Angelina and I had to leave the house bright and early at 6:15am so we could meet up with the other girls by 7am. We all walked west from the Elmina junction to find a tro-tro that would take us to Takoradi. Tro-tros are the cheapest means of transportation in Ghana, they are old minivans that pack up at least 12 passengers. I was looking forward to my first tro-tro experiences (by the end of this trip we rode a total of 4 tro-tros). The ride to Takoradi was about an hour and a half. The scenery was all too familiar to me, just like riding south on the Pan-American highway towards Rivas, going through small poor towns along the way. The exceptions were the lack of Spanish influence being replaced by uncountable amounts of little shacks with tin roofs next to each other for what looked like miles at a time. The rest of the scenery was of lush green vegetation, seeing as the rainy season is drawing to a close. When we reached the Takoradi tro-tro station, we looked for the next one that would take us to Axim. We bought our tickets but sat down to wait for the next one, since it looked like all 6 of us couldn’t fit in the one ready to leave. The tro-tro driver and other workers at the station were telling us to get in. The other girls kept saying we would wait since we couldn’t all fit. After the men kept insisting, I got up and walked over to the tro-tro thinking “If other people have to cram into these things when necessary than we could suck it up and go for it”. The other girls seemed to follow me and when I was inside walking towards the seat available in the back they asked me if there were enough seats for all of us. I counted 4 seats. There were 6 of us. I said “Yes, but it’ll be a little tight”. And just like Jesus fed 5,000 people with just five loaves of bread and two small fish, He gave us all a seat inside that tro-tro.
The ride from Takoradi to Axim was about an hour. We saw the sign for the Axim Beach Hotel and asked to be dropped off at that junction. Once out of the tight tro-tro, Dino, a friend I made during the ride, (who surprisingly had the same name as my dad, brother and nephew) told us that the walk to the Axim Hotel wouldn’t be far and that we didn’t have to take a taxi. So we thanked him, and followed the signs to our destination. It was a longer walk than expected, and a very hot mid-morning. We were relieved to finally make it to our hotel, and immediately could tell that the journey was worth it. We got one of the cutest little rooms I have ever been in. The budget rooms we requested were reached by climbing narrow wooden stairs and reaching a loft style second story. We had lunch at the Turtle Restaurant overlooking the beach. It was weird because I felt like I was in Nicaragua. The scenery, the water, the trees, the breeze, everything so strangely familiar, and yet I was in Africa. This is why I feel so close to the people here, because it is so familiar. The most obvious differences being the color of our skins, and the language.
Axim Beach Hotel is highly recommended. The quality is similar to the nice hotels in the San Juan del Sur area back home, and yet significantly more affordable. It was nice to relax by the sea, eat different food, and watch football matches on a big screen. Unfortunately, much to my disappointment, I had to see Argentina and Paraguay go home, leaving Uruguay as the only Latin American team I can support, even though they left a bad taste in my mouth after beating Ghana in the nail biting match on Friday… I can’t even talk about it, I’m still sad.
Another highlight of our time in Axim Beach was running water. Angelina and I have been taking bucket showers for over a week, so it was nice to take real showers with real showerheads too. We take so many things for granted when they’re readily available to us, and although we don’t mind the bucket showers and can deal with the lack of running water, we also didn’t mind the opportunity for a real shower.
After much relaxing, reading, and eating, it was time to go back to Cape Coast. This time we rode a taxi to the nearest tro-tro station to catch our ride to Takoradi. We all bought our tickets and sat in the tro-tro. But you see, the tro-tros don’t leave the station unless every seat has been bought out. We sat in the tro for what seemed like an hour (but was probably more like 45 minutes), until we decided to buy out that last seat. The other Ghanaian passengers were getting frustrated with the long wait so they we were all happy when we were finally on our way. The driver was going very fast and the trip to Takoradi was like a pseudo rollercoaster ride, with all sorts of bumps and dips along the way, while trying to hold on to my book and whatever sentence I was reading. However, the breeze coming through the windows was very refreshing.
After one more tro-tro to Elmina and a taxi to the Kwaw’s, Angelina and I finally made it home. “Tomorrow we will have running water again” Wallace announced to us, “We are going back to living in the 21st century!” It was a nice weekend, we were tired but glad to be back home.
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