Eastern Region!
Akan wood carving village, Botanical Gardens, Cocoa Farm, and Boati Falls!
This past weekend was amazing. Not only because the hotel was SUPER nice and had a giant comfortable bed complete with a hot shower, air conditioning, and a nice pool…but it had free wifi and a tv that played movies! Kim and I watched Twilight after dinner the first night and died laughing watching Kristen Stewart and Rob Pattinson have next to no chemistry…awkward. Except it made me want to watch New Moon and see Jacob Black shirtless. Yeah. That would have been awesome.
ANYWAY- We started off at 8 in the morning. I had no coffee. Lets just start with that. The Akan wood carving village was only forty minutes away or so, so I listened to my ipod and chilled. When we arrived we got a short tour of the village (basically just a market) and a demonstration of how the carving takes place. After we had about an hour to browse and buy some things. Everything they made was amazingly beautiful. I actually could not choose something. I finally ended up purchasing a piece for my wall next semester (my room is going to be so AWESOME), a family shadow, and a few other small things that I may or may not use as gifts for people. Everything was pretty pricy because of it being wood and all…and the people selling it made everything they sold so it was hard to get them down. But it was fun to bargain. I saw a mancala set that made me think of Fattie (Wesley). We used to play that game all the time. And randomly we played it in Michigan once at a coffee house…I don’t know if the siblings remember that. Haha. I am weird and have time to remember things like that now. Strange yes, but oh well.
After the village we got back on the bus and headed towards the botanical gardens. They were absolutely stunning. Like amazing. Mom, there was a road lined with palm trees like that road in palm beach. I think it was called Royal Palm way? Or something like that. Julie and Jamie know what I am talking about I’m sure. We saw a bunch of trees. Basically that caps it all up. Unfortunately, my camera died around this point…yeah. Sorry everyone. But I am going to steal some photos from Kim and post them up to complement my words. Hopefully she won’t mind…We saw a coffee tree! And a really old tree that we got to go inside of…the entire trunk as hollow so we could see up it. It was pretty incredible. We even saw a cinnamon tree which smelled exactly like cinnamon (go figure)! A few plants had weird quirks…like one would close up the second you touched it. We took a video of it while the guide laughed at us. There was also a tree that had a red powderpuff on it. It reminded me of Horton Hears a Who. Now I really wanna watch it…I told Ethan to get it for when I get back (such a good boyfriend).
We then had lunch after seeing a few more cool tings like a really old helicopter…and seeing a tree that grows a berry that if you eat it will apparently make everything else you eat that day taste sweet. So weird. Lunch was amazing. I have such a love for plantains. Its ridiculous. But nice, fried plantains. Also the rice and chicken was amazing. Enough about food.
We got back on the bus and headed to the cocoa farm. This part was pretty uneventful because it was more for informational purposes. Did y’all know that every single piece of chocolate we have has cocoa from Ghana in it? Yeah, its pretty sweet. We got to go into the jungle and see a cocoa farm and how they extract the seeds from a cocoa pod. I mentioned in my blog from the last trip when I tried a cocoa piece. Its white and squisy- tastes very sweet and the seed is under the white stuff. The seed is left to dry for about a week or so in between two huge leaves, then they are rotated and dried more. Then they are sent away as exports to other countries for their chocolate. When you crack the shell off you can eat the seed. Its extremely bitter and tastes like very very very very dark chocolate. Haha. I didn’t mind it though. Reminded me of coffee…typical. But it was cool to see. Some people tried to open the cocoa pods with the huge knife. Scary. You actually whack it continuously with the swordish knife thing. Haha.
Anyway….after we headed to the hotel which I kind of already encapsulated above. But it was called the Capitol View Hotel and it was lovely. The food was very good- I noticed they always serve us the same things: chicken, fish, some sort of soup, cabbage (I miss lettuce) and vegetables, two different kinds of rice, plantains, and usually french fries. And let me tell you, im not a huge French fry fan in the states but here I LOVE THEM. When we got to the hotel we had a lot of time to chill so after kim and I had sufficient time to freak about the shower and bed, we headed down to the pool with some homework (reading) and ipods. It was really nice actually. We got to chill in the sun and I got to read a lot of my book- Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. It was really good. I imagine I will be stealing some of the quotes from that book for future reference. Fun fact, she wrote the book in like seven weeks.
After chilling out, we went to dinner, watched Twilight, I got to skype with Ethan which was AWESOME. Skype actually worked for once and I was in air conditioning not sweating my entire body weight. It was such a treat. Also, for those who care, Ethan has been such an incredible boyfriend. Somehow I still feel love from him all the way over here. He has made this experience amazing and I feel such support from him (you too, family! J). I went to bed a very happy person. I ALSO GOT TO SHAVE MY LEGS! Sorry, that’s like a huge thing for me. I love feeling smooth legs.
In the morning I realized that breakfast here is my favorite meal because I eat everything they put out. Mainly because it is familiar and I already was a huge fan of breakfast in the states. Here it is omelettes, lots of great bread, jam, butter, cereal, oatmeal (DELICIOUS), coffee, milo, etc. etc. I literally had one of everything. SO GOOD. Then we headed to boati falls. I wore my bathing suit because I was determined to swim in that waterfall. It was so worth it. Before we got to the falls we got to see a double headed palm tree (Weird) and the guy tried to charge us money to climb it for pictures. No way. Abena, our ciee rep for the trip, was having none of that. She is actually amazing. Love her. Anyway, I have a new obsession with goats. They are freaking adorable. I want to bring one home. Maybe give Sadie a friend? ALSO MY MOM GOT A DOG WITHOUT ME. WHAT. IS. THIS.
Anyway, we then went and walked to a rock called the umbrella rock. It sounds stupid, but it was breathtaking. It was on a cliff and the rock has a base and then another flat rock on top of it so it looks like an umbrella (hence the name). I got to climb around it and Kim took some fun pictures. The view was amazing. We all just got to sit and wonder about where we are. Sometimes you forget. Its in those moments that I never really want to come home. I can’t describe it…but seeing things like this and being in another continent sometimes just feels so incredible. You feel so alive and in control. Because honestly, your abroad experience depends on you. You have to be open to new things and take opportunities when they are presented to you. Its daunting sometimes but very invigorating at the same time.
We then had the opportunity to either ride the bus back, or hike to the falls. Of course, being me, I did the hike. It was awesome! I think I might like hiking…a lot. Secretly. It was intense. We were climbing, using both hands, slipping off river bends, we actually had to cross a river and passed some cool caves. We hiked upwards for awhile to. The entire time I was thinking of sam actually because she has been telling me about her newfound love of trail hiking or whatever its called. Haha And I was thinking that I might join her when I get back. You just get to see so much beautiful nature….usually I would not have thought I would have liked it, but maybe I’m wrong. Ghana is changing me.
We reached the falls and saw a million signs warning us that unless if we wanted to die a horrible death, don’t swim. Of course, I swam. We walked down five fights of stairs to the water and I believe my breath caught in my throat. The water just hit you. Brilliance. I immediately took off my clothes and got into the water…with no shoes. Whoops. Cholera, pink eye, malaria, parasite…who knows what ill get. It was worth it. I swam out to a rock. We took some photos and I got to be in the water with a huge WATERFALL. We swam back in and walked around the back of it too- getting completely drenched in our clothes. There was a constant roaring. But it was one of those moments again…taking charge. Feeling alive. I can see why people get addicted to travel. Someone said to me when I mentioned this was my first time abroad for awhile that I will love it and do anything to continue seeing the world. They may be right, honestly. I am so surprised to. I never pegged myself for the traveling type. But god, there is so much to see. After the falls we headed back to the hotel for a quick lunch and then packed up to go. I stole another quick hot shower and slept on the ride back listening to a combination of the mixes given to me by Ethan and Wesley. Overall, a really awesome weekend.
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