Ann's Visit to Ghana: Cape Coast

This was the last leg of my journey in Ghana. On Good Friday, April 2, I awoke at about 5am to the sound of drums from the nearby churches. We had coffee and packed up to go to Cape Coast. Patience helped carry our bags down the hill to the taxi station where we caught a taxi to Osien. We then caught a Tro to Koforidua and transferred to a Tro to Asamankase. Beyond that point, we weren't sure where we needed to go next, but the driver told a young man to take our bags to another station because we wanted to go to Cape Coast. I went and bought tickets to Agon Swegwu. We weren't absolutely sure we were on the right Tro, but my compass indicated that we were headed in the right general direction. Unfortunately, DeeDub discovered that she no longer had her cell phone. There had been some jostling around with people getting on and off the Tro, so she may have dropped it, or someone might have stolen it. At Agon Swegwu we got on a more traditional bus that we knew was headed for Cape Coast. From there we were obviously in a more developed, more tourist oriented area than I had been in up until then.

In all, it took us 6 hours to get to Cape Coast from Adjeikrom. When we arrived, we took a taxi to "The Mighty Victory Hotel." This hotel was very nice, with a small refrigerator in the room, air conditioning, ceiling fan, warm water, a large lobby and dining area. After a short nap, we made an appointment for dinner (lobster) and walked to a store nearby that sold wine. The dinner was quite tasty.

The next morning, we had breakfast and started out walking to find a cell phone store. We were too early and stores weren't open yet, but we soon found ourselves near the ocean, walking by what are called fish ovens. Dried fish are a big staple in Ghana and you see women with large bowls full of them on their head. As we went along, we spotted some brightly colored canoes in the ocean. We cut between some buildings to walk down on the beach. We walked by a couple of young men who seemed to be searing and scraping the hide off of what looked like a small pig (I didn't really want to look to closely). Once we got to the beach, we could see many, many people in fishing canoes. The oarsmen would paddle the canoes, catching waves, until they could get close enough that people could get out and pull the canoe up on the beach. I've posted a video on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ6l4GnEj00. There you can get a better sense of the sounds and activity that surrounded us.

We soon realized that most of the fleet was located at the foot of Cape Coast Castle; a place that had been recommended to me by Kathy Moroney at Distinctive Destinations in Sacramento, California. http://www.distinctive-destinations.com. By the way, Kathy was enormously helpful to me in preparing for this trip.

Cape Coast Castle was one of the largest slave-holding sites in the world during the colonial era. It is a fascinating place to visit, but you can also see a lot of videos on YouTube that people have posted. 

So, even though it was already incredibly hot and humid, we decided to take the tour. This a model that

shows the layout. 

There are three dungeons where people were held in the most horrible conditions. They were dark, dank and totally stifling. The guide turned off the lights so we could get a sense of what it must have been like. I couldn't get a picture that really captured how awful it was.

Slaves were herded through "The Door of No Return" down to the beach where they were loaded onto canoes, probably not a lot different from the fishing canoes. Then they were taken to ships anchored off shore in which they would be taken to the Americas and resold. This was an amazing experience and profoundly moving. 

After taking a nap, we went to dinner at the Oasis Beach Hotel, which was the most tourist-like place I'd been to in Ghana. It reminded me of Jamaica. The next morning we took a taxi to Kakum, a national park where you walk on suspended bridges in the jungle canopy. The tours were a bit rushed and I understand you can arrange for early tours that would likely be more interesting: more time to look around and perhaps see birds and monkeys that were certainly not visible when we were among a large group of tourists. 

 

I started this draft in May and am just finishing it on June 29. I should not have waited so long; it's all that much more distant. However, I still think and dream about my trip and am so glad that I went. It was a huge adventure and one that DeeDub lives every day!