Vacation

I recently got back from a three week vacation to Benin, Togo, Ghana, and Burkina Faso. I went with four PCV friends from my stage and we traveled by bus and bush taxi the entire way. It was an amazing time and we had so much fun relaxing, meeting local people, and seeing more of Africa. (I uploaded lots of new pictures -- http://www.flickr.com/photos/tricianewton/ )

Benin -- The bus ride from Niamey, Niger to Cotonou, Benin was very long, roughly 18 hours, but beautiful. The moment we crossed the border everything seemed to turn green immediately. The beginning of our trip was a little rough, though. The day after we arrived in Cotonou, I got sick and dehydrated. So instead of hitting the ground running, we found the PC bureau so I could get checked out and get medicine. After 24 hours of resting and re-hydrating, I was ready to go. We continued on to the beach towns of Ouidah and Grand Popo over the next few days. We made fast friends with some Nigeriens and fishermen in Grand Popo and watched the boats return from their morning at sea before eating some of their catch with them.

Togo -- We spent two days in the capital, Lome, and two days in a town north called Kpalime. Kpalime was a beautiful small town surrounded by mountains and lots of rainforest. We took a day trip outside of Kpalime to go hiking and see some waterfalls. The hike was a hard one for us although our guide seemed to hardly break a sweat. One of my favorite parts of the trip was finding the second, smaller waterfall where we could go swimming. I had never been to or seen anything so isolated and pristine; it was beautiful.

Ghana -- The majority of our trip was spent in Ghana. We spent only one night in the capital, Accra, which turned out to be a little overwhelming. The other capital cities were bigger and more developed than what we’re used to in Niger, but Accra was something else altogether. There were so many people and so many amenities; it reminded us of a US city with all the food courts and the shopping mall. We continued to Krokrobite and then to Cape Coast, a very old town with what seems like a mixture of Caribbean and Spanish influence. From Cape Coast, we took a day trip north to Kakum to do a canopy walk. It was beautiful being surrounded by such lush rainforest but it was also scary being so high up. Our last stop was a resort near Busua called the Green Turtle Lodge. It was the perfect ending because after picking up and going all the time, we got to sit in one place and relax for a few days before the trek back home.

Burkina Faso -- We were supposed to stay the night in Ouagadougou but decided to continue to Niamey immediately after we arrived from Kumasi, Ghana on the night bus. However, we had to stop and sleep on the side of the road before reaching the Niger border because it was closed at the time. So technically, we did stay in Burkina Faso. In all, we ended up traveling for the last 48 hours of our trip. It was brutal at times but we kept each other laughing and we definitely have some good stories now.