Part 1/3 Green Turtle Lodge
Mo and I traveled to the western part of Ghana with the final destination of Takoradi. Jarett and Anna Rose were to follow on his motorcycle the next day. Mo and I were a bit excited to attempt the confusing travel route without our expertise leadership of Jarett. It took all day in vans of various sizes and with the help of a innocent small girl named Sophie we found a bus rather than a taxi to the the Lodge. We gave her some coins for her help. As her friends came up to sell us berry tea in bags we declined. Sophie, seeing this, offered us our coins back to buy the tea at which point her tea-selling friends smacked her in the back of the head saying "Sophie!" It was adorable.
From Takoradi we took Sophie's tro-tro to The Green Turtle Lodge which you can check out here: http://www.greenturtlelodge.com/ This eco-tourism lodge was started by a young British couple that works to do research on the sea turtles there and be an environment friendly tourist stop. The beach was unbelievably beautiful like some kind of Corona commercial. Locals walked by with buckets on their heads. One child picked up her small pup and placed him too on her head. We camped in mattressed tents in an open building for 5 cedis a night. Did you catch that? A honeymoon type location on a secluded gorgeous beach for 5 CEDIS A NIGHT! Staying in a lodge house was only double that price. I always imagined a place like that costing an arm and a leg and here we were. I didn't bring enough money so we had to scrimp our funds and find cheap food at the local village until Jarett and Anna Rose arrived. We walked 20 mins to the village and a young boy said he could take us to buy rice. His tour lasted 15 minutes as we crossed a bridge and walked through the mud houses of 3 villages catching sights of puppies and bathing children all excited to see us. That walk was maybe one of my favorite memories. The food was great and cost us only 60 pesewas (42 cents). That boy Joshua also gave us coconut to eat and we bought whole pineapple to eat on the beach later. AMAZING.
Mo and I were a bit worried when Anna Rose and Jarett didn't show up and when we got back to the University having only spent 40 cedis(29$) each on our 3 day trip we found them bruised and bandaged from a motorcycle accident. They were fine and we had fun making fun of Jarett's shaved eyebrow and quasi-modo like bruise. We weren't the only ones to have fun-Ghanaians were extremely curious about his bandage and people he didn't know would constantly cross the street to stop him and ask "OH sorry! What happened to you? Weren't you wearing a helmet?" Eventually Jarett stopped leaving his room because that small village custom of knowing everyone's business still very much exists in the big city of Accra.
