Cape Coast

This weekend CIEE took us to Cape Coast, which is about three hours away (give or take a few hours for traffic). We left bright and early at 7:15 am on Saturday and drove to our hotel. Then we got to choose between visiting Cape Coast Castle and Elmina Castle. Both of them served as departure points for the trans-Atlantic slave trade. I chose Cape Coast Castle, which I believe is the bigger of the two castles, while Elmina is the older one. It was certainly an experience. The castle is white washed, and it does not look like a castle in the way anyone from America would expect, it is more of a fort. It overlooks a beautiful ocean and a beach that has now become what seems like a huge fishing area. There are cannons facing the ocean, used to attack any invaders, and stacks of old cannonballs.
On the tour they took us into the male and female slave dungeons, which was pretty terrifying. These areas were underground, with about three tiny slits in the walls for ventilation. I was feeling claustrophobic with the 20 people on the tour, but there were hundreds of people cramped into these small, almost completely dark, spaces. The punishment cell was even worse because there was no ventilation at all, I was having trouble breathing in there, and there was not a single bit of sunlight. People were sent to this room for about 48 hours with no food, water, or even light, and many people died there. We also went through the door of no return, which was the door that the future slaves walked through to get on the boats to be shipped across the ocean. Basically, being at Cape Coast Castle, you realize how little we are actually educated about the trans-Atlantic slave trade in American schools, there is so much that went on that we really have no idea about.
On Sunday we went to Kakum National Park, which is a rainforest near Cape Coast. We hiked into the rainforest and did the canopy walk, which was really fun. I was expecting the canopy walk to be secure bridges in the rainforest, but that was not really the case. They were more like swinging suspension bridges, walking on just a plank of wood, above the rainforest. There was no way that I could fall out because the ropes went up so high, but it was still pretty terrifying at first. You couldn’t see the ground; all you could see was the tops of the trees. We didn’t see any animals either, but it was still an awesome experience, being on top of a rainforest.
As for life back in Accra, we haven’t had running water for about two days, so I am coping with bucket baths. I am staying in Accra this weekend, hopefully going to Makola market, which is a huge market that I haven’t been to yet. Next weekend I am trying to plan a trip either to a village that is on stilts, but I have no idea where it is, or to a lodge on the beach down the coast a bit.