Day 29 (09-24-10)

Another day, another SAS trip… how unlike me. We boarded the buses and left for Kakum National Park around 8am. The main attraction at Kakum National Park? The canopy walkway. 130 feet above the rainforest floor, a series of platforms has been constructed across the treetops. A 6-inch wide plank resting on some rickety ropes with makeshift rope handrails were the only things separating our group from the flora and fauna below. Unfortunately, the wild animals of the rainforest typically steer clear of this heavily visited tourist attraction, and can usually only be spotted at night. But the hike was great and it was a unique way to view the rainforest. Apparently it’s the only walkway of its kind in Africa, and one of the only ones in the world. Awesome.

Afterward, some local villagers performed traditional dances and greeted us with some drumming. I grabbed a coconut for a snack and watched the performance with the group. It was interesting to see the Ghanaian culture coming through in the dances and songs.

We ate lunch at the Rainforest Lodge just outside the park, and it was a blend of local and Western foods. Some sort of fish soup that was actually quite vile was paired with some delicious lasagna. Plus, you can’t go wrong with chicken, rice, and homemade ice cream.

My bus buddy for the trip was a lifelong learner named Kim that’s on the voyage with her 3 kids. Through a set of rather fortunate circumstances, a benefactor is paying for her and the family to go around the world for a few months. We ate lunch together and talked during most of the day’s bus rides. It’s always neat to meet the families that are on the ship. Everyone’s so friendly; it’s like you’re being adopted into a family away from your own. And they’re from Boulder, so I have another place to visit whenever I go back to Colorado.

On the way back to Takoradi we stopped in Elmina for a walking tour of the coastal fishing village. Unfortunately, we had spent more time in Kakum and at lunch than we had originally anticipated, so the tour was rather truncated. We glimpsed the Elmina Castle and wandered through the fishing village while learning some history about the area. Since today is a Friday, no one was doing any fishing, but the canoes were all lining the lagoon and fishermen were doing work to prepare for their next outings.

After we got back to the ship and had eaten dinner, a viewing of Toy Story was deemed necessary (by me) before we went out around 9:30. The duty-free store in Takoradi’s port was about 40 feet away from the MV Explorer, and it became a place for SAS students to go and hang out if they didn’t want to leave the port area. It was a small store in the middle of a big empty warehouse, so we ended up buying some snacks and drinks and loitering in a warehouse for a few hours. It sounds rather sketchy… and that’s because it probably is. A couple hundred students basically took over a liquor store and then drank outside of it. But I imagine the SAS students gave that store more business over the past few nights than they’ve seen in the entire month before we got there. It was fun to kick back and unwind with friends after a few draining days in a new place. We headed back across the street and onto the ship around 1am after the store had closed and most of the students had left to go out to the few bars in town. My roommate was still awake when I got back, and a group of us were hanging out in my cabin for another couple hours. We usually run in different crowds, so it was nice to sit down and get to know a new group of people. 3am? Oy. Late night. Sleep time. Exploring Takoradi tomorrow!