Ghana: Cape Coast

What I was really in the mood for in Ghana was just to get to the beach and relax. I was tired, I wanted to process Liberia, and I wanted to get on my yoga mat. Jacob and I stayed in Accra a few days waiting for Brian to arrive instead of going north because of said exhaustion.

On our way down to the beach we stopped by Cape Coast Castle, the largest of the castles on this Western coast of Africa where the majority of slaves left African soil for the New World. As with the fort in Dakar, we stood in the dark rooms and did our best to imagine the horrors that had occurred between the walls. But of course, no imagination could have recreated it.

President Obama had visited the same castle exactly one month before us on his trip to Ghana, also the first stop in Africa of his presidency. In addition to a shiny new plaque commemorating the visit, we found a pile of gifts collecting dust in the corner of the dungeon, which provided one of my favorite shots of the day.


On the other side of the door of no return, we found fishing nets. To my delight, I found a fisherman asleep on his net and got this shot.


We continued on to the town of Elmina, a bursting at the seams fishing port. We stayed at the resort heralded in the two days prior New York Times article on Ghana, which was a nice spot but pretty secluded. Unfortunately, it was cold and overcast the two days we spent there. So much for beach time. It was so cold I was uncomfortable outside even in my sweatshirt and rain jacket.


One morning we went to the rainforest and went on a canopy walk, a system of rope bridges above the tree tops. Kinda cool, but there was no wildlife to be seen.



I arrived back in Accra rested, and ready to go home.

Counting the hours. 18.5 to go.