A term coined by Nikki and Amy, it accurately describes our weekend in the Western Region of Ghana traveling to Beyin and Nzulezo Stilt Village.
We just arrived back after taking a weekend trip to the Western Region of Ghana, further than we travelled when we went to Cape Coast in the Central Region, where we planned to go to Nzulezo Stilt Village as well as going to Beyin Beach. Of course, not all things go as planned when you travel by tro-tro but we all agreed that the ways things worked out was the best possible scenario for all of us.
Nikki, Melissa, Amy, and I all headed from home around six in the morning on Friday and met at Circle, via tro-tro, in downtown Accra to catch our second tro-tro of the day to Kaneshie. At Kineshie we found a tro-tro going to Takoradi within minutes of arriving. However, the wait for the tro-tro to fill took two and a half hours. In the meantime, we enjoyed all the snacks around us, listened to men preach about God, listened to other men try to sell worm medication, and I for one, slept. Finally when the tro-tro was full we headed off to Takoradi, which took about four hours to get to. Once we arrived we found another tro-tro going to Beyin and again had to wait for it to fill. So in the meantime, we ate fan-ice products, found a bathroom (that of course cost 20 pesawas), and then we were off. About halfway through the ride it began to rain and get dark because it was getting late. I started to get a little nervous, thinking maybe it would be okay if we needed to sleep in the tro-tro overnight, but knowing that we would definitely make it to our destination in one piece. We finally arrived in Beyin but our tro-tro driver was not quite sure where we were going. Originally we were planning on staying in the stilt village for the first night and at Beyin Beach Resort the second night but because of our late arrival we called ahead and made sure we could stay at the beach resort both nights. This turned out to be a great decision as we then had time to rest the night before we set off on the journey to the stilt village.
Our bungalow, where we stayed both nights, had four beds with mosquito nets and just enough room to walk between them. The bathroom was a shared bathroom and was just down a little walkway from our bungalow. It felt like I was at Girl Scout Camp once again, but in Ghana.
The next morning, on Saturday, we woke up, ate breakfast and headed out to visit Nzulezo Stilt Village, which is a village built completely on stilts above water. We set out on quite the walk to get to the water where we then got into a canoe and started paddling to the village. Once we got to the village we didn’t spend too much time there because there were many tourists visiting that day and the canoes needed to get back to take them.
The village became a tourist attraction in 2000, according to one of the villagers who answered our questions, and the villagers do not mind the tourists because without the donations from the tourists they would be unable to fund their village school. There are about 500 residents in the village. Although it did feel slightly awkward to go and just look, it was amazing to see another way of life, another way of living and surviving.
Once we had walked down their main road, which was a boardwalk with houses built on the side, and seen the school, we got back into the canoe and headed back for lunch. We found a place, literally the one restaurant in Beyin, to eat at called “Café Puerto.” Then we headed to the beach – our very own! There was no one on the beach and it was so nice to enjoy the afternoon in the ocean.
Then we headed back this morning, four more tro-tros and an air-conditioned bus ride later we got back home early in the afternoon. There were more than a couple times during which we found ourselves, four white girls, alone in the tro-tro, just heading to the end of the road.
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