Day 9: Lazy day in Accra

Black star arch near independence square

As the others were procrastinating about breakfast I took matters into my own hands and hopped over to Galitos for a chicken with spicy rice. When I got back we decided to go down town. The vague plan we had was to do some light shopping and to spend some time in our favorite beach resort hangout. Afterwards we would go to the La Palm Beach hotel – the most exclusive hotel in Ghana where they were supposed to have an African buffet. As usual we started from Frankie’s.
From Oxford Street we walked slowly towards the ocean, exploring the small streets and venues. We spent a good deal of time looking for an ATM – cash withdrawals had not been working for the past two days. They still weren’t (i.e. it’s Africa).

After two hours of walking around we reached Independence Square – the same place we had seen that awful concert the second day. Today it was empty and we took a closer look at it. An armed soldier guarding the place turned up asking us what we were doing. He didn’t object and let us out through a gate that led to the beach. It might be added here that Ghana has a reputation for having corrupt police officers and government officials. Although we did see a few police ‘money collection points’ on the way from Cape Coast we never faced a situation where we had to bribe an official. Most of the time they were very friendly and polite – including the military guards at the square.

Me, Julianna and Matilda at Indpendence Square

It was getting late in the afternoon so we decided to take a taxi to La Palm for the buffet. In Ghana it is completely dark by 18:00. It grows dark very quickly – a matter of minutes.

La Palm is another of those ‘Africa avoidance’ hotels that allows westerners to be in Africa without actually coming in contact with the local reality. This particular hotel is the most expensive in Accra and the one where visiting dignitaries stay at. It looks like a very typical holiday resort with swimming pools and sun chairs. As it turned out, the African buffet was only available at lunch so we had missed it. Instead we just refreshed with drinks and decided to try the Golden Tulip that was rumored to have a buffet as well. As it turned out, they did, but today was not an African but a Caribbean buffet which we weren’t interested in. I enjoyed instead a barracuda with rice and as usual pepper sauce. The barracuda was nice although not very exotic. As a dessert I had a magnificent tiramisu while the others had a rather bad chocolate mousse. Although we didn’t accomplish much that day, I was pleased – the others (still disappointed with their dessert) were not.

Enjoying an afternoon by the the beach