TOGO!

Here’s the Togo blog!:

We decided to leave early Saturday morning instead of mid-day Friday, and I think we made the right choice, seeing as from the time we left Ghana to the time we got to our hotel in Togo, it was about 7 hours. Here in Ghana there’s a lot of waiting around, and we did our fair share of that en route to Togo. Anyway, after four hours, several taxi and van transitions, we got to Aflao, the Ghanaian city on the border. Crossing the border was unlike any customs process I’d ever done before, especially since the “border” was a rope tied to poles that men either pulled or let lay on the ground for cars to drive through. Kinda hilarious. Anyway, our van dropped us off on the Ghanaian side. There are very few signs or directions on where to go or how to actually cross the border, but after visiting several different buildings and handing our passports over to several different officials, we walked our way across the Ghanaian border and into Togo! Simple as that. On the Togo side, we were immediately hit with the fact that you can NOT visit Togo if you don’t know French. It’s impossible. Luckily, Marika and Emma spoke a little French, just enough to get us to and from places and make decent small talk. This was a really interesting phenomenon for us to witness: that a border (indicated by a rope nonetheless) was the dividing line between English and French speaking people. Definitely a very apparent exhibit of the Berlin Conference. That someone standing on the other side of the rope 5 feet away from me could know no English, just because of some arbitrary line, is pretty interesting once you witness it firsthand. Anyway, on the Togo side, we went through their version of customs, which isn’t that luxurious either, and got in a cab in Lome, the capital. We took a cab from the border to the bus station, where we caught another tro-tro for our two hour ride to Kpalimé (pronounced polly-may).
Gillian, Me, Tina, and Emma in a tro-tro. Very crammed, and VERY sweaty.

Once we got to Kpalimé, we checked into a “hotel” (more like a hostel) called Hotel Bafana Bafana. The five of us split up between two rooms. Gillian and I got the “nicer” room—by paying three extra Cedi, we got a shower (which we didn’t use) and a sink! What luxuries. Anyway, as you can see from the pictures, the conditions were less than ideal, and we ended up sleeping on top of our towels on top of the mattress, and used our pillows to cover the cracks at the bottom of the door that would let in mosquitoes at night otherwise. We doubt the sheets/pillows had been washed in a while. After checking in, we made our way to a restaurant the guide book told us about. I don’t remember the name of it, but I have a picture of the sign somewhere. Anyway, we got there about 5:30 but the chef wasn’t due to come until around 7, so we sat outside and drank Flag beers (the Togolese beer, very good) and talked for a few hours. We were shortly joined by a nice guy, about 25, named Gregory, who told us he was a tour guide and loved showing people around the mountain and waterfalls, if we were interested. We told him that’s exactly what we came to Togo to do, and that we’d love to have him show us around. He ended up eating dinner with us, and helped us order our food (since he spoke French, English, Ewe, and a little Twi). The chef finally came and greeted us all as if we were family, trying his best to speak English to us, since we couldn’t speak any French to him. We all ordered spaghetti, which was delicious! After dinner we picked up some bag water/sachet water, which we used to fill our bottles with for the next day’s hike. We don’t have anything like bag water in the states, so I don’t know how to explain it really other than it’s a small plastic bag, sealed on all four sides, that holds 500 mL of water (the equivalent of a normal sized water bottle). You rip off a corner of it with your teeth, and drink the water like that. It’s REALLY cheap. 30 bags cost 1 Cedi (less than one dollar). It was my first time drinking bag water, because sometimes they warn us against using off-brands, but it was fine and I’m fine. J I’ve now found a more economical way to be drinking LOTS of water, constantly. I know that makes you happy, Mom. So we headed home and got to bed fairly early because we were set to meet Gregory at 7:30 at a local breakfast place. Gillian and I didn’t sleep much because it was SO hot, but I woke up refreshed anyway.

We started Sunday morning right at 6:30, getting ready and heading over to breakfast to get a bite to eat before we met Gregory. He showed up at 7:30 right on the dot, and had arranged for a taxi to take us everywhere all day. The taxi took us up the mountain about half way, and we walked up the rest of the way to the top. On the way, we saw this HUGE tree that must’ve been over 100 years old, whose roots were over 15 feet tall. The tree reminded me of the huge trees in Yosemite.
THE tree

Anyway, the mountain is part of a chain of mountains that are all connected. Each mountain houses many different villages, one of which Gregory belongs to. We overlooked the entire city of Kpalimé, and could see Ghana in the far distance.
Togo, Africa

We worked our way back down and around the mountains, walking through various villages, passing schools and churches that were in session. The coolest part of it all was that if Gregory hadn’t have been with us, we wouldn’t have had any idea these tucked-away villages even existed. We stopped along the way for Gregory to point out various plants and animals. I can’t remember the names of any plants, because they were all in French, but there was whose leaf, when rubbed together in your hands, disintegrated and turned into dye. The natives use the dye to dye cloth and paint on their skin, and Gregory painted a butterfly on my arm with the red dye from the leaf (that is what’s on my arm in the waterfall picture). It was the COOLEST thing! There were other plants that did the same sort of thing, and produced green or white colors.

Not blood, but the dye from a tree leaf. Also, if you click on the picture and enlarge it, you can see that the girls are holding bag water in their hands.

There were goats roaming free EVERYWHERE, and we saw chickens and baby chicks that were dyed bright pink. Gregory said this was so they were easy to spot if they got away (I guess they’re valuable commodities and can’t be lost). We saw plants that were low to the ground, and if you touched its leaves, the entire plant closed up and would remain closed for 15 minutes. We saw all sorts of fruit trees- pineapple bushes, banana trees, cassava plants, huge gourd type things, palm trees that had been cut down to make palm wine out of, etc. etc. We were literally walking through the forest and jungle on a tiny tiny trail that was completely unoccupied, except for the occasional local walking to or from his home.

Walking through the jungle, not quite Disneyland

We stopped in Gregory’s village and ate some bananas he picked for us fresh off the tree, and took a break while he visited with some of his friends. Gillian and I had to pee, and not to get too graphic or anything, but we are getting very good at relieving ourselves wherever nature calls us. ANYWAY, I mostly included that last sentence to laugh at later when I re-read this blog 10 years from now.

After wandering around down and through the mountain, we headed back UP to meet our taxi driver (this hike back up was REALLY difficult, as we were hot and tired). The taxi driver drove us a little ways to another mountain, where we hiked DOWN huge, steep steps to get to the base of a waterfall. (We knew that getting back UP the huge, steep steps would be a trip.) The waterfall was GORGEOUS, and refreshing to feel the water mist in our faces after being in the hot sun for a good portion of the day. We sat on a rock directly in front of the waterfall, and just rested and enjoyed the jungle and mountain that were around us. It was really, really cool, in every sense of the word. The hike back up was HARD, as we were on a complete incline, climbing up steps that were 3 feet high. Talk about the most intense Stairmaster ever. BUT, once we got to the top, it was so rewarding, as always. I need more physical activity, for sure. Hiking a mountain really makes you realize how out of shape you really are, ha.

Anyway, we paid and thanked Gregory, who left us to the cab driver, who took us all the way to the border in Kpalimé. We didn’t cross back into Ghana where we came in from (near Lome), but crossed back into a Ghanaian city called Ho. After several marriage proposals from customs officers (who, again, were rarely in uniform, and whose “office” consisted of nothing more than a shack) we were back in Ghana and back on a bus to Accra! There are police stationed at various checkpoints in Ghana, and our bus was stopped once on the way home, and everyone was asked to get out. We all got out, and all the black people (everyone except the five of us) were allowed to get back on, while we were questioned by Ghanaian police (who were wearing flip flops) and asked to show our passports. At this point, we had been through about 7 checkpoints/customs points, so were used to this. It didn’t make sense though, since we were well into Ghana, and had taken a bus that left from a city in Ghana. What if we hadn’t had our passports? Either way, we concluded, based on the fact that the police here don’t get paid well and rely on bribes from those they pull over as their main source of income, that they were trying to find something wrong with our visas in order for us to give them money to let us go instead of take us in. BUT, nothing was wrong with our visas, so we got back in the bus and made it back to Accra safe and sound!

Gillian and I got pizza last night from the only pizza chain in Accra, and I talked to my mom and sister for about an hour on Skype last night! Today was good, but tiring—went in to work for a few hours and then came home and did homework/ran errands/bought groceries/had class at Legon the rest of the day. It’s midnight now, and I need to get some sleep for my 8 a.m. tomorrow!

It was a WONDERFUL trip, and I STRONGLY encourage everyone to make it to Togo, and to Kpalimé. It’s so tropical and beautiful, and someone compared it to Puerto Rico. I haven’t been to PR, but I’d have to agree. Hope everyone’s weekend was good! Miss you all!

love love love

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