We arrived into the port town of Tema, Ghana which is the closest city to 0’ 0’. We never actually passed through the point where the equator crosses the prime meridian, but we came really close on the ship. Tema itself is at 5 degrees, 40 seconds north and 0 degrees 1 second west. We pulled into the port around 0800, and looking over the port itself, I was very unimpressed. It was a dirty, industrial looking port with lots of cranes and trucks. I met up with Carson, Isaac, and Simone for breakfast where we discussed what we were going to do that day. We heard about a cool lighthouse in Jamestown, on the western part of the capital Accra, about 45 minutes away. There is almost nothing to do in Tema itself, but it is the closest deep water port to Accra. SAS provides a free shuttle to Accra, but it only runs once an hour, and Accra is a very spread out city, so you need to get a cab once you get downtown. We knew we weren’t going to get on the first bus because there was already a huge line off the ship. We waited and got ready for the second bus, but we got down there and there was still a huge leftover amount of people from the first bus an hour ago. We knew we weren’t going to get on it, so we started asking around for other options. We heard taxis were really expensive so we didn’t want to do that, but then we heard that if we walked about fifteen minutes to the entrance of the port, we could skip the line and get on there. We decided to do that and we walked to the main gate of the port. We were immediately swarmed by taxi drivers that were all offering their services. We fended them all off and asked a port official about when and where the bus comes. He told us the bus never stops at the gate. Someone had told us the wrong information. We decided to ask about taxis, and we started talking to this man who said he would drive us around all day wherever we wanted for the same price as all the other taxi drivers were offering for just one way to Accra. We decided to go with him, his name was Augustine, and he asked us what we wanted our first stop to be. We told him about the lighthouse in Jamestown and we hopped in his car and took off. He took us along the scenic road that went along the coast to Accra. On our way to Jamestown he answered all of our questions about culture and Accra while telling us about interesting sights along the way. It took about 45 minutes to an hour to get up to the lighthouse. They way up was a lot prettier than I expected, with beaches and palm trees on one side with fields and small towns on the other. We got to the lighthouse and it wasn’t as big as I had expected. It was probably as tall as a three story building. But, down below the lighthouse along the beach was a small fishing village, with hundreds of boats and shacks. We asked Augustine if we could go down there and he drove us down to the beach. We got out of the car and immediately two men came up to us and shook our hands and introduced themselves. At first I thought that they were going to try and sell us something or ask for our money, but they just started asking us where we were from and what we were doing in Ghana. They told us to follow them and they would show us around. They headed off through the boats and we followed them, finding small gaps through the densely packed boat lot. They took us onto the pier that came out from their village. There were people everywhere along the way. There were about a hundred kids playing in the waves and the adults were all outside hanging out or working. Kids would come up and shake our hand and say hi, just like a lot of the adults. Also, the people of Ghana are very proud. In Vietnam, India, and other countries, when we went to the slums, people would run up to us and ask for our money right away and only be nice because they wanted something out of us. Here, the adults never asked us for money, and if a kid asked and an adult heard, they would get mad at the kid and tell them to go away from us. Also, these people loved having their picture taken. They would come up and want a picture, then a picture with us, and they would get really excited when we showed them the picture after we took it. We headed out onto the pier where there were lots of kids jumping off and adults working on nets. There were miles of nets along this pier. It was stretched out and put into piles; you couldn’t walk along without stepping on the nets. At first I felt bad, but then I saw that it was acceptable to just walk all over them. We got to the end of the pier, and our two friends showed us how the workers were repairing the nets. We didn’t see many fish on the pier, but there were hundreds of crabs lying in neat rows drying out. At the end of the pier, we got an amazing look back at the shantytown fishing village and up and down the coast. We asked our friends where they lived and if it would be ok if we saw their house. They were happy to show us and brought us back into the village. The village was built on the beach and up a small cliff. We wound through the shacks on the beach and walked up a set of steep steps. At the top of the steps, we turned through a small door into a dark hallway, where we passed a few doors, like we were going through an apartment building hallway. Down the hallway there were two fairly small windows that had an amazing view over the village and into the ocean. We continued down the hallway and exited through another small door into a cramped courtyard with laundry lines hanging throughout it. There was a group of about eight children playing in the courtyard they got excited and came over. They came over and shook our hands and they asked what our names were and we asked their names. They all had very English names, such as George, James, and whatnot. They also were fascinated by our cameras and loved having their pictures taken. We spent a long time just playing and taking photos with these kids. They were climbing all over each other, jumping, dancing, and just having fun in these photos. The thing that surprised me was how happy most people were in this little impoverished fishing village. In other countries the people in the poorer areas were not very happy and looked pretty angry, but everyone in this village was smiling and happily going about their lives. We finished playing with these kids, said goodbye, and went up another flight of stairs to the top of the village. This was where our friends lived. They had a small almost empty shack at the top of the village near the road we came in on. There were more children up here and they all immediately ran up. We talked and took photos with these kids too. There was also a huge speaker set up and they were playing music. We danced with the kids for a little bit before deciding to head back to the car. We walked around the side of the buildings and were followed by a group of teenagers who talked to us as we walked down the cliffs. At the bottom, we wound back through the shacks and hopped back in the car. From there we said bye to our friends and headed back onto the road. We asked our driver what else there was to see in Accra, and he then drove us about ten minutes down the road to the mausoleum of Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of independent Ghana. The mausoleum was a big plaza that had gardens surrounding the main walkway. They had trees that were planted by various important people with placards in front of them describing the trees and people. The main walkway was a light grey stone path between two pools with statue fountains placed all throughout. The statue fountains were bronze figures of people playing tusk-like horns. The water was shooting out to the side from their horns and from the sides of the pools. The main walkway led down to a big statue of Kwame Nkrumah himself. Behind him is the building that encases his burial site, which was a beautifully designed granite tower. It is about two-three stories tall and is made up of four towers surrounding the central piece. Inside is where the tomb was, on the ground in a fancy white marble casing. We walked around here for a while before exiting the park and hopping back into the cab. Augustine then took us to the Crafts Market, which is a huge market made up of a whole bunch of different booths and stands selling all types of Africa paraphernalia. These were the most aggressive salesmen I have ever met. The second we stepped out of the cab we were swarmed by a group of about eight of them. These people pretended to be just as nice as other people we had met, but they were only nice because they wanted our money. They would try and drag you to their stand and they would all argue with each other over whose stand you went to. We went with one of the guys to his stand where he had a whole bunch of wood carvings and trinkets. He showed me how to play a traditional African mancala game. We played for a bit before I looked around his shop. Our driver was very nice and he told us reasonable prices to get these items for. He even helped us bargain a lot. I got a whole bunch of items at like 40% of the price he had originally offered. Augustine almost got in a yelling fight with one of the salesmen over his ridiculous prices. We walked out victorious. After shopping around here for a while we walked back out to the cab, trying not to get pulled away by the overly aggressive salesmen. We hopped back in the cab and some guy was trying to drop masks through the window of the cab and getting us to buy them. We kept having to shove them back out until we finally left the area. After this market, we went out to lunch at a place called Frankie’s, which was like an American diner. It was one of Augustine’s favorite places to eat in Accra. We got burgers, sub sandwiches, and milkshakes which were all delicious. Once we finished here, Simone and Isaac were ready to head back to the ship so we drove back to Tema. We dropped off Simone and Isaac and we also gave them our big bags of goodies to take back onto the ship. Carson and I weren’t ready to head back yet, so we asked Augustine to take us out somewhere in Tema. He said he knew of a hotel that had live African music every Sunday, so he took us there. It was the Hotel Marjorie, and when we got there, he asked the parking assistant if the band was today, but he said no. We were slightly disappointed, but we decided to look around the hotel anyway. It had an amazing pool area with a fake waterfall and bar area. We walked around wishing we had our swimsuits on. We spent a little time here before heading back to our car. Augustine said there wasn’t much open at this time on a Sunday, but he could pick us up later that night at 2000 and take us to a nice restaurant. We decided to do that and we went back to the ship. We went for a quick swim to cool off, showered, and got ready and by then it was time to head back out. We walked out to the entrance to the port where all the cabs were waiting and we looked for Augustine. We, of course, got swarmed by taxi drivers and I tried fending them all off by saying we already had a driver. Their response was always, “I am your driver! Right here! I will drive you.” I would say that they weren’t our driver, and kept looking for Augustine. I asked one or two of the more calm ones if they knew where Augustine was and they would just respond with, “I am Augustine, I will drive you!” After working my way through over half of the drivers, a man ran up to me and said that he knew Augustine and that they were friends. We decided to follow him because he wasn’t claiming to actually be him. He brought us to the other side of the parking lot and I was greatly relieved to see Augustine’s white car sitting there. It turned out that Augustine had just been taking a nap in his car, and just now woke up as we walked up. We hopped in his car and he took us about twenty minutes away to a very nice rooftop restaurant that looked over the lights of Tema. I had a delicious meal of beef with mushrooms sauce and Carson had a chicken dish. The service was really slow, which was actually kind of nice. It was the perfect temperature now that it was dark and late and it was nice just sitting on the roof overlooking the city. We finished and paid our bill, and then we headed downstairs where there was a bar with pool tables and a dancing area. We went into the dance area, but there weren’t very many people there. We saw some SASers and they came over and told us that there was a lot more people at the club next door. We walked out and down a couple buildings to a club called Manila, which was very nice. It was all outdoors, with a covered bar area with pool tables and showing a soccer game and a big dance floor with lights and a disco ball that was in an open air courtyard. We spent the rest of the night dancing and hanging out with people until we went back to the ship. There were a lot of really nice locals there that would come up and talk to you. It was a lot of fun, but we had to leave fairly early because we both had to wake up early the next day.
        The next morning I woke up at 0600 and got ready for the day. I packed up a bag and went off to a quick breakfast before disembarking the ship and waiting for my trip to leave. The trip I was going on was an FDP to castles and slave dungeons built by Europeans to house slaves before they were shipped to the Americas. We were going to visit two castles; the first one was Elmina Castle, built by the Portuguese the captured by the Dutch, then British. The second was Cape Coast Castle, built by the Swedes, then captured by the Danish, then British. The trip was supposed to leave at 0700, but only one bus had arrived. We had to wait for 45 minutes until the second bus arrived, which put us behind schedule. The busses finally left around 0800 and it was about a three and a half hour drive just to get there. The roads in Ghana are very poorly kept and very bumpy, although the bus driver didn’t seem to notice. He sped over every pothole in the road and drove straight through any speed bumps in the way. I wanted to take a nap on the way there, but that was next to impossible. Also, in addition to the potholes, every town we passed through, there was a set of three speed bumps every fifty yards to slow traffic. Unfortunately, it did not slow the bus. After our very long drive across hazardous terrain we finally arrived at Elmina Castle. This was a beautiful white castle perched on a small peninsula. It had high walls, moats, and lots of cannons surrounding it. We got off the bus and we were swarmed by people trying to sell us trinkets. The tour company ushered us quickly inside the safety of the castle’s walls. I took out my camera to take pictures and I thought it was slightly lighter than normal. I flipped it over and opened up the bottom and, of course, the battery is missing. I then realized that I was charging it during my shower in the morning and I never put it back in. We all gathered in the main courtyard of the castle where our guide gave us a description of when and why the castle was built. It was built in the early 1600’s by the Portuguese during their reign over the sub-Saharan portion of Africa. The castle is called Elmina because in Portuguese, “el mina” means “the mine.” In the beginning their main export was gold and other minerals. The Atlantic slave trade didn’t even begin until about a hundred years later. We walked through the main courtyard where there was a small Portuguese church. We then walked through a small passageway that led to a smaller sub-courtyard where they kept the slaves. In this courtyard there were two dungeons. One was for the men and the other was for the women. The people were cramped in small dark cavernous rooms with hardly any food, water, or ventilation. They were horrible conditions. When the ship came to pick them up, they would travel back through the main courtyard down to a smaller dungeon room where they were kept for the final month or two while the ship was restocked and reequipped for the trip back. They were then led one by one straight from the room onto the ship, back in those days, the water came right up to the castle walls, but now due to changing silt deposits and sand banks, there is a beach separating the castle from the water. After we saw this room and we got to look for the narrow door that the slaves exited, we went up to walk along the wall of the castle and into the governmental rooms of the castle. There were some spectacular views from the walls. We could see all over the small town of Elmina and across the little fishing harbor and all the way down the coast. We got a good look at the cannons and beaches surrounding the castle. We then went inside and walked through the emptied out rooms above the dungeons, which were very nice. We slowly made our way down through the castle yet again and out across the drawbridge over the moat. Once out of the safety of the castle we were again swarmed by the salespeople, so we quickly walked to the bus. Once we were all aboard the bus we made our way to our lunch destination. We drove about fifteen minutes down the coast to a very nice resort where we ate on a beachfront patio. We had a lunch of chicken, fish, potatoes, and rice. It was really good. We had to eat rather quickly because we were behind schedule from our late departure. We finished lunch and boarded the bus again and drove about thirty minutes to Cape Coast Castle. Cape Coast Castle was another castle used first for the trading of minerals and other goods before becoming used for slave storage in the slave trade. This castle was first built by the Swedes, after a while it was then taken over by the Danish and later on the British. This castle was more open to the sea with a big wall with about forty cannons all facing out over the ocean. The dungeons in this castle were actually underground. We went through a steep dark tunnel that went down from the main courtyard in the church where we entered a multi roomed dungeon. It was incredibly dark and humid down there, and still a lot hotter than I would expect. We went throughout the rooms where they showed us holes in the walls where the chains used to be and canals through the floors where the excrements of the prisoners flowed. There was also one big window over the main dungeon where a guard used to stand with his rifle, scaring the prisoners. There was also a small window hidden way up in the shadows that you couldn’t see unless you had a flashlight. This hole was used to eavesdrop on the prisoners to see if there were any plots forming of rebellion or escape. We exited this dungeon and walked back into the main courtyard. We looked back above the dungeon where there was a small church. They thought that by putting the church above the slaves would make it easier to convert them. We then saw some graves in the center of the courtyard that was of a sea captain and other workers of the castle. They don’t know why these three people were chosen to have fancy tombs in the middle of the castle, but they put them there because they want to be buried close to the church. Also, they didn’t want to bury them outside the walls of the castle because if they were buried outside, the angry locals might dig them up and mutilate the remains. We then walked to the opposite side of the courtyard where there was a slanting ramp that went down towards the water. Down at the end of the ramp by the big door was a set of two smaller dungeons that were the women’s dungeons. They kept them separate so there would be no pregnancies while in the dungeons. We walked out the big wooden door that was dubbed the “Door of No Return.”  Once slaves went through this door they were shipped off to the Americas, never to see Africa again. We walked down onto the end of the ramp where the slaves were put on the ships and it was weird to see people fishing and fixing nets on the same spot where they were once shipped off as slaves. When we went back through the door, and on the outside above the door, there was a plaque saying, “Door of Return.” They renamed the door when they brought back a descendent of a Ghanaian slave just so he could walk back through the door his ancestors had dubbed “The Door of No Return.” We walked back up into the main courtyard and concluded the tour. We hopped back on the bus and went back along the coast back to Tema and the ship. This drive took about four and a half hours because we hit really bad traffic going through Accra and we were pretty much stopped for a really long time. When I got back to the ship I went straight to the dining room for dinner that they were keeping open late because we got back late. During dinner I made plans with my friends Alessia, Brooke, Mike, and EJ to go out that night. We all showered and met back up in Timitz Square and decided to go to Manila again. There isn’t much to do in Tema and the night options are very limited. We walked down to the shuttle hopped in with about eight members of the ship’s crew. They were going to the same place and we all convinced the driver if we paid him 1 Cedi each (1.41 Cedi = 1 US Dollar) then he would take us straight to the club. We spent the night hanging out and dancing, and went back to the ship around midnight and went to bed.
        The next morning I woke up at 0600 and got ready for the day. I double checked to make sure my battery was in my camera. I had breakfast and went down to the gangway and got off the ship and waited for my trip to leave. My trip that day was to the Wli Waterfall and village visit. We hopped on a bus at 0700 and departed around 0715. The drive was about four hours again; nothing is really close to Accra. This drive was pretty though, we saw Ghana’s largest suspension bridge and went through rolling hills and big plains. The bus stopped at a small village around 1130 where we all got off. We grabbed a bag lunch and a bottle of water from our guide and waited for everyone to group up. We had to walk to Wli Waterfall, which was about 45 minutes away up a large canyon through the jungle. We headed off on a small trail that wound along a small river going through the trees. The walk was beautiful, although very hot and humid as one would expect an African rainforest to be. The trees were thick and very tall, not a lot of sunlight got through. We crossed the river multiple times on little wooden bridges. There were a lot of big centipedes crawling along the path and a lot of butterflies flying through the trees but I didn’t see many other animals. We eventually heard the rushing sound of the water of the waterfall crashing into the pool below it. We came around a bend and we saw the 350 foot Wli Falls, tumbling over a beautiful stone jungle cliff with a small water pool at the bottom. I immediately threw my backpack down, changed into my swimsuit, and hopped in the water. The pool never really got that deep, on average I would say that it was about waist deep. I walked out to the falls, tripping and cutting my foot on a few rocks on the bottom, fighting the fierce winds near the bottom of the falls, and finally stood under the crashing water. It stung a little bit, but it felt good. Also, the water would come in surges, so it wouldn’t be bad, but then a lot of water would suddenly come crashing down on top of you and almost knock you over. After spending about ten minutes showering in the Ghanaian waterfall, I walked back out of the pool, slipping on more rocks, and dried off and ate my lunch. I then walked around, taking pictures of the stunning waterfall. That is when I noticed a whole bunch of bats clinging to the rocks at the top of the waterfall and occasionally flying off to capture some bugs. After taking some more snaps, I hopped right back in the pool and joined my fellow SASers for another swim. We swam for a while, taking pictures with some people’s underwater cameras before the guides called us out and told us it was time to go. We hopped out and I dried off and changed back into my shorts for the hike back. The walk back seemed much longer. 1. Because we didn’t have the excitement of the unknown in front of us and 2. Because there was no cool, refreshing pool of water to cool us off at the end. We finally got back to the small village and people bought some trinkets and souvenirs and drinks before hopping back on the bus. Once we were all aboard the busses, it was another half an hour drive to the village and monkey sanctuary where we were going. The road was incredibly unkempt and bumpy and it was hard to even sit in the seat. We finally arrived at the small village and got off the bus. Two locals from the village were going to take us out to see the monkeys and then after take us on a quick tour of the village. We split into two smaller groups and headed off into different directions. We walked on a small path through the jungle until we came upon a big tree that was the main house of this one family of monkeys. Our guide had brought a bag of bananas and we each got one to feed to the monkeys. Before we knew it they were all around us. They were small Mona Monkeys, which were pretty awesome. You held out your banana and they would come up and peel it and take chunks off of it. If you didn’t hold it tightly, the monkeys would just rip the whole banana out of your hand and run off with it. Two monkeys actually jumped on my LLC, Stacey, and she freaked out a little bit which was really funny. We spent about ten minutes with the monkeys and then I felt a couple drops of water on my head. I thought it may have come from a monkey, but all of a sudden it started to pour. It was the second time that I had been stuck in an African thunderstorm. Half the group booked it back for the village and shelter while the other half of us stayed in the forest playing with the monkeys. The monkeys disappeared soon after to get out of the rain, so we decided to head back as well. We walked through the soaking jungle on a path that was turning slowly into pure mud.  We finally got back to the village and took shelter under a village overhang with the rest of my group and a couple locals. We waited about ten minutes for the rest of the storm to pass and then walked around the rest of the village. There were a lot of little kids that came up to us and wanted to play with us. They would run up and shake our hands and then pose for pictures. We played with them for a while until it was time to get back to the bus, so we walked back to the bus, but the other group wasn’t back yet, so we hung around the bus area. A group of villagers was gathering for a drum circle, so we went over to check it out. They played songs and danced, and it was awesome to watch. Then some of the adults taught some of us how to carry things on top of our heads. It was awesome. The other group returned and then we headed back onto the bus and made our way back to Tema. On the bus ride back our driver put the pedal to the metal. We flew back and made it all the way back to the ship in three and a half hours. Once back on the ship I ate some dinner, and then fell asleep watching a movie.
        The next morning I woke up at 0800 and went up to breakfast. I had no plans for the day, but I was going to just go up to breakfast and see who was there. I ran into my friends Corena, Kelly, and Mike and we decided to all spend the day together. We got off the ship and took the 0900 shuttle to downtown Accra. It took about an hour to get from the ship to the drop off point in the middle of town. Once we got off the bus, we stopped off at an ATM for a day of shopping. There isn’t really anything to do in Accra except visit the markets and just walk around. My goal for the day was to get an African drum so we walked down the street to a small street market, where Mike had bought a drum on the first day. We walked to the same booth where we met the same guy that had sold Mike his drum. I asked him if he had any more drums and he asked me what size. I told him and he told us to wait there then proceeded to sprint down the street and around a corner. We waited for about five minutes and he came running back with a drum in his hands. He offered a price and we haggled for a bit, until I got it low enough and he threw in a mask. Once I had my drum in hand we walked back to the main street and hailed a cab. While I was walking back lots of people came up and just played my drum while I was holding it. They would play an awesome beat for about thirty seconds, laugh, then shake my hand and walk away. A lot of them told me I had a nice drum which made me very satisfied with my purchase. We got in a cab and went to the same market we went to on the first day. The same thing happened again where we were swarmed by salesmen. We went into the main area and went from booth to booth, with people trying to convince us to buy things. I ended up buying two flags and some other small trinkets and then I was out of Cedi. I just hung out around the market, talking with the salespeople. It was a good way to find out who was really nice and who wasn’t. I would tell the people I was out of money, and they wouldn’t believe me. I would then show them my empty wallet, and the nice people would keep talking to me, and the mean ones would walk away frustrated. We spent a while walking around the market getting pulled into booths and talking with the salesmen. I took some pictures with some of the salesmen. We then followed a guy named Dante to his drum shop where we talked for a while and played the drums with him. After a while, we were sufficiently hot, sweaty, and shopped out. We hailed a cab and went back to the bus stop. We only had to wait about ten minutes for the bus to get there, then we hopped on, waited a bit in the AC, and then the bus left. The bus ride back took about an hour and a half, but it was just nice to be in the air conditioning. We got back to the ship which is where we stayed for the rest of the afternoon. We swam in the pool and relaxed until the ship left, where we watched us pull away from Africa for the last time.