Wednesday the 28th of December we got up early, the Europeans went for a walk while I went for a swim. We had breakfast of bread and tea, packed and were on our way. Mattias was returning to Cape Coast while Lotta and I were going to Awkidaa to the Green Turtle Eco-lodge. Also the American/Chinese girl was due to meet us but due to lack of reception it was to communicate. Anyways, so we took a tro tro to the eco-lodge and should have already known that this wasn't our kind of place. The tro tro was full of tourists. We arrived at the lodge and tried to get a room only to discover that they were full but they had some tents available for 5 cedis a night. We went to have a look at the tents but they weren't well sealed and I had no interest in sleeping without mosquito netting. Furthermore it was a pretty largish resort with lots of white people playing volley ball. Not really my kind of scene. I prefer Ghanaians any day. So we politely declined the tent and went walking to see if there was another place we could stay nearby. We found the safari lodge which was a lot smaller than the green turtle. It was also a lot fancier. They said they could give us a nice big room with our own bathroom for 40 cedis a night (that's expensive in Ghana). But split that between a couple of girls and it's not such a big deal. But the room wasn't made up. So I sent a txt to the Chinese girl letting her know where we are and we went off for a walk to the village for some food while the room was being set up. We went to town and got cous cous with vegetables for dinner (that you eat with your hands) and then donuts for dessert.
When we returned the Chinese girl and a black girl were waiting for us. It turns out that the black girl was a Nigerian exchange intern called Nessiyah. It also turns out that the Chinese girl is called Yuzhong and is super Chinese. She's only been in America for 4 months and had until then never left china. So her English wasn't great. Basically - awkwardness totally ensued. We continued waiting for the room to be made up (b/c you know - 3 hours just isn't enough time). Nessiyah and Yuzhong got dinner (super expensive at 12 cedis a meal). Afterwards we went on a walk along the beach to try and spot turtles but we had no luck.
Thursday we got up early and started on a hike to cape 3 points at 7am. Very early on it was pretty tense. Nessiya and Yuzhong didn't walk very quickly while Lotta and I did. Also Lotta wanted to move quickly because she was planning on going back home to Cape Coast that afternoon. Eventually Nessiyah decided that she didn't want to continue on the walk and went home. This was about 1 hour in. But it was good since the total hike took us 7 hours (including breaks). I think it nearly killed Yuzhong. But it was a beautiful hike along the coast and then through the jungle. Eventually we arrived at the light house at Cape Three Points. The caretaker took us up, showed us the view and tod us the history of the place. There was reception there so I sent some smses back to Australia (hi parents! I'm not dead!). And we turned around and walked back home again. On the way we met up with an older French couple (in their 60s) who were also hiking and who helped up find the short cut through the jungle again, it was pretty tricky to navigate. I hope that I'm still travelling when I'm that age.
We returned home and Lotta packed and went off to Cape Coast. I was sad to say goodbye to her since I got on so well with her. She was super down to earth, practical and a bit of a cheapskate like myself. Also it meant I was left alone with the mildly hostile Nigerian girl and the non-English speaking Chinese girl. Anyways, I napped post hike (totally needed it) then awoke and grabbed myself dinner of hot fried yam chips since all the other food (non-meat) in the village had already been sold by the time I got there around 5pm. On my walk back along the beach there was a couple having a quarrel. Which isn't really anything to note except that the couple was a very young Ghanaian girl, say 18 years old, and a white guy in hi 60s. I felt pretty nauseous about the whole thing. But I don't know the whole story. But still... Anyways I returned to the safari lodge, read for a little and then went to sleep in a giant queen size bed all to myself. Delicious.
Friday the 30th we got up early, had breakfast of toast and COFFEE! FRENCH STYLE COFFEE! Totally made my week. We paid the bill and then we started to organise how to get out of Awkidaa. You see to take a taxi to the region capital and bus station in Agona was 35 cedis (like 20 dollars) where as a tro tro from the village to agona was 50 peswas (like 35 cents). The trouble was the village was a 20 minute walk away from the lodge and the girls had a lot of luggage where as I only had a small backpack (totally the queen of packing light). So we decided that I would walk to the village and the girls would wait by the side of the road near the lodge and wait for the tro tro to come past. Meanwhile I would save 3 spots on the tro tro. As I arrived a tro tro was leaving and it had one spot but I passed on it since i needed another 2 spots for the other girls. I sat down and waited for another tro to tro arrive. It did. So I was waiting and waiting in the village for the tro tro to fill up. Since they only leave once they are full. But it just wasn't really happening. I was getting a bit stressed since it was a Friday and travelling in Ghana can take a long time. Luckily there was a taxi there so I started negotiating with him to take us to agona only to discover that he was already taking an Australian to busua another fishing village nearby. But being a generous Australian he wa willing to share the taxi with me. Just as I decided to take the taxi the tro tro filled and started to go. Only the starter motor wasn't great so all the men had to push the minivan to get it rolling before it would start. It took a couple of tries but eventually the very old and rusty minivan was running. We drove past the safari lodge but the girls weren't waiting by the road. It was a bit perturbed by this, particularly since I'd passed up on that first tro tro to wait for them. But I had no way of calling them sine there was no reception so I had to just let it be.
Anyways - it's now late Saturday night and I have to get up early tomorrow morning to go to church (Mormon this time!). So this story will be continued. But I will leave you on this cliff hanger... What happened to the other girls? Did the minivan run ok? Did I arrive at my destination before Shabbat? All this and more in the next instalment of jewgirl in Africa.
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