Misty Mountain Hop

Since I had to stay at home last weekend, it was time to exact my revenge on my illness by finally going up to the Volta Region. Meghan, Meaghan and I were ready to go from Friday to Monday.

Getting There:
Was trickier than expected. After our fruitless search all day Friday for a tro-tro, we took the STC bus to Ho, a three-hour ride, (plus a long delay). We didn't get in until 8pm and we still had to get to Tafi Atome, the monkey sanctuary that Lucas and Charlotte were waiting for us at. The tro-tro wouldn't go where we wanted, so we chartered a cab for an alright deal. We drove for an hour and drove through surfaced and not-so-surfaced roads. Whilst in the bush, a giant something crossed the road and we drove right over it. "It" turned out to be a giant rodent they called a "grasscutter", which the driver and his friend went back to pick up and take home, "for dinner". Yum. The car broke down three times on the way, but somehow each time it was fixed and we made it to Tafi Atome by 10:30, with rooms waiting for us. Sleep!

Tafi Atome:
Awoken at 6AM, about 10 of us tourists congregated for our tour primer. (Apparently we had missed dancing and storytelling the night before, damn) We only had to walk about five minutes into the forest before we encountered a pack of mona monkeys. They jumped from tree to vine to tree and took bananas right from our hands! Since it was an eco-tourist venture that shares the profits with the village, we didn't feel bad feeding them and they didn't seem to mind checking us out, so it was win-win for tourists, villagers AND monkeys. After about a half-hour, we returned to the village to eat breakfast. We commandeered a tro-tro and by 8:30 set off for our next destination...

Kente Cloth Village:
The five of us, along with three Americans, headed for the local kente cloth-weaving village. In Ghanaian culture, the kente cloth is a highly-regarded artform, which looks like a long, colourful Scottish tartan. We were welcomed by the villagers (note: we did not hear "obruni" once while in the Volta region... only "You are Welcome!" How friendly is that?) and taken to the weaving centre, where we watched some men weave at the machines and bought some of our favourite cloths as souvenirs. We took the tro-tro out and decided to head to the mountains...

Hiking Adventure the First:
We found ourselves at a lovely small inn (the Mountain Paradise Inn, to be exact) on a ridge out of town, less than 15km from the Togolese border. The rooms were very new, inexpensive and featured the most comfortable beds we've seen in this country. (No electricity though, but life goes on) We decided to hike the trails to look for the fabled waterfalls of Amedzofe. It took two hours before we hiked in a giant circle. So we asked for directions and found the right way. The waterfalls were beautiful, probably as much as 40 feet high in a giant canyon. We had the gall to go swimming under the waterfalls (and after a few hours of hiking, it was worth it!) and relaxed for a while. We got back to the inn before sunset.

Hiking Adventure the Second:
Dinner wasn't going to be ready before sunset, so we thought, "why not go for a walk and see the sunset?" This quickly turned into a hike up a nearby mountain peak. We trekked through the bush until it was just grassland near the top. We reached the summit just before the sun went behind the clouds just over the horizon. The view was spectacular, truly one of the ones that you remember for many years to come. But it was going to be dark soon (yay mosquitos) and so after a miscommunication, found ourselves in the bush in the dark. We got to the road, just as a raincloud had passed over the mountains and began to downpour on us. It was the most wonderful rain that we couldn't escape, so we embraced. Meaghan and I danced in it and when it was over, a full moon rose over the mountains in time for dinner, which was delicious and plentiful. We had some great conversations with the other Americans, one who had been in the US Peace Corps for almost two years in Niger and his sister and her boyfriend who were visiting him. He had many tales of what it's like to live just under the Sahara in a traditional society assisting an agricultural program. It didn't take long for us to fall asleep that night.

The Return:
Lucas woke us up at dawn and I watched the sun come over the mountains (a common theme?) through the mist that had settled over the range. Breakfast came and was delicious as well and we relaxed, wondering what our next move would be. After much deliberation, we decided that we had squeezed all the juice out of the weekend that we could and decided to tro-tro it home. Meaghan, Charlotte and Lucas met some more Americans who gave them a ride back to Accra in their car. Meghan and I decided to wait for a tro-tro to head back South. Eventually, one came by that would take us all the way back to Accra! We got home in a little over 3 hours, which was great and we even beat the others in the car. We celebrated with dinner and ice cream at Asase Pa, our favourite vegetarian restaurant.

Epilogue:
I really needed this weekend to remind myself why exactly I was in Africa - to see Africa! I've been feeling low since I got sick and have been thinking about home a lot, so this helped put my stay here into perspective and I'm feeling a lot better. As a destination, I totally recommend the Volta Region - in fact, we may return there soon for the big Yam Festival in Ho. The people were the friendliest I'd met and we didn't spend a whole lot for three days: about 420,000 cedi ($55 CDN)!