The West (Best) Coast of Ghana

Entry #6 

One of the perks of having so many volunteers working here (I am one of eight) is that there are always tons of people to help out, so going on vacations and leaving for a few days is easy.  For this outing a fellow volunteer and I went to the western coast of Ghana and spend some wonderful time seeing sights, laying on the beach, trying new foods, and being squeezed between sweaty Ghanians in the back of an old tro-tro!

From Achiase (orphnange location) we took a Taxi to Swedru, then a tro-tro to Takoradi, after that was a tro-tro to Agona and then finally a taxi to Busua. Surprisingly this only took us 7 hours and we were just in time for some afternoon beach time.  We stayed at an accommodation called The Alaska Beach Club (shout out to all you in the 907!) in a small mud hut by the beach.  Needless to say I was pretty excited to stay there, I went and met the owner who is from Alaska himself near Palmer and tried to get an Alaska Resident Discount, but to no avail... 

The next day we went spent walking around Busua, and laying on the beach and stumbled upon a man butchering a bullhead shark (those weak of stomach, feel free to skip the photos), and a couple of pet monkeys which we went over to and interacted with. 

By the next morning we decided to leave beautiful Busua and continue on our journey.  The plan was to stop at Cape Three Points to visit a lighthouse at the southern-most tip of Ghana, then continue on our way that same day to Beyin and get ready for the Stilt Village the following morning.  However, as often happens in Ghana, the road had alternative plans for us.  We finally reached Cape Three Points in the afternoon, and unbeknownst to us, there was only one tro-tro in/out of the town each day.  Once we realized this, the tro-tro had already left, so we set off to see the lighthouse and decided to handle accommodations afterwards.  The lighthouse was beautiful, ocean was blue, birds were loud, and air smelled invigorating.  In short, it was perfect. Next we checked out our Ghana guide book and looked for a place to sleep.  The only “hotel” was an eco-lodge called Escape 3 Points and it was a 20 minute walk down the beach, little did we know, we were about to reach paradise! This place was a hidden gem, a diamond in the rough, and any other stone-related metaphors you can think of.  Owned by a Canadian man and his French wife, Escape Three Points and is quite off the grid.  The rooms are individual bamboo huts (constructed by the owner who happens to be an architect) equipped with composting toilets, they run on solar power and collect rainwater to use for day to day life, and most of the food prepared comes from a variety of fruit trees, vegetable plants, eggs from their chickens, and meat from goats, chickens, and rabbits.  For the first night we were the only guests and had the entire place to ourselves, including a pristine beach.  During the evening we stargazed, held newborn bunny rabbits, and watched/helped baby turtles hatch and get to the ocean.  I love the children and volunteering at the orphanage, but being here was pure bliss, and we were sad to leave. 

Finally we journeyed on to Beyin like we had originally planned and took an hour-long canoe ride to a Village on Stilts! Seeing how the people lived there was amazing! Everyone ate tons of fish and bathed regularly in the lake.  I met three you ladies (whose picture is at the bottom) who row for an hour each morning to get to school!  By the time we left we were ready to be home, but so glad that we had all those amazing experiences on our vacation!