Northern Region: Mole National Park, Larabanga

After getting home from the gold mines on Thursday night, I came back to my room and slept for a few hours before getting up again at 2:30 am to leave for Mole National Park at 3. The ride was going to be approximately 14 hours to get up to the North. It was a really long day and we did get to the hotel in the park at around 5 pm. It was perfect timing because the hotel is literally in the park overlooking a waterhole and we got there just in time to watch the sunset. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. The place smelled like dirty dog (makes sense, a bunch of animals around) but you quickly got used to it. The rest of the night was just for relaxing and we got a nice surprise when a family of warthogs decided to sleep underneath our bus.

Driving Through Mole

Waterbucks

Larabanga

Saturday was probably my one most favorite day here in Ghana. We started the day off early and were greeted by families of Mona monkeys and baboons behind our rooms. At 7 am, we went on our first safari of the day and a group of us rode on top of the bus to get a better view. During the next two hours we caught glimpses of warthogs, baboons, bushbucks, waterbucks, and more in their natural habitat. We didn’t see any elephants though, but it was all right because our guard assured us that we would catch them on our second safari in the afternoon. After getting back to the hotel, we had a few hours to ourselves before heading into the nearby village of Larabanga. During this time we got breakfast, observed the beautiful view and hung out in the same area as many baboons because apparently they are not afraid of people. In Larabanga, we visited the historic mud and stick mosque that has been around since 1421. We walked around the village, visited the school and saw how much they depended on revenue from tourism. Most of the children weren’t even asking for our money but rather the water bottles in our hands seeing as since they are so far north even drinkable water is in short supply.  I don’t think any of us had a problem with giving them our water. Once we left Larabanga and went into the park we got lunch and waited for our next safari at 4. This one was much more eventful. 15 minutes into our drive we spotted an elephant. We immediately left the bus and headed toward him with our armed guard. I thought once he started to walk away that would be it, but we followed in pursuit. For a good 30 minutes we walked through the bush following this young elephant with every few minutes or so he would turn around and push us to back off some. This was absolutely exhilarating. How many people can say they chased an elephant around with the only in between you and him is the bush and a guard armed with tranquilizer. Once returning to the bus, we continued to drive around and we spotted another elephant (even though I didn’t see it) and some decided to pursue that one but it was a waste of time because it was too far ahead. The rest of the drive just consisted of seeing more families of waterbucks, bushbucks and antelope which was cool too because they were extremely fast and delicate creatures. After getting back to the hotel, we rested and had some dinner because that was enough adventure for the day. The next morning we left the park at 4 am and got back to campus at 9 pm.



Mom and Baby



This was without a doubt my favorite trip in Ghana of the whole year. It was amazing being able to see all this natural beauty that is protected from the damaging effects of the outside world. It was an unforgettable experience that renewed my love for what I am going to do for a living. If it wasn’t so far, I would be there every weekend J



Larabanga Mosque



Central & Ashanti Regions: Assin Manso Slave Site & Anglogold Asante Gold Mine

This past week, my CSU program decided to take us on our last and final trip as a group to Assin Manso Slave Site in the Central Region and to the Anglogold Asante Gold Mine in the Ashanti Region.  Because of different reasons only about half the group was able to go on Wednesday morning when we left for the slave site. The Assin Manso slave site was in a very remote area in the Central Region 3 hours away. This site was important because it was a major traffic area during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Here is where slaves from all over West Africa were priced and auctioned off to the highest bidder. This was also the location of the last bath these slaves would ever take before being sent to the slave castles at Elmina or Cape Coast before being sent to their final destination. This was the fate for those whose lives were spared. For others such as the weak, elderly, sick, pregnant women and children, they were sent behind a bamboo bush to be executed and buried because they wouldn’t be able to be sold for anything. The whole thing was pretty informative and even found out that according to our guide, Jamaicans are actually descendants of Ghana. Jamaica is where a large portion of these slaves were taken to and these would be the people to form a new nation. After the tour ended we headed to Kumasi where we would be sleeping for the night.

Early Thursday morning we left to be at the gold mine in Obuasi by 9 am. Of course things don’t go according to plan and we actually ended up getting lost for 2 hours. Every time we got directions from someone it took us further and further away and by the time we got the right directions we realized we were on the right track in the beginning and the first wrong set of directions started this whole domino effect. We got to Obuasi in an hour but since we were late we missed the time to go underneath into the gold mine so we would only be able to get a tour above ground. We were all really upset but there was really nothing we can do because there was no convincing the director since they were going to start blasting by the time we got there.  Since we didn’t get to go underneath, the whole thing was kinda a waste of time. the director started by giving us a 2 hour spiel of pure propaganda about how much good this gold mine has done for the community and Ghana. We could all see that it was a load of crap considering the community looked like every other run down rural town in Ghana despite him saying they contribute “hundreds of thousands” of cedis into the community. After that the rest of the tour consisted of just showing us whatever was above ground like elevator shaft and where the gold was processed. It honestly would’ve been amazing to see where the gold was actually extracted but oh, well. After that, we left for home and arrived at ISH 6 hours later.