Atimpoku

Trip Start Mar 15, 2007

Trip End May 15, 2007

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Flag of Ghana Akasombo, Ghana
Saturday, April 14, 2007

I took an instant liking to the small town of Atimpoku, near Akosombo which lies at southern/most point of Lake Volta. It nestles on the banks of the impressive Volta river, whose dark expanse stretches between lushly vegetated mountains, and we had a fabulous meal out right at the Aylo bay restaurant.

The fairy lit tables are scattered among mango and palm trees, right at the waters edge and we could watch the occasional fishing boat meandering past as we ate our rice. We were also served very shitor sauce, a hot pepper paste thats normally not served to westeners on the assumption that its just too spicy but that i really like. When i requested it our waiter asked doubtfully Can you take it/! wanting to impress i ladled the sauce out of the serving dish and had tingling lips for days as a result!

Agomanya bead market

We continued with the bead theme in Atimpoku, making an excursion to the local market, where sellers were happy to tell us about the manufacturing process, since most of them also make the beads themselves. We had the chance to see a factory in action, although a conventional factory it was not.

Workers sat threading glowing glass spheres onto rope under a corrugated tin roof, and yound boys sat around scorching kilns moulding the stringy glass. A friendly man gave us a very well rehearsed explanation of how the bead moulds and apparatus are made, then showed us the various materials used including variously coloured glass bottles, which are pound into a powder then melted down.