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[Nigeria]Nigerian glossary

2006-12-28

Elmina

Filed under: ghana,travel,VSO — kevin @ 15:16

We took a shared taxi to Elmina for ¢4000 each then had minerals before going into St George’s Castle, again at the discounted volunteer rate. This time things were less organised, we had a look at the museum then wandered around by ourselves. It has more rooms than Cape Coast Castle, mostly being renovated. The old powder magazine is now full of bats. The museum has an interesting exhibition on the local culture, rather than the slave trade.
Marebec standing on a drawbridge in front of a whitewashed castle. A castle courtyard, flights of stairs lead up to the entrance to the governor's residence. The entrance to a dark cell with a thick wooden door.  A skull and cross bones are carved above the doorway. Bats handing from a whitewashed vaulted ceiling, one flying past. A two-storey building sits in a castle courtyard, some tourists stand in front.  Construction materials clutter the courtyard. Arched windows in a white building with the remains of decorative stonework around them. Cannons point over battlements toward a whitewashed castle on a hill
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Cape Coast (26-28 December)

Filed under: ghana,travel,VSO — kevin @ 14:17

George (?) from Ellis’s offered to go to the village with us to sort out a car. He took us to the chief’s house, where after five minutes a driver appeared and wanted ¢200,000 (£11), we walked away to the tro-tro station.

A shared taxi to Agona is apparently the standard ¢5000 each but there were no cars waiting so we hung around at the station. Eventually a taxi turned up empty but wasn’t running as a shared taxi, George had called him. We agreed ¢60,000.

At Agona there were no tro-tros to Cape Coast so we had to go back to Takoradi. We had lunch at a chop shop, rice and stew with chicken for ¢7000 (£0.40) then returned to the tro-tro station but it was the wrong one. We walked across town, which was full of kids and young men in multi-coloured outfits with masks. There was a carnival happening in the street outside the tro-tro station. We bought tickets for the next tro-tro, ¢12,000 because it was a “big car” with four cramped seats across (it’s ¢14,000 in a smaller van with three seats across).

I had a sleepy and uncomfortable journey to Cape Coast, where we were dropped near a market. Due to a lack of street signs it was tricky to work out where we were and taxi drivers kept hassling us. I eventually figured it out and we made our way to the Red Cross Hostel. This is probably the cheapest place to stay in Ghana, ¢80,000 for a self-contained room with three single beds! It’s quiet and clean, in the Victorian part of town.
Street scene with cars and buildings. Multi-coloured buildings with a few church spires, the sea in the background.
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