Ghana

Feb 6-10

After nine days at sea we finally make it to Takoradi, Ghana. We had a nice welcoming again. They were drumming and dancing and singing. It took a while for them to clear the ship because of immigration but it finally happened. Today I did the Twin City Tour of Sekondi and Takoradi.  The first stop was the fishing village. They showed us where they built their boats and how they built them. Then they showed us how they smoke the fish in the mud ovens that they use.  The kids in the town were so cute. They were so funny. They loved to pose for pictures and then come to the camera to see them. The last stop was the Takoradi Market.

The second day I did a habitat for humanity service trip to help build a house. When we got there, there were 4 small houses that were partially built.  They were built out of cement blocks. So pretty much what we did was make cement and clear an area where all the cement blocks were and put them in a pile.  The cement blocks were pretty heavy. The guys were able to help a little more than the girls because they need help lifting the cement blocks over your head to the people on top of the house. 

I went to the canopy forest at Kakum National Park and saw Elmina Castle. The canopy forest was really cool. We walked a little through the jungle. You could  hear the birds in the trees and see some butterflies but you didn't see any wild life because they are hunted for Bush Meat so they hide when they hear people. We walked on a roped walk way that was connected to trees throughout the jungle about 200 feet high. On our walk back a baby Green Mamba snake fell on some guys head. After the canopy walk we did a tour of one of the slave dungeons, Elmina Castle. It was really cool, they had a draw bridge at the entrance. It had two moats around it which was filled with the ocean water 500 years ago when it was used. Inside we learned about all the different rooms, saw where they kept the male slaves and women slaves in separate rooms. We saw the door of no return. 

The last day I went to Nzulezo Village, which was a water village built on stilts. It rained the entire time we were canoeing to the village. Our guides, Ebonese and Justice,  kept calling our canoe a "BMW boat" because of how fast we were going.  After the village we went to Fort Appolonia, which was a smaller slave dungeon.

Canopy Walk