Weekend trip to Ankasa Nature Reserve

first night (Tacoradi)

The muddy dirt road our taxi got stuck in !

A transparent leaf ( you can see me walking through it!)

STC Bus Station

On the way to Tacoradi...

The Frenchman's Quarters

Dried Coconuts

Walk to where we stayed.

Cocoa Plants

The village kids chasing after us

Slept on this bridge during the 4 hour gap between our 2 hikes

By far the largest spider ive ever seen!

Elephant Skull

Inside our room

waiting at the tro tro station Sunday Morn

I will back up starting on Friday...me and 3 of my friends, Kelsey, Julia and Annie decided to travel to the Western Region to Ankasa Nature Reserve located near the Ghana-Cote d'Ivoire border.  We had it all planned out how we were getting there and as you can guess, barely any part of our trip went according to plans! We arrived at the STC bus station around 2 and were told that the 1230 bus to Tacoradi hadn't arrived yet, so we could buy tickets for it.  We waited, and when the bus finally came, we stood in line, or "cue" as they call it here.  I can say that forming a line in Ghana doesn't mean anything, instead you've just got to cut and force your way in front of people.  So many people ended up doing this to us that we couldn't fit on this bus. So...we waited a half hour and another one came at 330. By this time there was so much traffic within Accra that we ended up sitting in it for over a good hour atleast.  Now, our plan was to take the bus to Tacoradi (the farthest possible stop) and then catch a tro tro from Tacoradi to Elubo (the border town) and catch a taxi to take us to the reserve.  The estimated bus time from Accra to Tacoradi is 4 hours, which if all went as planned, would have put us in Tacoradi when it was dark.  Then the tro tro ride to Elubo is 3 hours, which would mean we'd be traveling at night, and speaking to a couple of ghanaian friends we made at the bus station, they said just get a hotel, dont travel because its very likely you can get robbed out on the dark roads.  The bus ride ended up taking 6 WHOLE HOURS! We got a hotel room, with the help of a really nice ghanaian man who's been living in the US the past 8 years. He was really concerned about making sure we got to a hotel safely.  Saturday morning we woke up at 4 am, left the hotel at 430 and searched for the tro tro station.  It was still really dark at this time and we had only the slightest idea of where the station was located.  We walked back and forth and eventually with the help of a nice street vendor, we found the station and headed to Elubo.  We were immediately swarmed with taxi drivers the second we stepped out of the tro tro in elubo, and eventually took a taxi for what we later found out to be almost double what it should have been! Oh well, its difficult when you dont know the area and you are clearly a foreigner.  The drive to Ankasa was definitely an adventure...it was a dirt road going in to the forest, there were a lot of pot holes (definitely not smooth at all!), and it had just rained so the road was all muddy. We ended up getting stuck in the mud, and when the driver stepped on the gas, mud drenched his entire car...lol.  Finally we made it in to the main gate and spoke with one of the men working there. We explained to him how we wanted to stay in the camp in the park that we read about in our guide book.  He said that they got rid of that some years ago..we asked if there was any possible way to stay in the forest and he said its not recommended as there are no security guards nearby you. We were pretty upset about this but got over it and stayed in this little place out in the forest near a village called the Frenchman's Quarters.  It is difficult to describe, it wasn't a hotel, more like a little bungalow.  We did 2 hikes throughout the day with a tour guide and it was absolutely beautiful! Our place we stayed in was about a 20 minute walk from the entrance to the park, so we had to walk through a village.  There is a big difference between the people who live in the city and those who live out in the rural areas.  In the rural areas, they are much more friendly towards you and welcoming. As we were walking along a swarm of about 10+ kids came running out to us shouting "obruni, obruni!!!". They were so excited to see us and ended up chasing us all the way to the end of the road and waving goodbye until we were out of sight.  It was adorable.  At night time, the Frenchman as he is called, made us a dinner and we sat around playing games outside.  It was so peaceful being out in nature away from big cities and the chaos that comes with them.  We went to bed somewhat early since we were waking up at 430am to take a taxi to catch a tro tro back to Tacoradi.  As we laid in our room we could hear all the noises of different animals and insects outside.  It was really peaceful and something im not used to!  However, i got the worst nights sleep of my life.  We just shared one room to save some money and all 4 of us girls crammed in to one bed the size of a full mattress and it was realllllly tight!!  I hardly slept and woke up so sore this morning!  Today we traveled back to Accra and had much better luck.  We made it home by 2pm!