Cape Coast

Wednesday was a really long day of driving, but I think it was my favorite day in Ghana.  We got up early and drove to the Cape Coast Castle - a castle built in the early 17th century that was later used for trans-Atlantic slave trade.

I learned that many of the slaves were actually captured by other Africans and sold or traded to the Europeans for guns, alcohol, or other goods.  It was incredibly sad to walk into the dark, dank rooms where the men, women, and children were kept after they were captured and before they were transported on the slave ships.  The men were kept separately from the women and children.  The conditions must have been horrible, with so many people crammed into one room that there was only room to stand - they couldn't sit or lay down (not that they would necessarily want to since there were no bathroom facilities).  Once captured, their families were essentially broken - they would not have been kept together.  The slaves were kept at the castle until the slave ships arrived to take them to Europe, North America, South America, etc.  They would then walk through a tunnel, through an archway or doorway, and out to the ships.  A sign above the doorway now says The Door of No Return.  I can't even imagine what that must have felt like.  The conditions on the slave ships weren't any better.

Outside this door now, where there used to be tenders that would take the slaves to a slave ship, there is a fishing village.  The sights were incredible!  The colors, the sounds, everything was mesmerizing.  I think I could have watched them all day!

After leaving the castle, we went up to Kakum National Park in hopes to do the canopy walk, but there were about five bajillion buses of people there and we would have had to wait several hours for our turn.  Instead of waiting in the heat (I think this was the hottest day that I was there), we decided to go to the beach, where we had a delightful lunch of calamari, grouper, and lobster, and then I walked along the beach to collect sea shells.  The breeze along the ocean felt so nice in the beating sun.  The beach was so beautiful - it was definitely a juxtaposition to the poverty just on the other side of the road.  It definitely seemed like we were in a tropical paradise.

The restaurant where we ate lunch

 

Collecting shells

 

On our way home from Cape Coast, I took this quick video to give you an idea of the kind of activity that we see along the streets.