Kakum National Park, El Mina Castle and Cape Coast Castle tour

Woke up at 5AM and getting ready for a full day trip to Kakum National park, El Mina castle and Cape Coast castle. It is funny that I would never woke up at 5 for anything when I'm at home, but when it comes to traveling, I'm game!

Kakum National Park: It is about 3 hours from Accra, better get there early in the morning on weekday because after 11AM and on the weekends, school tour groups will show up and you will get stuck behind hundreds school kids. I hired a tour guide for the Canopy walk and a individual tour of the park afterwards. I really enjoyed the canopy walk especially I'm afraid of heights.  But hey, conquering your fear, right? If you love nature, you can stay overnight and bird watching in the morning.

President Obama says Akwaaba (Welcome) to me. =) He is very popular in Ghana.

Solomon

Me crossing, keep telling myself don't look down. =)

Onyina, the wood is soft, so it developed spikes to protect itself. The taller the tree, lesser spick on the top

El Mina Castle: One of the two more famous slave castles in Ghana. El Mina means the mine, Ghana use to be called Gold coast because it produces gold (similar to Ivory Coast). El Mina castle use to called St George Castle (for the Portuguese king). First build by the Portuguese, then took over by the Dutch and then British. I highly recommend this place, very educational and can be emotional. It is a place where heaven and hell is only 20 feet away.


**An advice, before entering those castle (both El Mina and Cape Coast), someone will ask you for your name, when you exit, they will give you a shell with your name on it as a gift (it is free) and ask you to sign a paper to donate money to the local school's soccer team. DON'T sign it or give any money. just ignore them, thick skin is a MUST here. They have no prove they are part of a school and it is a trick to get your money.

El Mina Castle

Where female slaves go down to the Door of no return

The hole in the middle is the water well, the top stairs is where the governor talks to the slaves and pick the girls he likes. The girl have to climb up to the wall to "serve" the governor.

Punishment for disobedient female slave, they are chained to the ball (very heavy, none of the guys can pick it up) and stand in the sun without water.

The female dungeon, 200 females held here at a time. The stench is horrific even after all those years. Picture does no justice here, it was dark, damped and extremely hot.

Male Dungeon, there are 4 of those, 200 slaves in each.

The hole on the roof, where the soldiers lowers the food to the dungeon.

View to the outside

Door of no return, once the slaves leaves here, they will never be back to their homeland..

This is what heaven looks like, but remember, 20 feet below is the dungeon.

Sign that "honor" the first governor by the 2nd governor of the castle. He died of Malaria, the tour guide said that they should put up a monument for the mosquito that killed him right in front of this sign.

I'm like a celebrity in Ghana, those tourist (I think they are from Nigeria) wants to take pictures with me.

Cape Coast Castle: The major difference between Cape Coast castle and El Mina castle is that El Mina was original designed to store goods, Cape Coast castle was build for slave trading, so it is more efficient (for example, it has a repository system)

Cape Coast castle

The only black priest buried in the castle, he was a Ghanian educated in Britain, his family were the Raiders (group of men that kidnap other Africans and sell them to the slave traders), so he didn't speak against slave trade.

An African praying ceremony in the dungeon.

This castle is an *upgrade* compare to El Mina because it has a build in repository system.

This was left by president Obama and Michelle Obama on their visit to the castle.

Door of no return

Exit the Door of no return, slaves usually get on smaller boats here and transport to the transportation boat.

Cape Coast is mainly a fishing village now

Since the bottom door is for slaves, the soldiers go back to the castle from those stairs.

By this time, I'm exhausted! I haven't eat anything the whole day (Solomon didn't want to stop for lunch for some reason), I actually left the Cape Coast castle tour a bit early because I was hungry and my back hurts, I know, I know, I'm an American tourist. =)

There are alot of ant farms on the side of the road, some of them are over 6 feet tall.

Solomon is buying plantain for auntie, banana like fruit.

Solomon and I got back to Accra around 7PM, I asked him to take me to his favorite local eatery and show me the proper way to eat Banku. I was the only Asian in the restaurant and everyone was staring. To everyone's amusement, I used my right hand to eat rather than using a fork, talk about being localized! It brought a smile to Solomon and everyone in the restaurant. 

 You wash your hands with dish washing detergent before you eat, very harsh on your hand.

Palm and Orku soup with fish.

Banku

I ate with my right hand, left hand is consider unsanitary.

You suck your fingers when you are done. Solomon loved it, so were everyone else in the place. BTW - the food is awesome. The Banku have a sour taste in it, the soup is very flavorful. I drank the whole thing.