a half hours, they were yelling in twee and and flailing their hands about . . . that was very funny to watch. The real funny part was that at the station there was a full lot of perfectly good buses, we had a driver, but no they didn’t use one of the buses sitting right there, they called a bus already on the road and waited 2 and a half hours for it to come to the station full of working buses . . . . logic at it’s best! Kamal and I turned on the mp3 player and started jamming out to some music, the angry people laughed at us quite a bit, then went back to being angry lol! Finally we got on the bus that came for us, Once we got on we just sat in the first two seats we found, then some guy came on and said we had to get up because we were supposed to be sitting in our assigned number seat. Stupidly we did and he took our seats, when we went to find our numbers two people were sitting there and said assigned seating was not followed here, so at that point we knew we had been screwed out of seating haha! So we stood there on the bus while for 20 minutes the Ghanians argued in twee about where to sit the Obruni’s (they said obruni a lot and were pointing to us and seats so we knew that was the case) eventually people moved and told kamal to sit in a seat at the back and me to sit towards the front by the window (again logic at it’s best). People here argue over every decision they have to make among themselves . . . stupid really haha! Then we were on the bus and on our way to Cape Coast! The bus ride was fairly uneventful, except the man next to me saw on my mp3 player the name of the song “she thinks my tractor’s sexy” and he wanted to know what a tractor was, so I explained and he listened to a bit of the song . . . . I still don’t think he understood, but it was very funny!

We arrived in cape coast at 9:30 then immediately got a taxi to the Hans Cottage Botel where we were staying. The Taxi driver wanted to come back in the morning for us but we knew it would be expensive for a taxi driver to escort us around all day so we said no and opted for tro tro’s! So when we got to the botel it was 10pm and we sat in the restaurant area and listened to a live reggae band while eating and drinking African wine! The food there is fantastic, they had stroganoff, curry pasta, cheeseburgers, steak, and even cake for desert! That night we went back to our room (we opted for the cheap style room, which was two twin style beds in a small room with a fan, and shared public bathrooms and showers outside) to go to sleep, and found it very hard because the crickets were soooo loud, I have never heard so many crickets so loud! The sleep was good though, after such a hectic travel day!

Saturday we woke up at 7am and got some breakfast, they have a buffet for breakfast there. The service at Hans Cottage Botel was terrible, they took forever to come take your order, took forever to get you the food, and made you get your own drinks . . . so a buffet in the morning was nice because it meant no waiting! We ate breakfast and met up with a guy that we knew from the hostel previously named Leon, he’s black, 6 ft 8 and is from Texas. He was new here so he wasn’t familiar with taxi’s ripping you off, so he got a taxi to come for him in the morning, we told him to ditch that and come with us on tro tro’s! We walked out towards the road and the taxi driver said it would be 44 cedi for the day for him and we quickly said no to that, but he kept bugging Leon saying that even if he didn’t take the taxi that Leon owed him 10 cedi for driving out there, we thought that was crap and told Leon to keep walking and ignore it . . . . but for some reason he paid it . . . craziness! So then went out to the main road to find a tro tro to Kakum national park. This took some time because the main road was pretty empty (in the middle of nowhere). We got to Kakum at 9 and started the canopy walk tour at 9:30. I did this tour last year but Kamal really wanted to do it so I went again. This time around it was very hot . . . it was about 38 degrees on Saturday and so climbing the hill up to the canopy bridges caused a lot of sweat! But we got up to the canopy bridges and walked over top of the rain forest on those. They are roped bridges that are quite narrow and shaky . . . it is an experience for sure! The bridges are 40 feet from the top of the rain forest . . . so they are pretty high up there. We saw no wildlife while we were in Kakum this time, last year I saw snakes and things, but I think this time it was too hot for wildlife to be close to the trails! At the end of the 7 bridges we realized that our guide was in the reggae band that plays at the botel at night, so that was funny! That’s all I really have to say about Kakum, there’s a lot of trees and the bridges were high. . . . yeah.

After we finished at Kakum we took a tro tro to cape coast, which was hot and over crowded as usual. We got to Cape Coast central area and got a taxi to the cape coast castle. The cape coast castle is where all the slaves were kept, and all the trading of them happened. This was a very very emotional tour, and I learned a lot about the slave trade and the time period that I didn’t know . . . It made me ashamed of our past as a North American culture, and feel really sorry for the culture here. I will be writing a separate blog after this one to tell you all about the slave castles because there is so much to tell! It was very hot at the slave castle throughout the tour so by the time it was done we were drenched in sweat and completely overheated. So then we went back to the Botel.

Hans Cottage Botel is a funny place, it is on top of a lake which is filled with tame crocodiles that you can pet, there are naked statue children everywhere, it has a fancy pool, and it is called a botel . . . I’ve heard of motel’s and hotel’s but never a botel. I think it is supposed to be a play on words between boat and hotel . . . but if that’s the case shouldn’t it be boatel?? Who knows lol! So when we got back to the botel we immediately went swimming in the pool, it was quite crowded with Ghanaians (because they can come into the botel and pay to swim for the afternoon) but luckily people from Ghana cannot swim, so they were all crowded in the shallow end, so Kamal and I had the deep end to ourselves! It is very funny to watch Ghanaians swim, they try, but the use so much force when starting off that they sink and then just stand up and splash water on themselves or sit in shallow enough water and stay there. I don’t think I have ever seen a black competitive swimmer though . . . just not their thing haha! Then after that we went for a walk around the botel to find crocodiles and we found lots, but we couldn’t touch them because they were resting on ground to close to the water, and the staff said that they might have gotton angry, so we kept our distance and just took pictures! After that we went swimming again, then went to the restaurant for supper (which took 2 hours haha). We drank more wine and listened to the reggae band, but had a very early night because we had a very hot, long , and emotionally draining day. On the way to our room to go to bed we found a centipede the size of my foot (look for the photos on facebook soon), which was kind of frightening. Then we went to bed.

Sunday we got up early at 7am again, had another breakfast buffet while watching the birds (there are lots of herons, pretty yellow small birds that resemble humming birds, and other sorts) then Kamal and went out to the street to find a tro tro to Elmina. On the tro tro to elmina there was a lday who got on that was carrying a live chicken by it’s wings and it was clucking bloody murder haha . . . once she put it on her lap it was quiet though . .  I got a picture of that! Once we were in Elmina we went on a tour of the Elmina castle (another slave castle). This was just as hot of a tour and was very similar with slight differences to the Cape Coast castle (I will write about this one as well in my next blog). After we finished there we walked out to get a tro tro back to the botel. On our way out we were hassled by locals selling things quite a bit, but I was more hassled by a man wanting to be my “friend”. I told him that was fine but I had a fiancé back home (I don’t but it works), but he said that didn’t matter here in Ghana because my fiancé was not here, so he said that we should go talk somewhere . . . I was very ticked off at him at this point and Kamal was ticked off at people trying to sell him things so we just got in a taxi. Once we were in the taxi people started yelling at him for being rude and not buying, and this guy kept asking for my number, I told him I didn’t have a Ghana phone and my Canadian phone didn’t work here. At that point a bunch of his friends started yelling at me for not being nice and for lying about not having a phone. . . . ugh so I said that I thought he was being very rude for asking for my number when he knew I was engaged and he should be ashamed, then we told the driver to go! What a hassle!

We got back to the botel and went swimming for and hour from 11 – 12 and had the whole pool to ourselves! Then at 12 at the botel they feed the crocodiles and they all come up to shore, so we went to do that. For 2 cedi they let you feed raw chicken to the crocodiles on a stick, so we did that and got lots of pictures and after they were fed we could touch them and take pictures! That was really fun, I felt kind of like the crocodile hunter lol! After that we met some girls from the states who were staying in Accra as well doing a medical rotation here, so we went to the STC bus station with them to catch the 3pm bus back to Accra! It was a long wait there because we arrived there at 2 to ensure we got seats and the bus was late yet again and arrived at 4. We ate at the restaurant there though and got to know each other. We finally got on the bus to come back to Accra and were all squished in the back seats for the ride home! This would have been great, but we got as far as the city limit of Accra right where the city starts and the bus broke down . . . we were cursed with buses this weekend I think. They told us another bus was coming to pick us all up and to wait, but we opted out of waiting because god knows how long that could have taken . . . so all 5 of us got in a taxi and were dropped off at our own area’s of the city. Because the university (where 2 of the girls were) is on the opposite side of the city we got a nice tour of Accra! The city is much bigger then Toronto or Montreal . . . so it takes a long time to drive around it. We finally got back to the hostel at 8pm.

Once we were home at the hostel we told everyone about our horrible STC bus adventures and our wonderful Cape Coast adventures and then went to bed!

Today I just went to the school in the morning and then came back to the hostel and started blogging!

Be sure to read my next blog which I will be starting now about the Slave Castle’s . . . but be warned it is eye opening! Also tonight I will be posting pictures of the entire weekend including pictures from the Slave Castles on facebook!