Really Ghana Get Away

Today I went up to Aburi, located in the Akuapem Hills overlooking Accra, with the Canadians and Emma (12 in total). Aburi is well known for its botanical gardens, which, according to the Ghana Bible, was founded by the Brits as a sanatorium for colonial officials--with the higher elevation comes cooler temperatures (read: less malaria). Aburi's also well known for its market with nice Ghanaian curios and stuff without the pushiness of Accra.

The gardens were definitely a nice retreat away from the city. We saw some Ghanaian cocoa trees (woot traditional exports), as well as this massive Strangler Ficus that had taken over a much larger tree back in like the Coolidge Administration. The tree was massive and we were able to actually go inside the base of the trunk. Emma got a great picture of me sticking my head out of one of the holes in the trunk. I'd post it here if I could ... There was also this cool, really old helicopter on the grounds that had fallen into rusted disrepair. A bunch of us climbed around inside of it, and got some more sweet pics. Good thing I got that tetanus booster...

Afterwards was lunch in the garden (nice outdoor gazebo at the restaurant) where I had my first experience of the Ghanaian staple, red-red. Red-red is a rice and beans dish that's served with a somewhat spicy red palm oil. All in all, it was pretty good, though I'm not the biggest fan of overdoing the beans, especially with an hour-long tro-tro ride ahead of me. It was also served with fried plantains (ahhh so good!) as well as half a chicken (basically). Oh, all through the garden were these chickens and roosters running about. I probably ate one of them.

And then the heavens opened up.

Ghana takes its rain quite seriously. So we hung out at the gazebo for like an extra hour, and though about dashing back to the entrance when the rain would let up--only to have it pour even harder. Eventually they "evacuated" us to the actual restaurant part using umbrellas but it's fair to say that everyone was soaking wet when we got on the tro-tro (ah, such comfort!)

Oh, and this was the second time I saw some tro-tro drama. Yesterday a guy in Tema wouldn't pay full fare to the mate, upon which a full-fledged Ghanaian shouting match ensued. I think the mate was ready to throw him from a moving vehicle. Today, because it was pouring, the whole group of us boarded an empty tro-tro in Aburi--but it was empty because it as at the back of the line of all the other tro-tros heading to Accra-Tema. Tro-tros here are unionized (ironically enough) so they have to follow certain rules at each station, and our driver/mate thought they could pull a fast one.

Not so.

The "foreman" dude (really just some angry dude in a red shirt) held us up for about 10 minutes as the temperature in the van slowly crept up from hot to intolerable. Then some other drivers saw what was going on (they were getting screwed over by our driver) and started demanding that we--a tro-tro full of more-or-less white people--get out and into a different (theirs) tro-tros. At this point, we started sealing up our windows, fully expecting to get assaulted. In the pouring African rain.

Eventually our local guide decided that it'd be better for us just to get into a different tro-tro, which we were able to find--it was a bit nicer than the original one, so I guess we came out with a little something. It turns out it didn't even rain in Accra, but oh well, it was still nice to get away for a bit. Not sure what the plans for tonight are. Hopefully no cab rides alone this time.

The guy managing the internet cafe is watching Hostel Part II. Sounds pretty scary.