Day 4: Cape Coast, Ghana (January 11, 2011)

I'm feeling lazy and don't want to write, but because I'm sure I'll miss some days in the future, I'll make myself write. Besides, I'm just sitting around my hotel room right now.

First, here are some friends who joined me in my hotel room last night: They're about 3 inches and 6 inches respectively.

Although I was little worried I'd wake up in the middle of the night with one of them on me, I mostly thought it was neat to have a room with little lizard friends.

This morning I woke up at 6am (ugh) to take the bus (ugh) a few hours west of Accra to Cape Coast, which was a sizeable Brittish colony back in the 1700s and is one of the more visited towns today. Aside from some initial drama when my bus was cancelled and merged into another bus, the ride was less awful than expected. Granted, I spent almost all of it in a dramamine-induced hallucination-like state, but I've had worse. I also saw that Accra sprawls much farther than I realized after my first two days, and that there are shantytowns everywhere. Once we were on the main road to Cape Coast, though, there was a lot more greenery and even a handful of villages with thatched-roof and thatched-wall homes. Most homes were more modern, but I liked seeing things I don't see back home. I feel a bit of... dismay maybe... at how much the rest of world seems to be looking more and more like America. That's boring.

From what I've seen of Cape Coast, it's a nicer version of Accra (smaller, less crowded, less obviously dirt poor) but there are a number of buildings that date back to colonial times. And some more modern architechure is clearly inspired by colonial designs, like my hotel, which has windows on the outside walls and windows on the inside walls, so the breeze can blow all the way through the building.

This was also the first day, of many to come probably, that I didn't have my hotel booked ahead of time. I did know the name and address of a good candidate, though, and they had plenty of space available. I've learned from past travels that not having a room ahead of time can actually result in something really cool, like the time I stayed at the formerly-secret Catholic convent in York, England, so I don't sweat the hotel rooms too much.

Behind my hotel is an old British fort; well, really more of a lookout.

The hotel suggested I hire a guide from the building next door (cost of about $1.50), which I did, but I suspect the guide is just some guy who hangs around most of the day, then talks about the local history when we get to the lookout. His services were worth the small charge though, since Ghana doesn't seem to have a lot of formal guidance or instruction for visitors. And from the lookout we can see the whole town, so I know which direction to head to see more of the sights. While traveling, I always like old buildings and ruins, so Cape Coast should satisfy me in that regard. I also like it when places allow you to go pretty much everywhere within the ruins. Like here, where there's a cliff behind me.

No place in America would let visitors be so "unsafe." (Although it would take an idiot or a drunk to actually fall off that wall.)  See how much haze is between the camera and sun in the upper photo? It's dust blowing in from the Saraha, which happens every year around this time. The guide told me this season is "Hammertime." But he didn't really say Hammertime, did he? He said something else and I heard Hammertime, right? /scratches head/

I wandered through town a bit, winding up in the main market area. It's mostly people going about their business, but a lot of people's business seems to be sitting and watching the world go by. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I like it myself. But those folks are also more likely to start conversations with me, which I'm always a little wary of at first. Kind of like how my friends from New York City are frightened of people in Minnesota because the midwesterners talk to strangers. But after a minute to two, most of these conversation-starting strangers really do just seem to want to talk to someone new, even walk around town with a me bit.

A small bit of the Cape Coast market

And I have been, suprisingly, the only white person I've seen outside of my hotels and the bus station, which I'm sure is the main reason people start talking to me. I expected to be in the minority here, but I didn't think I'd be the only minority everywhere I went. It's kind of neat, though, I'm like a novelty item. I get a few extra glances and kids seem kind of interested, but no stares or anything worse.