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Published: March 5th 2009
This weekend I finally made it to the infamous Green Turtle Lodge. I had heard so many great things about it that I couldn’t wait to go and it was the first weekend they could fit us in. Bethany, Melissa, and Max headed up there the day before but I had class so I went on Saturday with John.
This weekend just further proved the theory of “the best laid plans of mice and men…” We left the hostel at 6 am bright and early. I was dirty and needed to shower, but the hostel was out of water. No water=no shower=no brushed teeth… yum. We went to the trotro station and then we had to find the bus station to take us to Takoradi. We started asking around for the bus station and a guy walked us to a trotro…? We asked the driver and it turned out that they went to Takoradi as well so we figured why not? Well….an hour later we are still sitting at the station waiting for the trotro to fill up before we can leave. Luckily, we already paid so there’s no way we can jump off and try to find the bus.
dancing
the girl tried to teach me a few steps... we all know how this went! she even asked me if I was tired. um no, i just cant dance...Yay… We finally got on the road. When we got to Takoradi we had a little bit of an adventure trying to find the trotros that took us to Green Turtle Lodge and had many taxi drivers try to tell us that there weren’t trotros and that we had to pay them to take us there. Are you kidding dude? I wasn’t born yesterday… Once we told them that there were trotros and we knew exactly which one to take they left us alone. We found the right one but once again had to wait for FOREVER to get on the road. By this point I was getting really grumpy and was trying really hard to keep quiet. Ive learned that when I get in these moods its best to shut up because there isn’t a single positive thing that will come out of my mouth. I was hungry, hot, dirty, and had dirty teeth and all I wanted to do was go to the beach. An hour and a half later we left. The ironic part was that we were waiting for forever for it to fill up, but then we had too many people! Two of the guys
got out and were riding on the top of the trotro!! I still wasn’t in a great mood so we played the “Lets name 3 positive things about this situation” game. I was having a really hard time with coming up with anything other than “thank god we finally left that station” and then I thought of a great one. We had great paved roads the whole trip!! As soon as I thought that we hit a bump and the road turned into a bumpy dirt road. Remember, there are still 2 guys sitting on the top. But my mood instantly changed when I started looking at the scenery around us. The mountains were covered with palm trees and lush forests. As we were rolling down the hills next to the ocean I took it all in and relaxed a little more. We were dropped off along the road right outside Green Turtle and I have never been so happy to see a wooden sign.
As we walked up to the Lodge I got the first glimpse of my new paradise. We went and found the rest of the group hanging out on the beach and were able to
enjoy a few hours in the sun. The resort was incredible. It was very… I want to say quant but often quant has a negative connotation to it. There are about 4 or 5 small bungalows and they also had a few bungalows that they used as dorms with 3 bunk beds in them. You can also camp on the beach. We decided to stay in the dorms because it was only 5 cedis a night. I felt like this must be what European youth hostels would be like if Jamaica got a hold of them. The beaches were beautiful and clean, no one else was there but us. They had these cool thatch roof umbrella hut things on the beach that we hung out under all day. There was a perfect bar that was made out of an old fishing boat and palm trees all around. There were even hammocks between the palm trees!! They had a ping pong table, darts, games, volleyball net, you name it, they had it! Perfect little place. They even arrange tours and hikes for you if you’d like. One day we took a canoe tour through the mangroves where we met this really
nice Canadian couple that takes 6 weeks off every year and just backpacks through different parts of the world. Must be nice to be able to just go and travel the world every year, I want a job like that! Green Turtle also has body boards that you can use to play in the waves. On the last day I was able to get one and played in the waves all day. I did pretty well but towards the end of the afternoon the waves were really big. It kept flipping me off the board and slamming me into the bottom of the ocean which made the Canadian couple crack up. I kept hopping back up just to have myself thrown into the ground again. I had hours of entertainment and a lovely bruise on my back to show for it.
The food was phenomenal there too!! First of all, for breakfast… REAL COFFEE!! Not the instant coffee that you find everywhere around here, but real coffee in one of those old fashioned carafes with the filter that you push down. They also had the best French toast made with real French bread and instead of syrup they use
local honey and they caramelize a banana and put it in with the toast so it has a little hint of a banana flavor. For dinner they had a lot of different things and it was nice to get something other than traditional Ghanaian dishes. Several nights I had the BBQ chicken that was like a rotisserie flavor and each night had a different type of fresh fruit salsa with it, like pineapple and ginger or my favorite was mango and avocado. Desert was also awesome. One night I had a fruit fondue and then another night I had pineapple and banana fritters with more yummy local honey. Good thing I’m back in Legon or I would gain 40 pounds just on the food there.
At night they bring out these old fashioned oil hurricane lamps to each group because its so remote out there and its really really dark. We would go out on the beach and turn down the lamps and lay on the beach mats and just stare at the stars. I have never seen stars like this before. There were so many!! We just laid out there under the stars talking and hanging out and
we were even lucky enough to see some shooting stars! That has to be a good omen.
So Max, Bethany, and Melissa headed back because they had class so I spent Monday with John on the beach. It was even more low key and my day just consisted of me going back and forth between the water and laying out on the beach. Over by the board games I found some books and started reading “The Alchemist” because the cover looked really interesting. Turned out to be the most moving book I have read in a really long time. Please, I encourage you all to read it. Its not very long and I read it in a few hours. In fact, the next day I was still thinking about everything it talked about and I read it twice! It was great because for the longest time I knew I had to come to Africa, it was just a gut feeling, but I couldn’t explain it. This book nailed it on the head. I was a dork about it and even highlighted parts so I can reference them in the future. Yup, nerd moment coming out again.
Ok, now
Mom and Tanya I know you worry about me so I have to tell you that it would be in your best interest to stop reading here and just know that I had a fabulous weekend relaxing on the beach.
Well on Tuesday morning John had to head back because he had class, but I wasn’t ready to leave paradise yet. Sooo I stayed an extra day alone (sorry mom, but this is the first of a few Sorry Mom’s, so you really should stop reading). This was the day that I hung out with the Canadian couple on the body boards and hung out on the beach getting a great tan. That night I hung out with a few other travelers after dinner. I met up with this guy named Tom from Canada (lots of Canadans?) and two other German girls that were also headed out the next day. We were hanging out with this Australian couple who live just outside Accra and they offered to give us a ride back to town. I was relieved because I was a little worried that I would have to take a taxi into Takoradi by myself which was at least
20 cedis. So we hit the road bright and early.
So in the morning I meet up with the gang and we went out to get in the car. It was a truck. Not a good ol Toyota either, its one of the trucks that they use around here to move stuff like water and wood. The bed is only about a foot deep and is all rusty and rickety. Yup, you guessed it, we get to sit in the back! (Sorry mom) The funny thing is that I never think that its not safe or a bad idea. The first thought is “Cool!!! Im going to get such a great view!” I was a little confused at exactly how far they were bringing us and thought they were just bringing us into town. We get to town… and keep driving. I turned to good ol Tom and ask him whats up and he tells me that they are driving us all the way to Accra. All 6 hours and 300+ km into Accra (Sorry mom). So here I am, in the back of a truck with a strange Canadian, and the German girl decided to wrap her hair
local kids playing volleyball
every morning on the way to school they stop by and play volleyball and soccer up so it looks like shes wearing a turban and all I can think about is how crazy life can be. I never thought I would find myself taking a 6 hour road trip in the back of a rusty old truck in Africa. It was incredible! (Sorry mom) the view through Cape Coast was insanely beautiful. A side note, its technically illegal to be sitting in the back of a truck (sorry mom). So needless to say I got a little freaked out when we pull up to one of the million police check points where there are armed cops but they just smile and or laugh at us and wave bye to the silly obrunis that are getting sunburned. All in all it was an interesting and very cool extended weekend!
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