Castles and Canopies

After a great breakfast of fresh omelets, looking out over the ocean, we met up with Papa (our taxi driver) at 9:00 to head towards town and visit the slave castles. Our first stop was the St. George Castle, originally built by the Dutch, but operated by the British for the majority of time that it was the center of slave trade in West Africa. We took a guided tour that lead us through the dungeons where slaves were imprisoned, the tunnel that lead out to the ships for the voyage to the Americas, and the officers quarters. We were in a group of about 15 people, and it was a different experience for different types of people. There were Africans, Europeans, African Americans, and Anglo Americans. It was very sad for us to think about all the people that suffered, but was particularly more emotional for the African Americans who were with us and were confronted the same steps that some of their ancestors also walked. The experience was both sobering, and numbing.

Following the castle we visited a store on the way out, looking at shirts and dresses. We saw a man there wearing a beautiful piece of Kente cloth - and Julianna told him so! He said thank you, and the shop keeper told us that he was a king. It turned out that we had run into the King of that region, and we enjoyed a short conversation with him. After that fun experience, we headed back out to the street and met up with Papa to head into Elmina.

Back in Elmina we decided not to head to the second castle, but instead spend some time having lunch and walking around the town. Julianna found a great fabric store, where we purchased a couple of different patterns that we planned on bringing back to Togo to make some shirts and dressed with a tailor that Cate knows. A bit more walking around the shops, and the heat started to take it's toll - so we called it a day for Elmina.

After a little debating back and forth, Karsten, Julianna, and I decided we had better make the most of it while we were here... so we opted to head to the canopy walk in a nearby forest while Wayne and Cate headed back to the hotel (they had already done the walk on a previous trip). So, we got back in the taxi with Papa and headed off towards the canopy walk.

On arrival we found out that a group was just about to start the trek, so we got our tickets and joined the tour. The walk starts with a steep climb up a hill to reach the entrance to the canopy walk. At the top of the hill we saw the start of the narrow wooden bridge that headed out into the treetops. We were first up, and headed out onto the walkways, one person at a time. There are about seven spans of a few hundred feet each, and all are high above the ground (at least 200 feet). The views were great, although the height produced the occasional woozy feeling!

Post canopy walk, we got back in the taxi and returned to the hotel to rest up from a long day in the heat (and get some ice cream!). We had a relaxing late afternoon by the pool, looking out at the waves - and finished up the evening with another round of experimenting with the local food on the menu. We were all happy with the new cuisine, and ready for a good night's sleep by the time we finished eating!