Ghana have a good time!

Our ship docked at 7:30am and the air was filled with excitment.  It had been one week since we had seen land. We were greeted on shore by a group of Ghanaians who were chanting and drumming.  What a great welcome!

Maggie & I waited patiently to be called to pick up our passports.  They are all held at the purser’s office until we reach a port. The SAS trips took first priority; finally it was our turn.  George offered to take us ashore and wait for our car & driver that we had hired.  There was no sign of him at the ship so we decided to take the free shuttle bus to the port gate and wait for him there.  There were hundreds of people waiting for a bus to Accra and many merchants trying to sell their wares.

We were getting a bit panicky as time went on and George asked a man, who looked like he was in charge of the taxis, if we could use his cell phone.  He was kind enough to lend it to Maggie who then called our tour operator.  She quickly told the driver where we were waiting and in 10 mins he was there.  Phew!  By now the poor guy had been waiting for us since we had docked at 7:30am even though Maggie had told them that we would not be off the ship until at least 10:30am.  It was now just passed 11am and we still needed to get our cash from an ATM machine to pay for this trip.  They do not take credit cards since there has been so much credit card theft recently. Our kind driver William took us to get our cash; the machine worked for me but unfortunately not for Maggie. We then spent the next hour trying to get a cash machine that would work for her. In the end, William told us that we needed to get going since we were so late in getting started. He was afraid it would be dark by the time we got to our resort.  He said not to worry about the money and that tomorrow would be fine to pay him. So after some terrible traffic jams, we were finally on the road to Kumasi.

We stopped for a quick lunch break at 3pm at a very nice restaurant that is situated at the crossroads; therefore it gets a lot of bus traffic. We thought we were being very clever in ordering soup and garlic bread because it would be really fast. Well, after 40 mins, Maggie went over to one of the wait staff and asked what the hold up was. William had wanted to leave at 4pm and here is was already 3:50pm!  They quickly located our waiter and he hustled into the kitchen and brought out our soup.  The vegetables were still hard and crunchy and the garlic bread was just white bread spread with butter and some garlic.  It didn’t matter; we were so hungry because our breakfast had been at 7:30am.  We quickly ate what we could and got on the road again.

 The scenery along the way was beautiful.  The country is so green and lush and the hills looked as high as our Escarpment with some interesting rock formations. All along the highway, when we went through the villages, people were selling stuff.  You name it, they have it.  Appliances, furniture, coffins, electronics, vegetables, etc. It’s like a giant flea market in some places.

The sun was going down and the clouds were threatening rain. William spotted one of the Ghana Commercial banks that was listed on our sheet as being compatible with a Master Card, and asked if Maggie wanted to try it.  She hesitated just for a moment, but then thought; OK what the heck, we are here now.

Miracles of miracles!  It worked!!  Just as she was finishing, the skies opened up and it began to pour. Now, that’s what I call “pennies from heaven”!

The rest of our journey to the resort was rather grim. The rain fell intermittently and the sheet lightning was as if someone were turning the lights on & off constantly.  It was wild!  William was afraid that the road to the resort would be washed out; thank goodness it was OK, full of potholes, but driveable. Since it was so dark, we could not see the lake but you could certainly hear it.

We were met by Samuel, the front desk clerk, who rather shyly welcomed us and apologized for the kitchen being closed. It was only 7:30pm and it was supposed to be open until 9pm. That would not do!  Both Maggie & William convinced him that we were to have food for our dinner. I also chimed in that a bottle of wine would be good too!  So they delivered a couple of nicely cooked chicken legs and French fries to our room. The wine was so old that the cork broke 3 times as I was trying to get it out. We managed to get a few glasses out of it, but it had that horrible musty taste to it. Oh well, we were so tired at this point, we didn't care! We finally relaxed and I could tell that Maggie was really relieved about the money situation. After a very long day on the road, we slept soundly.

Lake Bosomtwe Paradise Resort lived up to its name. The huge freshwater lake was believed to be created by a fallen meteorite. We had a second floor room with a balcony overlooking the lake. We were the only 2 visitors there, besides William, because it's low season and also it was in the middle of the week. We woke up the next day and had our breakfast in the restaurant that is open to the lake. Very peaceful and we watched birds, reptiles and fishermen go about their daily business. We then went to our balcony and read for a while and took pictures of the view and wildlife. The weather was cloudy and threatening and it did shower a little bit but it didn't last. William came to see what we wanted to do that day since the first day was taken up with driving to the resort. We told him to meet us at 1pm after lunch and we would go to Kumasi for some shopping. Kumasi was very busy. William stayed right with us the whole time. I was looking for a Ghana soccer jersey for my son Andrew and I thought that it would be the easiest gift to find. Not so! Apparently, they like to wear jerseys of other countries that have Ghanaian players. Who knew?? Finally I found one and went back to our hotel happy and content.

William had bought us 2 large avocados in the market in the morning so we thought we would have those for dinner with just some bread. We tried to explain this to Samuel (our front desk guy) but he didn't seem to understand. So then we said OK we will have some French fries again. We also asked him to please bring a knife so we could cut the avocados. About 45 mins later, the waitress brings us the exact same meal as the night before! We tried to explain to her that we only wanted French fries, but she couldn't do anything about it at that point. We each had 1/2 of a beautiful avocado. It would have been very good with some tortilla chips! (Sigh).  Another busy day and an early night.