Don't Rock the Botel

Today was definitely one of my more interesting days in Ghana.

The day started off nice and early--my alarm going at 5.30am to be exact--as we needed to reach Kakum before 8am to avoid large touristy crowds. Luckily, Phillip Briggs, the author of the Bradt Guide to Ghana, was correct about the tro-tro locations in Cape Coast, and we were able to find a tro-tro to Kakum without too much hassle. Of course, it took this tro-tro almost an hour to fill up (come on, where the obrunis at?), and it actually ended up being quite overcrowded.

Which is where we learned how to avoid getting stopped by the police.

See, tro-tros can only carry a certain number of people (it's imprinted on the medallion on the side of the tro-tro). If it's overcrowded, then the driver/mate get penalized according to union (yes, these things are unionized) rules.

But of course, overcrowding still occurs, and tro-tros have co-opted other forms of transport--namely, taxis--to be their eyes and ears for police checkpoints. A symbiotic relationship, indeed.

Anyways, the Kakum tro-tro had one adult too many (the 7 or so small, wailing children don't count in the equation apparently...), so the tro-tro pulled over before the checkpoint, the mate got out and met a taxi driver who was apparently his friend, and went ahead of us. The tro-tro passed through the check easily enough, and we picked up our mate about 50m beyond. Easy as pie.

We arrived at Kakum around 8.30 or so, and things were still pretty quiet. Kakum is one of two major national parks in Ghana, the other being Mole in the north, and this one is well known for its canopy walk, which was built by USAID (yeah!) and Canadian volunteers in 1995.

The canopy walk consists of a series of seven suspension-rope wooden bridges, hanging about 40m above the rainforest floor and stretching almost 400m. It's also about 10in wide, because the bridge itself is just a wooden plank. That is cracked in some places. And quite creaky. The guide assured us it was quite safe, though I don't think she went on it with us. Typical. Oh well, I haven't heard of anyone dying on it yet.

I'm not normally afraid of heights, though let me tell you, being on a rickety wooden plank bridge, suspended by ropes, in the wind, in a misty rainforest, in the middle of West Africa really makes you start to consider your life. Yeah, I was definitely a little scared. Part of it was that there was a group of Canadian tourists behind me on the bridge who were seriously freaking out and rocking this thing around. Not cool.

But all in all, this was definitely one of my best experiences in Ghana. The rainforest canopy was absolutely serene and beautiful. Never done anything like this in my life. I've got plenty of pictures (many of which are quite hilarious), which I will upload once I get back.

Right after the canopy walk, we decided to take a coconut-juice break. Now, Phil(lip Briggs) really recommends the chopped-open young coconuts as a refreshing mid-day drink in Ghana. We came to the conclusion that this must be more of an acquired taste. It tasted like ... warm water with a hint of sugar. It looked like soapy bathwater too. Oh well. Another thing to check off the Ghana list! Also some good pictures of me with a decapitated coconut and straw.

Afterwards we tro-troed it down to the Hans Cottage Botel. The main feature of this hotel is that it has a restaurant built on stilts above a crocodile pond (get it, boat+hotel). And the food was actually pretty good, as this place caters mostly to European and American travellers. Now the crocodiles were a constant source of entertainment. First off, we ran into the acrophobic Canadians again, who were purchasing some raw chicken so they could feed a crocodile. Of course, they were instructed to tempt the crocodile from the water and up the steps so we could all get a good view, lol. All we could think of was the late Crocodile Hunter dangling his baby over these things.

A little later on, we heard quite a bit of commotion coming from the Botel staff. One of the staff was playing around with this green water snake--that is, the snake was in the water, and the dude had a long branch that he was twirling the snake around with. The waitresses were all screaming about as the snake, which was thin and about 2-3 ft long, was splashing about quite a bit. Eventually it got tired of the game and decided to swim further into the pond.

Class, please open your textbooks to Chapter 3: The Food Chain.

So the snake is kind of coolly swimming along with its head above water. About 5m away, perpendicular to the snake, we see a pair of eyes emerge. *cue Jaws music*. Everyone takes a collective gasp. Of course, the snake has absolutely no chance. The croc snaps it up in its powerful jaws, the snake makes a few feeble attempts of splashing way, but it's definitely a Ghan-ner. And that was lunch.

It took about 6hrs to get back to Accra, namely because we did it via tro-tros and it was Saturday, when schedules are reduced. Of course, we boarded the tro-tro of gastrointestinal revenge. Esther and I were sitting in the second row of the tro-tro, so in the mate's row, right behind the driver and shotgun (which seats two people). The guy in the middle of the driver's row was apparently quite ill, though he didn't appear to be. The dude sitting shotgun seemed to be somewhat important as he had a briefcase with him. The Cape Coast-Accra highway is actually quite well paved, but to control speeds, the highway is fitted out with a series of "speed bumps" (they don't slow you down that much, but they do make you more cautious around the bends), which, if you're sitting right above the wheelbase, can be quite uncomfortable after a while. Anyways, the guy in front of me definitely could not handle it and ended up hurling all over the dash, the e-brake, himself and the other dude's briefcase. Driver and mate were definitely like, "oh mannnn...". Luckily we were near a store where we could get soapy water so they were able to clean up the tro-tro in short order and we got under way again. I then decided to move my bag up to my lap instead of the floor ...

Of course, we weren't quite so lucky the second time. The guy hurled again, much to the dismay of now-twice-vomited-briefcase dude, and we had to resort to using whatever newspaper was on the tro-tro. I also gave the mate my emergency backpack supply of sanitary wipes (because you never know ...), which kind of helped the situation a bit. He gave me the "this is a bit ridiculous" look. Yeahhhh. I figure of all the tro-troing I do in Ghana, someone is bound to get sick on one of them eventually. Just hopefully it's not me.

We got back to Accra around 4pm and boarded another tro-tro, headed for Madina, at Kaneshie Market. It took almost 2 hours to get back to Legon ... ahhhh. It's not that there was even traffic. The traffic lights in Accra are the most poorly designed I have ever seen. They are green for about 3 seconds, then amber, then red. This is for the main thoroughfare! Of course, the side streets stay green for a full minute--allowing all 2 cars waiting to pass with plenty of time to spare. I don't even understand. I wonder if the street hawkers rigged the lights so that more cars would be stopped so they could sell their goods. That'd actually be pretty smart...

11 more days in Ghana. Today I fantasized about having random American food. Like Cocoa Puffs. And tacos. And Velveeta cheese. Maybe not all together.