Day 3: Cape Coast

Recycling, Ghana style

One thing commonly associated with tourism is photography. Yes, you want to take holiday pictures that you can then force upon unsuspecting friends and relatives. In Ghana this is a big problem as people there positively hate to be photographed. Although it didn’t happen to us, it is not unheard of tourists getting their cameras smashed by upset people who resented having their picture taken without permission. As a rule you need to ask permission if you want to take a picture and as a rule you won’t get it. I’ve heard a number of explanations for this ranging from a simple “my image is my property” to the argument that we will just use the pictures to show how backwards and primitive Africa is. Either way overtly snapping everything interesting is not an option. Armed with a high-end DSLR camera, an ultra-compact camera and a digital video camera, I was getting frustrated. The compact camera was great as it allowed us to relatively covertly take some pictures now and then, but it was far from enough.

City Goat

That’s one of the reasons why I was looking forward to the bus ride to Cape Coast. It would allow me to take all the pictures I wanted and to shoot some video from the comfort and safety of the bus. And indeed almost half of my pictures taken in Ghana were done so during the three hour ride from Accra to Cape Coast. We were lucky – the bus was in good shape and only half an hour late (the return bus was cancelled). It was most interesting to see the outskirts of Accra and the country side. If Accra was poor it was nothing compared to the other parts where people still live in mud huts. On the side of the road you see a stand selling pineapples. 50 meters from it you see a stand selling pineapples. Another 50 meters from it you see a stand selling..you guessed it.. pineapples. There are hundreds of stands along the motorway just selling pineapples and on occasion some other fruit.

Pineapples..

Mostly they are women and often they carry small children on their backs, inhaling the exhausts from the cars. Over 25% of Ghanaian children never reach the age of 5 which is really not surprising given the conditions that they grow up in. Malaria is a big killer but I’m guessing that the air and water pollution are doing their part.

Street vendors are not only on the motor way but basically everywhere. You can get food and drink almost anywhere. In Accra you can also get almost anything you can imagine from the salespeople coming up to your car offering their merchandize. Their entrepreneurial spirit seems to end there however. There are no attempts at consolidating the fruit stands or organizing sales. In fact almost every single larger business in Ghana is run by foreigners. The hotels are run by Lebanese, the banks by Nigerians and all the real engineering projects by Europeans.

Boy selling oranges

Cape Coast is as the name suggests a coastal town. In its center is the big British slave fort that is its primary tourist attraction. Apart from the fort it is exactly as you would imagine an African village - small run down houses, no or little street lightning and lots and lots of people, especially children. Although it was obviously poorer than Accra, the atmosphere was much nicer and friendlier.

Roadside village.

We stayed at the “Mighty Victory Hotel” which was pretty nice by Ghanaian standards. It was certainly better than the hotel in Accra that I stayed in – and it was half the price ($30 for a room with AC). Yes, it was not up to western standards and had stained sheets and moldy walls etc, but in context it was pretty good.

In the afternoon we ate a nice meal at a beach restaurant that had some great food and unbelievable incompetent staff.

Completed dinner

Later in the evening explored the town. It was pitch black and no street lights. There were people, animals and music everywhere. Had it not been for the excessive car traffic it would have been excellent. It was still very nice and although we as usual got very much attention, it was a very relaxed atmosphere. We got lost a few times but found our way in the end. We all agreed that Cape Coast was a much nicer place than Accra.

Women near the Cape Coast castle

We got lost a few times but found our way in the end. We all agreed that Cape Coast was a much nicer place than Accra.

Cape
Coast beach