Kumasi

My program, ISEP, took us to Kumasi, located in the Asante region for a weekend trip. It is about four hours away from Accra and part of the road is under construction and is extremely bumpy, so bumpy that I hit my head several times on the roof of the van! We first visited a palace/museum where the Asante king lived for many years up until the late 1980's. There were lots of peacocks in the yard and in the trees- I had never seen one fly before, but they flew over 30 feet off the ground. Next we went to a cultural craft center, where, basically, they sell all of the regular goods at more expensive prices. We also went to Lake Bosomtwe, which was beautiful! There were these boats that were essentially planks of wood that float and you straddle. I wanted to try steering one, but they said no :( haha. We also went to a Kente cloth weaving factory and a place where we saw how to make the Adinkra ink that is stamped on the Kente cloth. Both were a lot of fun and neat to see. I bought two big pieces and several smaller ones.

Boti Falls

Took a day trip to Boti Falls, which all in all, is about three hours away from Accra. Ride there wasn't too bad, fairly straightforward to get there. The actual Boti Falls are very close to the entrance of the park, so we went there first. They were really beautiful, and you can feel the midst on your face. The best part was being able to go behind the waterfall, came out soaking wet, but it was beautiful. Walked a long ways through the "woods" (not really sure what to call it) and then saw a palm tree that had three trunks emerging from one, kinda neat as the tree is special because it is around 90 years old and the three trunks is rare. After, we walked to another waterfall that was pretty as well, but not as big. Saw a scary millipede, but was too nervous to get a picture. Our guide pointed out a snakeskin, and I took it when he wasn't looking, not sure if he would have minded. Now I have a snakeskin, to do what with, I don't know...

Shai Hills

Visited Shai Hills, a national park about three hours away from campus the weekend after the Cape Coast trip. You must hire a guide to walk with you throughout the park, but it is impossible to know where you are going without doing so. First I saw the olive baboons- they are very used to humans and you can get relatively close to them; they also hang out about 200 meters away from the park entrance. Next, we took a trotro to another entrance and began walking towards the sacred bat cave. It is a BEAUTIFUL walk across the savannah and takes around 45 minutes. The bat cave itself is very narrow and smelly, but there are thousands of bats that live there! Many years ago, a tribal chief lived there during war times- the entrance to the cave has boulders strategically placed so they can be rolled down the hill at intruders. The walk back was my favorite part- saw antelope running across the savannah! They are so graceful. I definitely had the thought, "Wow, I really am in Africa..."

Cape Coast

At Cape Coast, we visited an old slave trading castle. The castle was not build exclusively for slave trade and has been used for many different types of trading over the years as well as for various business functions. But, of course, the reason it is so significant today is because of the slave trading. It was kind of chilling to be there and to imagine all that had gone on and all the families that have been destroyed within these walls. There is a "Door of No Return" which is the last place the slaves passed through before being boarded onto the ships and obviously, never returning to Africa. We visited the dungeons, where the slaves were kept until they were shipped out. They are extremely dark and small, so many people were crammed into these tiny spaces. There is a dip along one of the walls in the dungeons that was for using the bathroom... it was so brutal I can't imagine living through something like that, and many of them didn't live through it.

Kakum National Park

The exchange program I am with, ISEP, took us on a trip to Kakum National Park and Cape Coast. Kakum was great. Basically it is a national park that has a canopy walk around 80 meters high! It is pretty neat, the bridges are very narrow, probably 12-16 inches wide and have netting on the sides; it is definitely a shaky walk! We didn't see any animals, the group was pretty loud, and in reality, we were probably above where most of the animals live. A beautiful rainforest.

Onwards to Ghana

The trip to Ghana went well. I was late leaving out of Cairo, the plane stopped in Sudan, and I had a very quick transition in Ethiopia to my flight to Accra. So, of course, my bags did not come! The ISEP people also had the date of my arrival wrong, so they forgot to get me at the airport. It was no big deal, I just took a taxi to the university and found my way to the ISEP office, where orientation was going on. Orientation was a week long, and I did not take any pictures :( But, here are some from around campus and my room. The minibus is called a tro-tro, and is the main form of transportation in Ghana. Rides on tro-tros can be very interesting, you can even see the street through the floorboards of some of them!

Last few days in Cairo

I spent my last few days in Cairo mainly resting up from three weeks of going non-stop. I went to the zoo which was lots of fun. You can feed the animals and hold the baby ones, I held a baby lion. It was a lot of fun, especially feeding the elephant! Didn't do too much else, mainly hung out and went to the pool. It was nice just to relax after having been on the go for a while.

Back to Egypt

After leaving Petra, we took a taxi to Aqaba and then crossed into Eilat, where we swam at the beach for a bit. I said farewell to my French friends and crossed back into Egypt to the border town of Taba. I had about 2 hours to wait for my bus to come and it was around 45 degrees, so it was hot. The man at the bus station managed to convince me to take the minibus, which was leaving immediately, back to Cairo instead, a 7 hour ride. The minibus had wood paneling that came down from the seats, so my legs were at less than a 90 degree angle for the entire ride. Made it back safely, thats what counts. Traveling in style....

Blog Not Working

Just a heads up to everyone who is following along. I am sorry that there hasn't been updates to the blog, but the internet here hasn't been letting me upload photos... the photo of Petra is the first one that has worked in over a week. I'll figure it out, so don't loose patience :)