Safari Tour - West Africa 2008 - One more day in Accra

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So Barry is still sick this morning, so I decided to venture out and find another Internet place. Did I mention how difficult is to find a good high-speed connection? Thus you will probably see no pictures until we get home. WAY to freaking slow. It took 15 min this morning just to open my blog.

Anyway - I am on my own, so plan on picking up some groceries and doing some reading at the hotel. On my way out this morning - wow how different it is travelling around town by myself as opposed to being with Barry. Everyone wants to be my friend. I had several people almost follow me back to the hotel - either wanting to sell me something or otherwise... yikes! I told Barry that he wasn’t allowed to be sick again. It's funny too, how men become little babies when they are sick.. I tell ya... I will have to remind him of this when I get sick...

Anyway - if any of you are on Facebook, you will have noticed that I referenced Barry 'Seagull' Kaiser. Just a point of clarification, Barry would like you all to know that he did not in fact eat a Seagull. This was a moniker given to him by a friend years ago referencing the amount of street food he ate.

Barry is feeling much better this afternoon thank goodness and we were able to go out for a smoothie and do a bit of grocery shopping before our big cycling day tomorrow. It will be kind of sad to leave our nice little hotel. We did end up finding a great place and had a great set-up. Our room ended up being quite large, had a nice sitting area and a lovely balcony with two different views. Who knows what we will find outside Accra.

So I didn't get to mention a lot about Accra other than the fact that they do not embrace their proximity to the Sea, nor are the people overly friendly. But there is alot of interesting history in this region. Yesterday, I also forgot to mention that we visited a memorial park for the 1st President of Ghana Kwame ?? Sorry I'll get the spelling of his last name. Anyway, a great little park containing the mausoleum of the president and his family. Also a small museum. Anyway - Ghana gained its independence, along with most of West Africa only in 1957. Previous to that, it was in fact a British colony - strangely enough, not alot remains of that legacy it would appear. Any colonial buildings that do remain, appear to be run down. Even the historic forts and castles though some have nee restored, are left to the elements. Pretty sad actually. Now there are certain forts and castles that have been preserved/restored, but very few are open to tourists. We will eventually get to see one of the old slave forts when we go to Cape Coast. There is also a lighthouse that apparently has some historical significance as Accra used to be the major port in West Africa until it moved to Tema, about 30 km East. So tomorrow, we will head North towards Kumasi - which is the second largest city in Ghana and capital of the Ashanti Region. The first town we will stay in is called Koff Town (abb.) it is apparently in a rather hilly area, so although we only have about 85 Km, it may take a while. Hopefully it will also have Internet service... until then!

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