Ghana Part 2: Nzulezo Water Village

After a 2.5 hour drive into Ghana's Western Region, we hopped into very tiny, precarious little canoes and paddled for an hour through the marsh and jungle to get to Nzulezo, a village of 400+ people who have been living in homes on stilts over the water for over 500 years. 

The canoe ride itself was an adventure.  My canoe-mates paddled and my job was to bail out the water we were taking on with half of a plastic jug.  As soon as we pulled away from shore, we were caught in a torrential downpour for the whole journey.  Maybe it's the Seattelite in me, but I found the rain a refreshing break from the West African heat, even if we were soaked to the bone.

Visiting the village felt very awkward and I was glad we didn't stay long.  The community clearly has come to rely on income from tourism, but understandably, the people did not appear to appreciate the constant intrusion of outsiders...hence the lack of locals in my photos.

Ghana Part 1: Cape Coast and Elmina Castles and Slave Dungeons

This was SAS's first time docking in Takoradi, the closest you can be on land to 0 degrees latitude, 0 degrees longitude.  The city itself is not too big and hasn't seen much tourism compared to a lot of our other destinations.  I found the Ghanian people to be very warm, welcoming, and very eager to acquire friends/pen pals in other countries.

Our first day in port, I went to Cape Coast and Elmina to visit the castles and slave dungeons formerly held by the Portuguese, Dutch, and British colonial powers.  Elmina is the oldest, biggest, and essentially where the Atlantic slave trade started in Ghana.  The Cape Coast castle boasts a visit from Barack and Michelle Obama in 2009.  Obama is such a rock star here that they slap his face on everything from school notebooks to cookie wrappers to politicians' campaign signs.

Cape Coast Castle

Cape Coast Castle:  Door of No Return...where the slaves exited the dungeons to board ships to the new world.

Coastline where the slave ships used to dock.

Inside the Elmina Castle:  Female Slave Dungeons.

Elmina Castle:  Door of No Return.

Elmina

Marrakech and the Ourika Valley

Marrekech

Majorelle Gardens

Sooks in Marrekech

Lantern shop in the Sooks.

Berber Village in the Ourika Valley

Berber woman makes us mint tea...yummmm!

Berber kids share their kitties with the American kids.

Casablanca

People in this photo are not as large as they appear.

The Tutus

Hassan II Mosque

What a day!  With nothing else planned for the day, I decided to hop on a city tour of Casablanca and ended up on the same bus as the Tutus!  We went to the Hassan II Mosque (where a little boy thought he recognized the Archbishop and shouted "Nelson Mandela!"), the Kings Palace, and Our lady of Lourdes Catholic church, with a couple of other stops along the way.  Today was the end of Ramadhan, so the city was mostly quiet until we came upon a big celebration in one of the main plazas.

When we got back to the ship I shared a dinner table with the Tutus.  Arch (as he likes to be called) offered me a piece of his banana for dessert.  I don't know what else on this voyage can top that!

Door to the King's Palace.

Knock knock!

End of Ramadhan celebration.

Last days in Spain...Sevilla and Cadiz

Bull ring in Sevilla from La Giralda tower.

Sevilla from atop the Cathedral.

Cathedral in Sevilla at night.

The Alcazar in Sevilla.

Do I need a new outfit?

Low tide in Cadiz.

Marci and I in Cadiz.

 

 

 

 

Shark for dinner anyone?

While I was changing my camera battery and not paying any attention, the butcher picked up the shark head, which was dripping blood, and held it right up to my shoulder and scared the daylights out of me. 

Spain!

Cadiz

Arcos de la Frontera

Stephanie and I in Ronda.

Ronda

Horses at the Feria Goyesca de Pedro Romero in Ronda.

At long last, I'm back on dry land!  The Atlantic crossing was pretty bumpy at first while we were speeding up to get past a hurricane, but the rest was smooth sailing. The other day we sailed past the Azores and I've never been so happy to see land...even though we didn't get to stop there.  There's no shortage of work to do on the ship, so I'm keeping busy and being challenged every day.  After 12 straight days of sailing, working, and off-and-on seasickness, I'm happy to say I'm finally in Spain!

We sailed into Cadiz, on Saturday morning and I enjoyed a long day of aimless wandering, and lots of eating.  Churros, paella, gelato, and sangria have never tasted so good.  I have to give the ship's crew credit for coming up with so many different recipes with the same ingredients, but I just can't eat another iceberg salad, pasta, or potatoes.

Today I went to Arcos and Ronda, a couple of the "White Towns" of Andalucia.  Ronda only has three bullfights each year and all of them were this weekend, so we stumbled across quite the festival...a people-watching extravaganza!  Other than the scorching sun (I've got a nice pink forehead right now) it was a great day.

Tomorrow...off to Sevilla!

Day 4: Halifax

Going to be seeing a lot of these!

Between the sea sickness, the millions of things to do in my new role, and the lack of sleep (we're going to have many, many 23 hour days ahead - starting to think the Spring voyage would have been a smarter choice) I am SPENT!  I don't know if I "have my sea legs" yet, or if the patch behind my ear is just made of magic, but I am starting to feel like myself again. One thing is for certain...I like this ship a lot better when it's not moving.

I'm working with a great team of energetic, helpful people and that is the only thing keeping me from losing my mind in the midst of constant schedule changes and conflicting or lack of information.  We sailed into Halifax this morning and our work-study students boarded early to help us get ready for the rest of the 600 students who board tomorrow!  I'm very grateful to have the extra hands on deck, because with 81 residents in my area, I'm going to have my hands full...especially when they will all be as sick as the faculty and staff were on our first day at sea.

Tomorrow night we set sail for our 7 day crossing of the Atlantic!  Wish me luck and sea legs!