Index
The human pin cushion
Ghana, Nigeria, and Kenya trip report – pre-trip
The flights
Accra
Coconut Grove
The rain forest
Nigeria Air and Sheraton
Flight problems
Kenya
The trip home

It was finally time to check out of the Holiday Inn Accra. As I mentioned before it was a great hotel for a great price as well. I had the breakfast buffet in the morning that had a full American breakfast including an omelette station. It was now time to go to the Coconut Grove Elmina, which is a resort town on the coast of Ghana. In order to get there, I was going to have to take a bus from the Coconut Grove hotel in Accra. I hailed a taxi and headed out across town to the Coconut Grove hotel.

The bus was there waiting for me, and I boarded the bus with my luggage going under the bus. It was actually a quite nice bus with air-conditioning though there were no bathroom facilities on the bus. I asked the driver what the anticipated time was going to be. He said that it would take about three hours. Everyone was finally on the bus and we headed off to Elmina.

The traffic started to become very thick as we were leaving the city center and our driver headed down some residential streets to try and shortcut traffic. This worked for a while until he was forced to get back on the main road. Our tour guide tried to make the time pass by telling us about the monuments on the way.

After about 30 minutes on the side streets – we were back on the main road where traffic was at a complete stop. I thought that within a couple minutes we would be moving again but I was very wrong as we sat completely still.

While we were sitting there there were people walking up and down the streets selling all kinds of different goods. Most of them were carrying it on their heads. Some people were selling local soda pops, while others were selling fried plantains. The people selling items on the side of the road were enjoying a robust business as we had nowhere to go and the people on my bus wanted to entertain themselves while we were waiting.

I observed someone fixing something on a telephone pole. They didn’t have a truck to lift them up there – they just climbed up it.

I bought a bag of fried plantains for about the equivalent of $.50 and I must admit it was actually pretty tasty.
After 30 minutes had passed without making even an inch – we finally started to move again. Another 30 minutes elapsed of just inching forward before we were able to round the curve where the majority of the traffic was snarled up. We finally were on the straightaway and started heading to Elmina.

As I observed the countryside I was impressed by how many entrepreneurs there were on the side of the road. People were looking to sell all kinds of things – SIM cards, food and drink, and even clean places to take a shower and use the restroom.

I can only gather that the people in Ghana are very religious as the people on the bus would break out into gospel songs in order to pass the time. They all seem to know the songs though they were foreign to me.

We finally made it to Coconut Grove Elmina after 5 1/2 hours on a bus. It was night time and really dark and I was happy to be off the bus. Check in went smoothly and that night I had barbecued steak and chicken that was prepared on an outdoor grill.