Cape Coast

I had a great weekend! We took an excursion to Cape Coast, which is usually about a two hour drive but took us closer to four because of road construction. It was interesting to learn that the road construction was funded by the U.S. government. We were also told that if Ghana isn't able to finish it by the deadline the U.S. is pulling out the funding and they will have to find their own funding to finish it. Once we got to Cape Coast, our first stop was lunch at a restaurant on the beach… and it was beautiful! We met some young boys who were fishing for crab and sea urchins to sell at the market. They all wanted their picture taken, it was really adorable. After lunch we went to the slave castle located in Cape Coast. The tour guide told us that it was one of the smallest slave castles built but it was still very large and magnificent. Especially to think it was built hundreds of years ago.  Our tour guide was one of the best tour guides I have ever had. He was very compassionate about what he was telling us, and still had a great sense of humor. It was very interesting to learn about the slave castles. The slave dungeons were built right under the church, which seems ironic to me. The British were in heaven praising the Lord, who speaks about treating others as you would like to be treated, while the slaves were in hell below.

After the slave castle we went back to our hotel, which was called a botel because part of it was over water. In the water were crocodiles! We walked on a trail that went around the water. You should have seen the ant hills! They are tons of gigantic ant hills in Ghana. I have seen a few that are at least 4 ft tall!

On Sunday we went to Kakum National Park and experienced the canopy walk! It was amazing… Our tour guide walked through the forest with us and told us about some of the trees. One type of tree, I wish I remembered the name, was used to build huts. The hut would be built around this tree because it had a trunk that's shape would help form rooms. This same tree was used during war to hide behind because the shape of the trunk almost wraps around you. He also told us that there were no mosquitoes in this particular forest because of a certain kind of tree. There was also another type of tree that he pointed out to us that Elephants use to scratch their back on. It was all so interesting! But then again, I’m kind of a nerd. The canopy walk was my favorite part of the entire weekend. There are seven walkways that extend between trees. It was a little nerve racking at first, and I was very scared. The farther I went the less nervous I became and was able to really enjoy the view. The view—BEAUTIFUL! You could see for miles and across the top of the trees… My camera died right before we got to Kakum National Park so sadly I don’t have any pictures, yet. I do plan on going back and also all of the friends I have met through ISEP took pictures for me.