Here I am in Ho...

Which is the regional capital of the Volta region. I had planned to
spend the night in Akosombo but I made such good time that I went on.

July 1st is Republic Day, so I took off Thursday at about noon and
it took forever to get into Accra. Then I caught a trotro to Aburi
where I had to get a shared car to Mamfe to get a trotro to Kofuridua.
I think I could have gotten accra-kofuridua straight but I didn't
know at the time and the guidebook implied that my route was the only
way. The roads were twisty and hilly and it was foggy and at times
rainy, so a bit scary plus half the time the beautiful scenery was
blocked by the fog. In Mamfe the taxi driver tried to tell me it
was snowing. HA. Then from Kofuridua another shared taxi to Boti
Falls where I spent the night in a very dingy dark room with no
electricity and a fan and lightbulb and toilet and bathtub that I
think were just there for show or in hopes that the tecnology would
make it eventually - made me wish I'd spent the night in Kofuridua,
but it was worth it in the morning because the caretaker arranged the
hike for me so I got an early start. I saw the falls, which are
pretty but just down a ton of steps (on which I received a marriage
proposal and had to tell him I had a boyfriend, then he wanted to
marry my sister so I said I have only brothers...). Even at 7:30 am
the falls were crowded with food vendors and Ghanaian tourists - this
isn't usual; it was all for Republic Day. Luckily my hike started at
8 and ended at 10 and we only ran into the throngs on the way back.
The hike goes to a kind of interesting natural cave - just a rock
that justs out, not caverns or anything - and a spectacular "Umbrella
Rock" that is like two huge round rocks balanced on top of eachother
but it's actually one rock and the top is flat. Gorgeous views.
Also this three-trunked palm tree, but the umbrella rock was the cool
part. The hike was quite strenuous, scrambling up and down sometimes
very steep places, and we kept up a fast pace. Anyway, I bought a
bag of rice back at the falls and snacked on that all the way through
Kofuridua and then on the way to Kpong (K is silent) where I rode
in the front seat of the trotro which made for marvelous views. From
there I went to Akosombo, a short ride, got ripped off by a taxi driver
taking me to the dam tour, took a pretty cool tour of the dam, decided
the canoe ride was way too expensive, had a drink at the luxurious
Lake Volta Hotel (I paid 9000, but for the view and the AC and the
bathroom and soap and hot water it was so worth it) an then went back
to Kpong and on to Ho. My hotel here, Tartu, has a nice manager
who just walked me all the way to the internet cafe. So that's been
my busy two days...tomorrow I'll poke around the markets here and go
to the Tafi Atome monkey sanctuary and the nearby kente-weaving village.

Some signs along the way...

-Guinness ad both on a sign with an arrow to a primary school and
on a sign for the ghanaian army officers' mess in Accra
-Last Stop Prayer Camp on the way from camp to Accra - note that
there are churches every 20 feet.
-Maggi Shitto ads all over Knieshe (where trotros from camp to accra
stop) often with the frame cutting the o off - it's some sort of brown
canned food
-Benji's sexy hot spicy tilapia on the way from camp to accra - I think
i saw this right, I had had my eyes closed so my contacts were a bit off
-all over Accra and scattered all over Ghana are Latex Foam: Your
Partner for life ads
during the rest of my travels...
-Miracle Child Accademy
-Don't mind your wife chop bar
-variety of joint Hair salon and comm. center places
-My Life Depot
-Winners' Chappel (and the other churches are for losers?)
-Understanding Fast Food
-To Be a man of God poultry birds for sale
-blood of jesus comm. center
-god and sons mobile phone co.
-slow but sure tailor's

Then there was the sign that said something like "AIDS is real, women
and girls protect yourself, use a female condom" and had a six-part
graphic diagram of just how to do so. Also, all over Ghana there's
ABC campaign signs - that's Abstinence, Be Faithful, Condom Use, but
one said Condomise instead.

This place has such a nice fan. I'm not eager to leave because I'm
not that nhungry, on the trotro I had corn on the cob. Usually you
see what looks like it in camp but it has the taste and texture of
bad popcorn, but this was the real, slightly chewey, thing.

I'm so excited about the sox - Johnny beating Ichiro for a starting
spot, first place, all that. Definately I'm missing being at games.