Cape Coast, Ghana
Thursday, December 16, 2004
We left for Cape Coast. We ended up in another tro-tro today to our disliking, but the seats were more comfortable. The roads were still awful, mostly rocky dirt roads beside the new one they were building. So just when we thought we'd never make it and we'd get bumped off the edge of the world on this bumpy road, the road changed to a much better paved one. Then we could breathe again and we could laugh about how we had thought about having relatives here and how we'd never think about it now. We arrived in the hectic market, where everything from tennis shoes and sandals to handkerchiefs, soaps and breads were walking around on people's heads. After getting a hotel room, we heading to the historic Cape Coast Castle for a tour. The castle is an old fort that passed between the hands of the Danish, Swedish, and British. It was used to collect slaves for the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. We saw the dungeons and torture rooms where the slaves were kept before being loaded on the ships. After slavery was abolished in the late 1800's, the fort was used to ship out gold from the depths of Ghana (which is why its called "The Gold Coast"). The fort walls were lined with cannons and cannon balls that were original, from the 1600's. The castle was right on the rocky coast a beautiful white fortress with a spectacular view of the ocean.
Then we had dinner and desserts at a nice restaurant right on the beach. It was there that Michelle and I decided that we should strive for ice cream at least once a day. It's vacation right?
