Kakum National Park - Ghana

Kakum National Park was quite an experience! It seems like the past few days have all been "an experience" and I love it! I feel like I'm becoming used to being stared at everywhere I go.

 

This morning we set off for the post office, bank, and Kakum National Park. When we got to the end of the port area, we got off the shuttle that SAS has been running from the ship to the end of the port (it's a long walk!), and asked where the post office was. We had a general idea and knew it was in walking distance. We asked a cab driver (bad idea!) and he obviously said it was too far to walk and pointed us in the right direction. We've been pretty bossy with the annoying salesmen so Brittany said "You're lying, we were told we could walk" and then we headed off.

 

When we found the post office, it felt like we were in a western movie. There were wooden bars between us and the attendant. All we wanted was to buy some stamps but she said that if we wanted to send a letter, it HAS to be weighed! She wanted to see the letters and we were like..."they aren't written yet!" and then she started asking us how many pages the letter was. We were so confused and frustrated. We finally got out of there with some post cards and stamps. Then we hunted down an ATM but either the ATM was closed, wouldn't accept our card or pin number, or only took VISA. Finally someone's card work and we've been trading around money all day.

 

We then took a cab from there to Cape Coast Station where you can catch "trotros" to this other station and then to the park. The park is two hours away! So when we hopped out of the cab, this guy stormed us and told us we needed to buy a ticket and get in his "trotro" Sowe plopped down 3 cedi and got in the trotro. 3 cedi for a two hour trip is an amazing deal! A trotro is basically a passenger van that is usually in pretty bad shape. It's super cheap and they pack people inside and it's really hot with no A/C. So Hannah and Brittany and I were in this van with 9 Ghana locals squished and hot. It was about an hour and a half to the enxt station where we were pushed out of the trotro and pushed into the trotro to the park. We had no idea where we were but we were just hoping we were being led to the right place. After another 30 minutes we were dropped at the entrance of the park.

 

We got right on a trip where we hiked up this hill to the rope bridges. There were some other SAS kids there too! So when you reach the bridges you find out that you get to cross seven of them and they are 40 meters from the ground. The bridges swing and are so much fun to walk across. I got lots of pictures! It was very funny because there were some American tourists there and the women in the group were all super scared of heights so they took the short cut where you only cross three bridges. The view was breathtaking and it was so much fun to be above the tops of the trees. After the seventh bridge I couldnt believe it was over! I wanted more!!!

 

We hiked back down the hill where we were going to eat lunch and then realized we didnt have much money. We could have taken a trotro but we didnt know what time we would be back or when the next one would come. So we ended up taking a cab back to Takoradi for 2 hours. He wanted 80 cedis but we literally only had 57 between us and he kept on saying he wanted 60. We were like "But we SERIOUSLY only have 57!!!"

 

It was a long ride to the ship but very roomy and relaxing compared to the trotro. I am exhausted! I have a castles and slave dungeons trip tomorrow where we go see the old castles where they kept the slaves.

 

Only one more night in Ghana and then we head to South Africa. Ghana has been a learning experience, that's for sure!