I woke up at 0630. I was still pretty mad with them and let my alarm ring for longer than usual to express my annoyance. I showered and got dressed and headed up to breakfast. I met up with Victor and ate some food quickly. Then we headed to the gangway to get off the ship. I was doing a trip today through Semester At Sea and Victor was trying to see if he could get on the trip, assuming someone wouldn’t show up.
He got lucky and a few people didn’t show up. Figures, it was an early trip, people were bound to sleep through it or skip it completely. The bus filled up and we began the three hour bus ride to the Agumatsa Forest Reserve. We stopped after an hour at a little hotel along the Volta Lake. The Volta Lake is to the east in Ghana and is huge, and it’s man-made. That’s so crazy. The hotel was little and this was our break for bathrooms and drinks. The bathrooms were pretty nasty and didn’t have any lights, so you were in complete darkness in them. The location of the hotel right along the lake was really nice. There were so many trees and greenery around.
After a half hour we continued and crossed the lake by the only suspension bridge in Ghana. There had been another one, but it collapsed. That made me feel safe driving over it. I fell asleep soon after this. Our guide had talked the entire first hour so I hadn’t been able to sleep. That was all anyone wanted to do, but he made it impossible with the speakers blaring out his voice and ringing as though he were God.
I ate some cereal and passed out. I didn’t wake up until we were almost there. We were off-roading in the bus. It was crazy, because I didn’t know that buses could off-road. I guess if they could bare the paves roads of Ghana they could do just about anything. Literally on the paved roads there were speed bumps every mile. There would be three of them in a row. So we’d all be flying around the bus. I don’t know how I was able to sleep through some of them. But I did manage to get about an hour of sleep in. I was passed out as we drove through villages.
When I woke up I saw little children outside the windows waving excitedly up at us. We passed by a few schools where kids were playing outside. They ran over immediately to the street to wave to us. It was so cute.
Eventually we pulled up to our destination. There were a few little shack-like buildings selling goods and artwork. We were told to grab a bag of food from the coolers and a bottle of water and then we’d be starting our hike. Saahil was also on our trip and a few other friends.
We started the hour-long hike through the tropical rainforest. It was even prettier and cooler than the hiking the day before. It was awesome. There was a river that we crossed over a bunch of times. I think it was a total of 11 times. Then we came upon the Wli Waterfall. We had been able to see the top of in the mountains as we drove up to the Agumatsa Forest Reserve. It’s the tallest waterfall in Ghana and in western Africa.
It was so pretty. I couldn’t get over how beautiful it was to see in person. I took a bunch of pictures, but none can truly do it justice. We were starving, so the three of us sat down and ate our chicken wraps and then got ready to jump in. We were allowed to swim here if we wanted to. In Pre-Port they warned us not to swim in the water. And for a minute I really did consider not going in. I did also have a big open gash on my foot. Hmmm. I still wanted to go in though. Worth the risk? Then I thought, when in Ghana! And we jumped in. Well, more cautiously and slowly walked down to the waters edge. There were so many rocks around. The water was a murky brownish color and we quickly lost sight of our feet as we walked in.
It was a little cold, but it didn’t get very deep. It was at most waist deep on me. There were huge rocks in the water that we kept running into since we couldn’t see them. We approached the waterfall and went under it. The guides told us not to do it. But we all did anyways. The water was coming down so hard and so fast. It actually hurt to get hit by it. It was so crazy. We all played and took tons of pictures with Victor’s underwater camera. We were surrounded by these mountains and rock ledges. The waterfall went up so high. Up top there were hundreds of bats hanging off of the rocks. It was creepy to see them.
One of the guys discovered a ledge to climb up on and was jumping off into the water. It looked to be a little deeper over there, but not incredibly deep. A few other people joined him and they started flipping off of it. One of the guides saw this and started screaming at them. After an hour or so we all got out and started our hike back to the buses.
Again, it was ridiculously hot and humid and the water had been a welcomed treat. As we walked back we started sweating again. It was disgusting. It took about an hour to get back. Everyone went at their own pace and was spaced out, so it was really peaceful.
When we got back people shopped around a little with the vendors and we got back on the buses to head to a village. I fell asleep again. I don’t know how or why I was so tired. In an hour we had arrived at a village. This was the Tafi Atome village. This is where the mona monkeys were found. We’d get to see them here. They’re sacred monkeys and are wild. They live in the forest around the village.
Our tour guide led us through the village to the forest. After a few minutes we walked along the winding path. Our guide made a whistling call and a few monkeys appeared. They were about a foot or two tall and were climbing throughout the trees. They were brown and white and black. They were so cute. Our guide handed out pieces of banana to all of us. He held one out to one of the monkeys. The monkey unpeeled the banana and ate it with his little hands. It was so cute! I wanted to take one home with me.
We all did the same thing. But there were a lot of us and not quite as many monkeys. They are endangered, you know. Our guide told us that we could also throw the bananas up to the monkeys and they’d catch them. I thought he was kidding, but we did this and they did catch them and eat them. We even got to see the biggest monkey there, they named him Commando. As we were standing around feeding all of these monkeys it started to downpour. We got absolutely soaked. Once we had finished he led us through the rest of the path back to the village and we stood up on one of the porches. He told us that it would pass in a few minutes and took this time to tell us about the monkeys and the village.
The monkeys are loved by the villagers here and they often wander through the village. The people will feed them and welcome this. The village was fairly big. All of the dirt on the ground had now turned to mud and we were slipping and sliding around. The houses were little shacks and small children peeked out from behind the walls to smile shyly at us. Our guide thanked us for supporting their village and visiting. He told us that the people of the village love seeing us. I don’t know how true that was, but the children definitely enjoyed it. There were all sorts of farm animals around. All throughout Ghana I’ve seen these little goats. They’re so little and so cute. There were also all sorts of chickens running around.
The rain did let up within 10 minutes and we could walk back over to the buses. A bunch of older children were outside posing for us to take their pictures while the adults looked on laughing. We headed back over the information center and gathered around the bus. They had a little shop area, but it didn’t have much in it.
We ran into some other SASers with a loaf of bread. They fed us and joked about having to feed the “poor SAS children in Ghana.” Sad, but true. We heard the pounding of drums from behind one of the buildings and a few of us went over to investiage. They were having a drum circle and dancing. We watched and listened for a little bit as the children danced around and adults sat there drumming. It was so awesome.
Then we had to head back to the ship. Another three and a half hour drive back. They fed us juice boxes and banana chips this time. So delicious. Then I passed out again for most of the ride back. I woke up about a half hour from the ship and watched as we passed through the different areas of Accra and Tema.
When we arrived back at the ship I ran into a few people heading out to Accra for the night, then they were coming back to Tema to party a little more before getting back on the ship. They said they weren’t going to be out too late, so we should meet up with them. It was only 1930 at this point; we had thought we’d be back at 2100. So we were considering going out. We ran into Bea as we got back on the ship. I went to Becca’s room to find her chilling. We all showered and got dressed and met up on the 7th deck for sandwiches again at 2000. We were going to discuss going out. Originally I had planned on going out and was all dressed up in a pretty dress and makeup.
After eating a chicken sandwich and really thinking about it, I realized there was no way I wanted to go out. I was so tired and I had to get up early the next day. Becca was giving me her Habitat for Humanity trip. She told me that everyone should do a service trip in one of the countries. She had already done a few in Vietnam and India and South Africa, too, I think. So she wanted me to do it. I had tried to sign up for it, but it was full.
Victor, Saahil, and Art decided that they’d all go out together and go to the casino for a guy’s night. They gave me a hard time about not wanting to go out and I did feel slightly pathetic about my lack of wanting to party. But all the girls were staying on the ship and watching a movie. That sounded way more appealing at the time.
They went off and we all changed into sweats and watched Sweeney Todd in Bea’s room. I didn’t even make I half way through the movie before I started falling asleep and went back to my room to sleep.
I was stoked to be in bed by 2100 again. Exhausted. My trip was leaving at 0800. And again I was woken up by my thoughtful roommate and boyfriend. Joy. So pissed.
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