Saturday, October 9, 2010

Good Times in Ghana

We decided to take a trip to Ghana at the end of September to enjoy the last bit of "free time" before Miranna started back to school. While Ghana doesn’t seem that far from Benin, from our house in Lalo- through Togo- and then to Accra, the capital of Ghana, it was about a 7 hour taxi ride- multiple taxis, that is. But, the reward at the end of a long travel day was mojitos and sushi- a big treat for us!

Accra is very developed, probably the most developed city in West Africa, so we took full advantage and pretended we were back in America for a few days. This included a trip to a mall and a real movie theater!After a few days in Accra, we travelled along the coast to visit many of the coastal forts that were used during the slave trade days- mainly by the Portuguese and Dutch. It was really interesting- and also sad- to see this side of history. One the forts was visited by Obama when he was in Ghana. The fort has a place where visiting dignitaries lay reefs as a memorial to those having gone through the slave trade. Aside from some historical tourism, we also spent some time relaxing on the beach in the coastal towns and visiting a national park where we walked across a swinging bridge through the tree canapoy. Ghana really does have a beautiful coastline! Enjoy the pics….


















Our beach hut.




































Portuguese Catholic mission that turned into a fort to fend off the Dutch.













Fishing village.















M making me pose while the fishermen bring in their catch.














Animal santuary we visited that protects endangered monkeys, birds and just about any other animal brought in. The owners pay the hunters to not kill trapped animals or young who are orphaned by hunting.










View of Cape Coast from the top of the fort. That's Charlie's Benin Squirrels soccer jersey. Yes the national team is called the Benin Squirrels.










Terrified, we took this picture from the hanging bridge. The suspension system hung some 80 meters above the ground in the giant trees.









Cape Coast fort.