Christmas Vacation Part 2 of 4-Elmina & St.George's Castle

**Note: My friend Morgan is an incredible photographer so I'll direct you to his blog to check out the scenes I've described in the blog below. His address is: http://thefatbuddha.blogspot.com/

We had incredible luck getting out of Butrea. Victor had made friends with a taxi driver so we arranged to be picked up early in the morning and dropped off at the tro-tro pick-up heading to Elmina. (I got really used to travelling in tro-tros during the trip-the experience can be compared to travelling in a sardine can without any shocks. Come to think of it, those vans are so beat up they probably aren’t much thicker than a sardine can. Haha)

We arrived in Elmina in time for breakfast and took our Nescafe at a neat restaurant that had a great view of the bustling lagoon with its colourful pirogues, painted red turquoise and yellow, flying sails made of flour sacks sewn together. We all watched the hustle and bustle on the docks with fascination- small girls balanced tin platters on their heads piled with oranges or buckets filled with pure water; women swiftly strode by carrying metal bowls on their heads filled with various kinds of fish and sea creatures, while others had wooden boxes on their heads with glass walls that displayed African pastries or fried dough. Men carried equipment down to the boats and some just moved with the crowd, stopping to buy something from the “petty traders” or to chat with a friend. Overlooking this whole scene from the grassy hill across from us was St.George’s Castle- the oldest European structure in West Africa. The castle was first built by the Portuguese and later overtaken by the Dutch. It was originally a post for gold trading and later became a slave trading post where hundreds of African people were imprisoned before being loaded onto ships headed for the Americas.

After breakfast we went on a tour of St. George’s Castle-a disturbing but educating experience. Our guide shared some of the history of the building with us as he led us into the male and female dungeons, through the main court complete with a church, up into the bedroom and sitting room of the governor, and down to the door of no return- where those imprisoned took their last steps on African soil before being crammed into the slave chambers of the ships awaiting them. It was a sobering experience and as we left the guide made sure to point out the following sign:

"In Ever Lasting Memory

Of the Anguish of our ancestors

May those you died rest in peace

May those who return find their roots

May humanity never again perpetrate

Such injustice against humanity

We, the living, vow to uphold this"

After the castle we headed down to the shores to check out the central market. The scene here was much like that of the docks by the lagoon, only more intense because of the greater area. I enjoyed looking into everyone’s bowls to see all the different fish and sea creatures. The market was crowded and loud with the strong scent of fish amidst the salty sea air. We ducked into a local drinking spot where we were able to watch a bunch of fishermen working amongst a big cluster of pirogues pulled up on the sand. Some were repairing their nets, some were sewing new ones, and some were fixing sails. Children ran all amongst the boats, and we caught a great shot of a small boy soaping up for his morning bath.

We spent the afternoon wondering about the main streets of Elmina and hiking up to a Catholic Church on a big hill where we could see the whole town. The Brandt Book explains Elmina best when it describes the paradox you see in town which has a mood so inherently African, but an urban landscape that has been molded almost entirely by exotic influences. It’s intriguing to see how the old colonial houses and European structures have been adopted and morphed into various living accommodations and businesses within this fishing town.

Late that afternoon we caught another tro-tro and continued on to Cape Coast….TBC

Christmas Vacation Part 1- “The Hideout”, our Rasta Christmas on Butrea Beach

Our Christmas vacation officially started on Friday, Dec.21st. Morgan, Nicole, Trevor and I met at the STC Bus Station in Tamale to begin our journey, first to Kumasi (in the Central Region of Ghana) and then on to our selected Christmas location- Ellis’ Hideout, located on the luscious southern coast. True to Ghanaian standards, the bus arrived two hours late and we were finally on our way at approx. 6:30pm. At around one in the morning we arrived at the Kumasi station and stumbled to a guest lodge just around the corner for a few hours of sleep until our next leg. The alarm at 6am came a little too soon, but we grabbed our backpacks, forewent the shower and were off again, taking the next STC bus to Takoradi. From there we took a tro-tro to a small town nearby and then jumped into a taxi where we headed down a very long, meandering dirt road towards Butrea Beach. With each hill our anticipation rose as we waited to see this place Morgan had booked us at, hoping our trusty Lonely Planet hadn’t failed us. We followed the signs and veered onto something that we could hardly believe was a road, snuggled between thick trees on the left and a sloped plateau on the right. Finally our little oasis was revealed to us and it was perfect-small and low key, hidden amongst the palm trees were a number of clay coloured huts and a small restaurant with a beautiful beach front view. We were in our bathing suits in no time, hot from the long trek and SO excited to see the clear, blue ocean water crashing up against the spotless white sand of Butrea Beach. It was hard to believe we were still in Ghana…this was a far cry from our Tamale that had slowly become more and more parched as the harmattan took it’s hold.

We stayed at The Hideout until December 27th and I must say, it was truly the most unique Christmas I’ve had. Our Christmas Eve dinner was incredible-a large red snapper, cooked fresh over the grill and enjoyed in our thatch roofed gazebo, under a bright, clear sky. After dinner we joined the other guests down on the beach for a big bonfire. A bunch of Rastas from the area had come to hang out and serenade us with traditional West African drums and percussion. They are so talented at creating different beats and bringing all the different instruments together into one medley! I especially appreciated this talent after I tried one of the drums and found that I was terrible-I couldn’t even have a conversation while I had that drum because it seemed to take so much effort trying to keep the rhythm. I tried one of the big wooden xylophones as well (the kind we used to love at school Cars) but this one took a lot of concentration too, and I was soon demoted to a rattle. Haha It was so surreal to be hanging out in bare feet and listen to Rasta tunes against the crashing ocean on a holiday that had in all my experience, meant snow and Christmas carols.

On Christmas morning I ordered banana pancakes (just like the Jack Johnson song ; ) and handed out the Turtles the fam sent me for Christmas (surprisingly they were still intact and I resisted the urge to horde them to myself : ). Morgan had wrapped African necklaces up as a gift so that we could all unwrap something, and then we spent a great day in the sun and sand (with a couple of naps in the hammocks).

Our last day at The Hideout was spent on a local “cruise”- our good friend Tony, donned in a bright orange lifejacket complete with a whistle, took us out in a rugged, traditional canoe onto the lagoon to see the mongrove trees and try to spot some monkeys or a crocodile. Tony had a great sense of humor and when we were about halfway through the tour he yelled out “Hello Monkeys…where are you!”. Unfortunately, they were not tempted by his greeting and we didn’t spot any monkeys, but the mongrove trees were fascinating. Each tree seemed to have several skinny trunks shooting up from its roots and then bowing down upon the lagoon with hundreds of slim branches. They grow so close to one another that it becomes this impossible maze that one would only be able to get through with the aggressive use of a machete.

From Butrea we backtracked East to Elmina and on to Cape Coast….TO BE CONT.