Akwabaa!!! That means welcome! Again I had an amazing time in port! Ghana is a beautiful country full of friendly and beautiful people!

I am sure I am going to say that I will definitely return to each country I have visited so far, but I really mean it about Ghana. I actually have to go back too because I promised like 50 people I would. Ghana, in a nutshell, was the country I have visited that was the most life changing by far.

Ghana, some would say is the “soft” Africa. There is less crime and corruption compared to the other countries in Africa and it is much safer for tourists to visit.  Overall, I felt very safe, but I was also traveling in a large group for the majority of my time in Ghana and we had a local Ghanian with us the whole time which was also comforting. The people received us well throughout the country and were so excited to meet Americans! So many people would ask for your email addresses so that they could just talk to you. They don’t ask for money they just ask for conversation and to learn about you and your life as well as share their own stories. It was very interesting and nice to meet so many friendly people that were interested in the U.S.

Day 1:

We got to port at around 8 and customs was done by 9 so the group I was traveling with was on its walk to our tour guide soon after that. We arrived at the port gate and Fred our tour guide was there waiting for us. We boarded the bus and headed to the town in Takoradi to take money out of the bank. I had some trouble with my card but eventually it worked thank goodness.

We then began our travels to the Tafi Monkey village, where our tour guide Emmanuel is from. It was the longest bus ride EVER to this village which none of us were prepared for. The group that I went with was so much fun though and we had a really good time playing cards and other games to pass the time.

When we got to the village, we had dinner, which was delicious, and then we went to the center of the village underneath the only streetlight they had to watch a performance the villagers prepared for us. They performed for about twenty minutes and then a few of the girls on our trip jumped up and joined them in the center circle. The music they performed was all drums and singing. I wish I could post videos up on the blog because it was really awesome to watch!

I didn’t really partake the dancing because I was too busy using my friends camera to take pictures of the whole scene. It was really fun because the locals were really surprised that we got up and were dancing with them so they got even more into the dances and started mocking “American” style dances to the beat of the drums. That night we all stayed in different villager’s homes. I stayed in one of the communal houses where a few villagers were staying and then six people from my group. I had a nice bed that felt kinda like the tempur pedic beds so it was very comfortable. I had expected to sleep on the floor so it was a nice surprise having a bed! We had an early wake up call of 5:45 so we could go on our jungle walk the next morning.

We did our jungle walk and fed the monkeys and then went to breakfast. They had this porridge type stuff that was basically really soupy white rice with sugar that actually tasted really delicious! From there we took pictures with the little kids outside where we were eating breakfast and I let them play with my camera for a while before we left. I met our chef and got her contact information so I can send her the pictures of the kids I took outside the eating area. After breakfast we made our way over to the elementary school in the village.


We watched the kids do their morning routine and we presented them with an indestructible soccer ball which they loved!! Then we got on the bus and headed out for our trip to the tallest waterfall in western Africa. The name I can’t remember but it was soooo pretty and a really fun hike up to the water fall. After that we had a delicious lunch at the restaurant near the waterfall.

More on Ghana to come!