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| waiting in Takoradi |
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| Beyin |
This past weekend me and Des decided to kick off 2nd semester traveling by heading westward to visit the Nzulezo stilt village next to Beyin. We left campus Friday morning and headed to Nkrumah Circle to catch the earliest bus to Takoradi where we would be staying for the weekend. Luckily there was a bus leaving at 12:30 pm that had seats available and would get us to Takoradi by 6 so everything was good. The bus left the station at 1 pm (which is on time over here) and of course, an hour into the drive we stop at this town called Kasoa, which is still technically in Accra. At first we thought that we just stopped as a bathroom break/chance to buy food but after a while we found out our bus had actually broken down and they were trying to fix it. Only in Ghana. After an hour of waiting, another bus was supposedly on its way to pick us up and take us. Of course this bus that arrives to "take us" only had space for about 7 people because it was already full so that was basically useless too. Thankfully, after 2 hours of waiting they got the bus to start up again so we were able to get on the road again. We got to Takoradi around 8 so we got our hotel, ate some dinner and got ready for an early day ahead.
Because we read in our guide book that it takes 3-4 hours to get to Beyin from Takoradi and another hour to canoe to the stilt village from Beyin, we wanted to leave early so we get back early. We left our hotel at 6:15 am and headed to the tro-tro station to try to get the earliest tro-tro out to Beyin. Of course the earliest one was leaving somewhere between 9-10 and every other way of getting to Beyin was leaving around the same time so we had no choice but to wait. Tro-tros don't leave until every seat is taken so ours didn't actually leave until 11:30 which sucked but at least it was still somewhat early. Thankfully the trip only took 2 hours instead of 4 so we were able to get to Beyin by 1:30. There was a school field trip there too so we had to wait for our canoe so we had a chance to eat lunch and hang out on the beach for a bit. Around 4 we got our canoe and guide and headed to Nzulezo.
Nzulezo stilt village is located in the Amansuri Wetlands and is a village completely built on water. The only way of getting there is by canoe that takes roughly 45 minutes to get there. There is a man-made channel leading into the wetlands which are natural and is covered with jungles and until it widens into open water. I think getting there was actually more fun than the village itself because of how serene it is once you get out there. Anyway, once we got there I realized how small it was for a population of 450 people. We met the son of the chief of the village and got a little history lesson of the place. The ancestors of the village came from Mali and they believed in a higher power that told them where to settle down. At first when they migrated to Ghana they chose a site further north but when they reached the wetlands, these gods told them to settle down on the water so they did. There is no electricity running through this village and only obtain power through generators. There is a small classroom on site that allows children to attend primary school but once they finish that they have to attend secondary school in Beyin so every day they have to row back and forth into Beyin. The main way locals make a living is by fishing and the income that comes in from tourism. In order to promote tourism, a homestay was also made in the village so that tourists may stay overnight if they like as well.
The whole thing was pretty cool and we ended up getting back in Beyin by 6 and Takoradi by 8. We got back to our hotel and had dinner at the same place as the night before. At that restaurant we had the best pizza we've had since coming to Ghana. A bit small, yes, but it had actual cheese and tasted like a real pizza. I know I sound really dumb getting excited over a small pizza but when you haven't had anything resembling pizza since August, little things make you happy. Well, this is besides eating pide in Istanbul, which tasted alot like pizza but this was actual pizza. Anyway, we left Takoradi on Sunday at 9:30 and got back in a record time of 4 hours and caught a tro-tro back to campus to be home by 3. Despite minor road bumps at the beginning, I would call this trip very successful.
Going through the 2nd jungle
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