5-26 Ghana Beach Resorts.

 Ghana is definitely not tourist ready - except for very high end.  Otherwise everything is a crap shoot.  We have experienced the up and mostly downs of this industry.  Our apartment in Accra, according to Michael, was the best he had ever experienced in his 19 trips to Accra.

But once we started to visit resorts things got dicey.  Our first resort, Venice Beach, had beautiful photos on their website showing mostly the beach.  Their cabins were pits of horror.  We got out of there because our driver, Shadrack, has driven a lot of people to this area as it is in oil and gas country.  A lot of his clients are high end managers who stayed at the Maaha Resort.  He got us a good price.  Original quoted price for our room was $282 a night.  But this is the slow season - we got it for $150 a night.  Still waiting for a refund from the horrible Venice Beach place.

The bar where we had some great meals - usually the only ones there.

I wanted to stay here - and not tempt fate at our next resort reservation!  But our last day in the Takoradi area is at a Best Western.

I am not sure why these are so dark - but hey the view was pretty good and the room was OK.

5-25 and 29 Driving in Western Ghana

 I have talked about the condition of the roads that we have traveled on in Accra.  But now we have been on other roads in Ghana and they are sometimes even worse.  Our drivers have filled us in on the politics of roads as well as the infrastructure in Ghana.  Eight year ago they had a president that they all agreed - seemed to be helping all of Ghana to improve their infrastructure.  The current president comes from the Asante nation and seems to spend all the money on those areas.  I am not sure as the roads in Kumasi seem to be bad - but not as bad as in Accra.  Areas we went through we were told did not vote for the current president - and their roads were the worst.  Hey - this happens in the U.S. as well - but it seems more pronounced here.

Here are some photos of our driving trip to Elmina.

Stopping at an ATM to get more cash to pay the driver.

The lanes are not really marked, but even if there is only room for two lanes, drivers drive in the center to hedge their bets.

Scenes from the car.

Then the skies opened up and it poured down rain.  There were areas that were pretty scary. Deep ruts in the road that the driver could not see because they were covered by water.

But we made it through.

These are photos of our drive to Kumasi.  We were supposed to fly from Takoradi to Accra and then from Accra to Kumasi on May 28.  but they canceled our flight to Kumasi  There was no explanation given.  Was it a problem with the airplane - bad weather? Who knew.  An Africa World Airlines does not give a crap.  Their prices to fly are cheap and their are no refunds. And no accommodations.  We met a black man from Austin, Texas who was way more upset than we were.  I think we were just resigned at this point in our journey.  He is yelling at the rebooking agent - and aren't you going to pay for my hotel tonight?  No of course not.  

We could not get rebooked until 2:30 the next day. What were we going to do.  Obviously we have to get a hotel for the night - but also have to pay for the accommodations we had booked in Kumasi for the same night.  Nas who has been handling our travel arrangements is in Kumasi.  She says take the VIP bus.  Have Mary pick you up and take you to the VIP bus terminal.  Mary and Ann pick us up from the airport.  They say- don't take the VIP bus it is dangerous, especially for you old white people and it is at night and the roads are really terrible,  They take us to a restaurant were we finally get something to eat.  We talk about what to do.  They say take a car and driver tomorrow.  So that is what we end up doing.  

Five hours of bad roads.

Most of the time everyone is driving very slowly - 10-15 miles per hour because the roads are so bad.  So when ever there is a short stretch of pretty good pavement - everyone drives like a bat out of hell - until suddenly you brake and slow to almost a stop for the next bad pothole.  

It is so dusty with all the red dirt in the air.   We see some people with masks on.  How many people here have lung issues from breathing all this bad air.

This road work was started under the previous president - over eight years ago.  The current president does not seem to care - so not much progress has been made.  meanwhile the gravel roads people are driving on continue to deteriorate.  According to one of our drivers - they expect work to suddenly pick up about September-October - right before the November elections.  

Finally we get through the really bad roads - and suddenly the roads are clear of traffic and the paved road is OK.  And that is the way it goes in Ghana.

5-27 Elmina Castle

 Another day, another castle!  This is Elmina Castle.  They have tours that show you all the slave quarters as Oso Castle did.  We opted out again and just took photos.  

But inside what had been the Portuguese Church at one time there is now a museum that gives the much older history of the area.  This was so interesting.  I am putting all these photos of the writeups they had on this blog for my own information.

At the Elmina Beach Resort where we are staying - there are plaques designating the different wings to the Asafo companies.  I did not understand what it meant.  This explains it.

Back to my own photos.  

I didn't do all the steps and all the levels.  My left thigh is still sore from my fall.  But I could get some nice shots from higher up.  This was a market a short distance away.

Then I heard some chanting.  Looking down at the beach I saw these people pulling the boat onto the shore.  The chant was to keep them pulling together.

This was another group of people getting ready to do something in the water.

The Jago Fort.  See Michael's post for more history: http://de-intimidator.blogspot.com/

Michael and Shadrack waiting in the shade for me.

Then we went back to the resort to take some last photos from the grounds and back towards the Castle and Fort.  And then packed up to drive back to Takoradi.

Here is the plaque that was posted by our wing - So glad that I finally got an explanation about these companies.