During the last weekend of March my friend Patrick and
I went to the Volta Region. The Volta
Region is northeast of Accra. While on
our trip we saw the tallest waterfall in West Africa (Wli Falls), fed monkeys
at a monkey sanctuary (Tafi Atome monkey sanctuary), and climbed the tallest
mountain in Ghana (Mt. Afajato). This
whole weekend trip only cost about 90 cedi which equates to about 60 USD. This was an adventure, and for the cost it
was unbeatable.
The day started at about 9a.m. when Patrick and I
caught our first tro-tro to the Madina tro-tro station. After that we found a tro-tro going to Hohoe
(Hohoy) which cost 9 cedi. This was a
very good price since we would be traveling quite a distance. Upon our arrival in Hohoe we were very hungry
so we planned to get food. This plan was
diverted for a few minutes because the taxi drivers bombarded us with the
question of where we were going. One
taxi driver said he would find us food and take us to the falls for 30
cedi. When we walked with him to get
food another taxi driver came up to us and said he would take us to get food,
go to the falls, and take us to Tafi Atome for 30 cedi. The first taxi driver became angry at the
other driver and they began to argue over who was to take us. We ended up going with the younger taxi
driver because he had the better price.
Yabi and Amos were our “guides” for the first
day. Yabi’s role was to get travelers to
the cab and Amos was the driver. We went
to the Wli Falls and it was magnificent.
The falls were extremely high and the water was warm. The light sandy colored rocks that made the
falls formed around us and lush green foliage was found creeping down the
rocks. The sound of the waterfall was
very relaxing and the way it echoed within the cove encompassed me with a calm
not found in Accra. The walls
jettisoning out of the cove served not just an aesthetic feature but, also was
the home of many bats who simply hung on to the rocks and slept. These falls were unlike any other I had seen
before and they may in fact be my favorite place in Ghana.
After the falls we started what came to be our
“adventure” to Tafi Atome. The adventure
ensued directly after leaving Wli Falls.
The driver had to stop at his house in order to get his driver’s license
because there was a checkpoint on the way to the monkey sanctuary and without a
license he would have to pay a bribe to go through. This stop took us about 40 minutes out of the
way and since we were on a tight schedule this was not a good thing. The next stop was to by corn milk which Yabi
insisted that we should have; Patrick and I did not want the milk and simply
took it not to offend Yabi. Next, Amos
saw a friend and decided that he needed to get some more “African Snuff”
(African Snuff is merely tobacco in powder form so it is not illegal). This took about 20 minutes and then we still
had to drive about an hour to get to the monkey sanctuary. At this point Patrick and I were more than
ready to get to Tafi Atome and we made that known to Amos and Yabi. They eventually got on the road to Tafi
Atome; however, Patrick and I had to call the sanctuary in order for them not
to close. After speeding down a
dangerously rough dirt road we finally made it to Tafi Atome. After we paid to stay at the sanctuary we
went back to Amos and Yabi and gave them the 30 cedi price we had agreed
upon. Then both of them started asking
for 10 more cedi. This caused a rather
large argument between Yabi and I and Patrick and I walked away without giving
them any more money. While this was a
trying experience it taught me to stand firm on the agreed upon price no matter
what. This was a very beneficial
experience for not being pushed around. The
thing to keep in mind while traveling in Ghana is that everything is negotiable
and sometimes you may encounter people who want to take advantage of you;
however, if you stand your ground and make sure you listen to your intuition
about danger you should be fine. Overall,
I would say that even with the suspicious activity done by Yabi and Amos I
still enjoyed the first part of my trip to the Volta region.
