Cape Coast/ El mina

There is a lot to say but it is going to be hard to explain it so that you understand what I am saying. Ill try.

Information you may need to understand: 

Tro tro- there are two kinds of tro tro’s they are 9-12 person vans that either have air conditioning and are in good condition and cost around 10cedis or they are not air conditions and they pack people in like sardines and charge you anywhere from 40 pueswas (cents) to 6 dollars. They also pack the van full of peoples’ belongings in all open areas and then bungy the doors closed to just barely hold everything in… Oh! And you are sitting leg to leg with the person next to you for the duration of your trip= 3 hours one one, then 3 hours on another (bathroom break you say?... a bush if you have the guts to let a van full of black Africans watch the only white girl within 100km pee in a bush) Our hotel was called Ko-Sa it was located in El mina which is thirty minutes out of Cape Coast but right on the beach..  Slave castle is on the ocean in El Mina.

Journey there:

We decided to take a Tro Tro for our trip it saved us nearly 200 Cedis each so it was the only possible option if we wanted to go to Cape Coast at all. We left the hotel and arrived the tro tro station at 830am we were bombarded by men telling us to “come in their van” (creepy) and giving us all sorts of different prices we got help from our dear friend and taxi driver Godwin and landed ourselves the first seat on a 10 cedi, air conditioned van with a nice driver who was going to help us locate our connecting tro tro in once we were in Accra. The ride was ok but long and cramped with 12 other people, oh and we didn’t leave the station until around 10 so we were waiting in the van for two hours before we even departed. When we got to Acraa we were ushered out of the tro tro and into a cab by our friendly tro tro driver and on our way to the next tro tro that would take us to our hotel… We got ripped off 30 cedi for a 15 cedi ride… sucks to be white! Our second tro tro was just as long and just as tightly packed getting to our hotel was like seeing Elis Island, a relief! 10 hours it took us ten hours!!! It should have been 6!

The hotel:

The hotel was amazing, so cute and literally right on the beach, our bungalow was rustic but enclosed and we each had our own bed and mosquito nets (enclosed didn’t mean ENCLOSED!) We were joined with many small lizards and weird red bugs but our nets kept them out while we were sleeping. WE had dinner which was also amazing and I had a drink called Bisop- African hibiscus drink= SO DELOCOUS! Breakfast was just as good and so was dessert! Yes dessert... fried banana, ice cream and chocolate sauce mmm. We went to the slave castles right after breakfast and then returned to lay on the beach and burn to a crisp… I didn’t burn but I turned a maroon brown and have some intense lines to even out. I also bought myself two really nice necklaces from a sweet old man who was selling his hand made glass beaded necklaces on the beach.

Slave Castle:

We got out of the taxi and was greeting by weird people wanting us to buy their items… One man actually said “Hello pretty white ladies are you lost? I can keep you company!” Was he serious? Like I want company from a man who looks as though he has never been introduced to soap, and is selling dried fish next to a drain infested with malaria… “No thanks”. As for the castle, I don’t have too much I can say about it. It was devastating. It is one thing to learn about the history of it all and to know what you’re about to see but to be in the very spot where women were raped and men were starved and beat to death was a whole other thing in itself. We saw the ‘door of no return’, the chambers where the men and women stayed and much more. It was horrible to see what a beautiful place El Mina was and to think that these people were being treated so horribly. I will have to show you picture… its hard to explain but I am sure you can imagine the creepy feeling you get seeing the last place so many families saw their loved ones alive for the last time.

Our Journey Home:

It was a short amount of time but we were able to relax and ready to get back to the kidos and start the week. The first tro tro was from Cape Coast to Accra where we would have to connect somehow to another tro tro to take us to Hohoe. Our first tro tro was a fancy very nice and very spacious bus and only 7 cedis!!!! It was a long ride but left fairly quickly and our driver said he would help us get a connection so far so good… I speak to quickly. We got to Accra and before we even knew were getting off we were pushed out of the tro tro and onto the street of Accra our driver grabbed us and before I could even put my backpack on forced two men out of a nearby van and pushed us in… I was squeezed in the front seat of a 12 person van next to a 300 pound (no exaggeration) man in a Muslim dress and Rachel in the way back… 23 PEOPLE AWAY, YES 23 people in a 12 person van!!!! It cost us 30 pesuwas to get to our tro tro station… we were packed and I was laughing out the window at the man I was sharing a seat with but we made it to the station and for cheap… Rachel and I just looked at each other- no words. The station in Accra was really just a very dirty and very large parking lot with tons of beat up old un marked vans bringing people to different destinations… and all of them want you in their van and they grab your arms and hiss at your and make kissy faces its insane! We finally found our station to Hohoe and bought our ticket and were on our way home! Yay!!! An air conditioned van with the legal amount of people in it and my neighbor was a young Muslim man with soft skin who smelled of baby powder and violets; I was happy. The ride took entirely too long and the trip turned out to be 4 hours to Hohoe, and around 9 hours total from Cape Coast. We were home during daylight though and able to relax a bit before dinner.

The trip:

It was relaxing, a great change of scenery but also exciting and eventful as is everything in Ghana apparently. On to the week ahead! Our time is winding down; less than two weeks and tons of loose ends to tie up… I’ll keep you updated!

<3 Good things    

 This is the beach where our hotel was located and the bungalo we stayed in!