My first full day Accra began with a great breakfast at the hostel. There was a decent mix of people staying there, but with the exception of two older couples, everyone staying there was there to work or volunteer. They had their little cliques, so it wasn’t social, but I didn’t want to linger. I had sights to see.
Taxis are labelled and plentiful. I hailed one on the street and took it to the lighthouse in Jamestown, the oldest part of Accra, at the sea. (The taxis don’t have meters, so agree on a price before you get in. You can haggle, but in my case the offered price was what my hostel had recommended. I never felt like I was getting cheated.)
Jamestown is colorful, scrappy, and crumbly. I liked it. I didn’t take a bunch of pictures of the street though. I’m always a bit camera shy on day one. I walked to the beach, past a very poor cluster of makeshift housing. Everyone I passed was very friendly – but not too friendly.
I walked over to and around the fishing port. It was early and it was busy. Boats coming and going. Fishes for sale and being chopped up. Crabs. Men fussing with nets. I attracted constant stares. Lots of women were there, but I was the only white person and the tattoos also caught glances.
But everyone was nice. A lot of hellos, welcomes, and offers to sell me fish. I asked if I could take photos and no one objected.
I met a nice woman named Dora who told me she is a vegetarian and yoga and meditation devotee who works giving massages to the fishermen, though she said they seldom pay. She walked around with me, introducing me to different people.
I then walked along a main street, passed a couple of former slave prisons until I happened across a great courtyard cafe / gallery, the Jamestown Café, where I sat and had a coffee with a guy from the Massisi area of the Congo. He was shocked when I said I had been there last year.
I carried on. I arrived at the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, which marks Ghana’s independence and houses the mausoleum of Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president. It was pretty and serene.
Almost right next door to that was an artisans market. A collection of shops and very poor housing, along with stalls were you could see people carving masks, making drums and jewelry, sewing clothes, weaving baskets. I was immediately accosted by a guy who offered to show me around. I figured I would have to top him, but the company was nice and had I been left on my own I wouldn’t haven seen as much as I did.
I did buy a mask from the guy’s shop. As I was leaving, he insisted I try the drums. Before I knew it, I was in a drum circle, learning how to play traditional rhythms on a handmade drum. I sucked, but I eventually got it. Here’s the thing: I have always rolled my eyes at drum circles at hippie nonsense…but I liked it. It was fun. A good reminder to be open to new experiences.
From there I walked to the Makola market and poked around. At this point though I was super hot and tired, so I soon caught a taxi to the Osu area, which is a little more upscale (in the broadest sense of the word). I went to a fancy ish restaurant on a leafy patio and ate my fill of bean stew, plantains, and ginger/pineapple juice.
I saw some wonderful street art on the way.
I was still pretty worn out, so I decided to catch a tro tro back to my hostel. Tro tros are the main local transport; packed mini vans that pick up people when flagged. They drive around shouting their route out the windows. I got out at a familiar land mark and walked the last few blocks.
I spent the evening at my hostel, though I did venture out for some dinner, from a wooden table with a small fire for cooking. I got a generous portion of fried rice, vegetables, and salad for about $1.75.
It was a great day. Certainly there is much more to see in Accra, but I saw what I liked. Pleasantly, it was all hassle-free. I decided that evening to spend my second day seeing the Cape Coast.
