Togo, Benin, and Burkina Faso

Hi Everyone!

Andrej and I have done a short and sweet tour through 3 countries since I wrote last about Ghana. We have gone through Togo, Benin, and Burkina Faso. I have to admit that I had never heard of Togo and Benin before coming to Africa, so this was a learning experience!

All three countries are French speaking countries. Andrej and I do not speak a drop of French, but have managed to pick up a few poorly pronounced phrases over the past few weeks.

We spent our first two days in Togo in Kpalime, right on the border of Ghana. There wasn't much to do in Kpalime, but the surrounding area was quite beautiful. We spent a day in a small village nearby called Kluoto, where we did a lot of hiking. We went to the top of the mountain and saw great views of Togo and Ghana, including a castle that a French guy built in the 40s. We had a nice guide, Apo, who took us on a walk through the forest, which is known for its butterflies. He would catch some in his net and we would get to check them out close up. The have lots of different and very beautiful species there. He also showed us many plants that produce dyes that they make paints with.

The view from the top of Mount Kluoto.

After being in the country side for a couple days, we went to the capital of Togo, Lome. Lome was pretty crazy. In Lome (and Cotonou in Benin) there were motorcylces EVERYWHERE. You think Sturgis has a lot of motorcyles? Think again. I have honestly never seen anything like it. Many of the motorcylce drivers are also taxis and are generally the easiest, albeit very dangerous way to get around. As far as danger is concerned, coming in at a close second is crossing the street on foot. The motorcylces weave through traffic at absurd speeds, sometimes going the wrong way and not obeying traffic signals. We would often stand at corners for quite some time before it was safe enough to dart across. One time, we were waiting so long and were very absorbed in watching for an opening in the traffic. A man in military clothing ran out into the middle of the street and frantically yelled at oncoming cars (and the regular policeman directing traffic) and cleared the road. Not thinking about anything but waiting for a chance to cross, Andrej and I thought this break in traffic was great and made to cross the street. But, that resulted in even more angry shouting from the military man, this time in our direction. So we backed away and went to stand with the street vendors. Little did we know that they were stopping traffic for the president. The president's motorcade drove past complete with the usual huge black SUVs with security personel, and the pickup with numerous armed guards and large automatic rifles mounted on top. Africa is not shy with their weapons. They very openly display them. We happened to see these same rifle-mounted vehicles later on where he was making a campaign stop.

Anyways, Lome was very hectic and we decided we needed a change of pace and headed out to Lake Togo. We spent some nice, relaxing days on the lake. One day was spent taking a tour of the small town of Togoville. To get there, we had to take a canoe across the lake. Apparently, there was a sighting of the Virgin Mary on this lake, and the Pope even came to visit about 20 years ago. They told us the Virgin Mary was spotted by two voodoo priests out over the lake. I think that sounds a little odd, so that may be something to google another day to get the full story on. But, despite this, the town is voodoo central. We learned a lot about voodoo and saw a number of fetishes spread around town. Don't steal something in this town. If you do and don't fess up, the voodoo priest can strike you dead with lightning. Apparently.

A voodoo fetish in Togoville.

After our 3 days on Lake Togo, we decided to go to Cotonou, the capital of Benin. Togo and Benin are both quite small countries, and the trip was pretty short. We took a bush taxi to get there. A bush taxi can be just about any kind of really ru-down vehicle used for public transport. Our bush taxi was a regular 5 passenger car, which in bush taxi world is a 7 passenger car (2 in the front passenger seat, 4 in back). We stayed in a nice hotel that was located in a surprisingly convenient area of town. Within walking distance, we had a mouth-watering Lebanese restaurant, an internet cafe, some book stores, grocery stores, etc. A couple of times we took our chances and hopped on a couple of motorbike taxis to go get our visas for Burkina Faso. It was a very hair raising experience, especially when they decided to go down the road on the wrong side of the street and ignored stoplights at major intersections. But, we are still alive.

We spent only 2 days in Cotonou, which was actually the end of our stay in Benin. From there, we took an overnight bus to Ouagadougou (say that 5 times fast). Ouagadougou is the capital of Burkina Faso. The bus ride itself was typical- music blaring all night long, random police checkpoints (which also served as bathroom breaks on the side of the road), and other inexplicable stops along the way. It was good to see the countryside of Burkina Faso however, since we were only going to be there briefly. Unfortunately, it seemed to be one of the more poor countries that we have visited. The livestock looked somewhat skeletal, the landscape was dry and seemed inhospitable, and life from the bus window just looked...hard.

The city itself was a typical African capital city. The main roads were paved. The side streets were dirt roads with potholes. We didn't do all that much in the city as we were planning to use it mainly as a stopover on our way to Mali. So, the next day, we hopped a bus and a couple of bush taxis and made our way to Mali! Look for a post by Andrej on our trek through Dogon Country soon!

Amedzofe, Ghana

In my last post, I left you all hanging by telling you we were heading for a curious little town called Ho. Well, we ended up spending just one night there and not actually doing or seeing anything in town except the minibus station. It wasn't too exciting. We did, however, have our cheapest hotel room of the trip so far, coming in at around $6. Lets just say you get what you pay for.
The next day, we took probably the most run down minibus ever to a beautiful village in the mountains near the border of Togo named Amedzofe. The weather there was a bit cooler. The people there were used to tourists, so they were friendly, but didn't try to hassle you. It was peaceful. And, it had some great views with some nice, short hikes.
The afternoon of our arrival, Andrej and I decided to hike up Mt. Gemi, which was just up the path from our guesthouse. Mt. Gemi was the highest peak around, and at the very top was a big iron cross that you could see from quite a ways away. The hike up only took about half an hour, and from the top, we could see all of the surrounding villages and the valley below. After spending some time enjoying the breezes and the view, we hiked back down. At the start of the path, a retired government worker had made a prayer garden that he insisted we come and see. It was a nice place with a number of benches and very shady with nice views. He seemed to enjoy his little project.
Our second day in the village, we went into the center of town and walked around a bit. This village was different than a lot of African villages we have seen because there were no huts. Everyone seemed to have cement or brick houses with steel roofs. Many other places we have seen mud huts with thatch roofs. The village had a nice amount of fresh food which was sold in the center of town in a sort of farmer's market setting. During our stay there, we bought lots of veggies, honey, rice, pasta, and bread. One night, we got a little adventurous and bought some cassava dough from a lady in the market. She told me we would need to boil and stir it to prepare it. Sounded simple enough, but it turns out its fermented dough and quite pungent. Perhaps we didn't cook it quite right, but neither of us could stomach it. Anyways, we came there not to eat, but to relax and hike. So, the second afternoon we went on a walk around town with a guide from the local tourism office named Godwin. He took us up to a local teacher's college which used to be a German mission. The college looked pretty nice, and it was fun to see that Ghanaian college students act like college students everywhere- playing loud music, cramming around computers to watch DVDs, getting out some drums and jamming outside their dorms, etc. We also walked around outside of town and met some of Godwin's friends. One neat thing about the area is that it is mango season. Mangoes are constantly falling from the trees, and you actually have to be sort of careful because I imagine it would hurt to get hit by one. Also, as with many places in Africa, rural or not, there are goats and chickens roaming free.
Our third day in the village we enjoyed some cooler weather which allowed for more nice hikes. We spent the morning on the top of Mt. Gemi again, and in the afternoon joined some other people on a hike down to a waterfall. This was certainly the most challenging hike we did during our stay there. It involved using ropes to make your way up and down because it was very steep. The area looked like jungle. The waterfall itself was a bit low on water, but it was quite pretty none the less. The rest of our group seemed to be really intense hikers, and I am rather out of shape, which made especially trying to get back up the hill pretty grueling. There is one odd thing of note about that particular hike. Occasionally there are things we encounter on our travels that just seem really out there. This was one of them. We were walking down to the falls, and Godwin and another Ghanaian guy spotted a grass cutter, which is a very large, gross looking rodent. Apparently it tends to destroy local crops (hence the name grass cutter, I suppose). So, they seemed to really hate this particular animal. But, instead of just pointing it out to us, they proceeded to pick up mangoes that had fallen off the ground and stoned the poor little grass cutter. When it seemed to have succumbed, I saw Godwin pick up a giant stone to finish it off. That was all I could take of it. To make things even more bizarre, he picked it up and carried it home to cook for dinner. All of this made me quite confident that my decision to be a vegetarian as of a couple months ago was an excellent one.
On our last night there, we had a powerful thunderstorm that lasted pretty much the whole night. It is supposed to be the start of the rainy season here. Despite the power being out this morning, we got up at the crack of dawn, took another minibus that must be some sort of engineering wonder because I couldn't believe it could still run, and left the village. A couple taxis later, we crossed the border into Togo! Andrej really liked this particular crossing because the no-man's land between the two border posts was practically jungle. Its certainly not the busiest border crossing we had ever seen! But, here we are in Togo. Everyone here speaks French, and we are very confused. since most of the rest of the countries in West Africa are French speaking, we are hoping to learn a little so we can communicate better with people. Wish us luck!

South Africa (again!) and Ghana

Hello Hello!
We are in West Africa now, can you believe it? I am starting to feel like we have really done a significant amount of traveling when I look at a map and see where we have gone. Check out my updated map of our travels if you want to see exactly where we have been.


View Africa in a larger map

After we left Namibia, we made a short jaunt back through South Africa. We found cheap flights to Accra from Johannesburg, and we liked South Africa, so we figured a few extra days back there wouldn't be too bad! We enjoyed some more wonderfully comfortable transportation the whole way as well. Our first stop was Upington, not far from the Namibian border. We stayed in a budget resort which was on some very pretty grounds with monkeys running all over the place! We got the chance to explore the town a little bit as well, and it was nice to see a smaller South African town. It really isn't all that different from an American town. We spent two nights in Johannesburg. There, we mostly spent time stocking up on supplies and taking care of business. But, we did make it out to the apartheid museum, which also had a nice exhibit on Nelson Mandela. It was very educational and well done. We were told that South Africa still has a long way to go with racial equality though.

After a very stressful afternoon and nearly missing our (non-refundable) flight, we eventually made it to Accra, Ghana about one week ago. We encountered a rather power hungry immigration official and had a bit of hassle with the visas, but after a while, they granted them to us and we were free to roam Ghana.

We spent 2 nights in Accra. Accra is a large, busy city, and full of life. It has fabulously cheap taxis, but it also has a not-so-fabulous traffic problem. It is very, very hot here, and quite humid. In fact, its probably the hottest place we have been since we were in Zanzibar in February! Basically, its a tropical climate. Our first full day in Accra was spent mostly running around to embassies to apply for onward visas as well as buying onward bus tickets. But, we did make sure to get a bit of Ghanian culture that first day! We went to the Makola Market. This market is in the center of town, and man is it crowded. Despite the crowds, it is really quite safe. You can buy a wild variety of products from vegetables to laundry soap to sunglasses. The only downside of it is that if you stop to look at things, you seem to hold up the flow and get pushed around a bit. Andrej and I both left with new Chinese knock-off sunglasses. You really get the feeling here that everything is very alive. There are people everywhere, constantly interacting. Its very different from the isolation people tend to keep back home. Even driving down the road, you frequently have people walking up to your car window. The will try to sell you everything from little bags of cold water (carried in a giant bowl on a woman's head) to electric massagers. There is of course people who will come to the window to beg for money as well. Sadly, many of them are children. I have seen the same young girl begging outside the cathedral near our hotel every day, in the same dirty and tattered clothes. Its quite sad.

After a couple nights in the big city, we took a surprisingly nice bus to a smaller city on the coast called Cape Coast. Many coastal towns in Ghana have old forts left over from colonial days. Cape Coast has a nice castle (fort) in particular. We went there our first day in town. We learned that it was not only used for defense, but very heavily used in the slave trade. During the slave trade, people who were sold into slavery or taken as slaves from the interior were brought to Cape Coast Castle (or one of a number of other places) and held there until a ship came to take them to the Americas or wherever they were being sold to. We were shown the dark, unsanitary dungeons where those poor people were kept. Many of them had memorial items like flowers left in them. They were led from their dungeon through tunnels and out the Door of No Return, where they boarded a ship, usually with worse conditions. It all sounded terrible. After touring the castle, we also looked at their museum in the castle on Ghanian culture. It was pretty neat. One thing we learned was that many Ghanians are named after the day of the week they were born on, and it holds a lot of significance and can tell some things about you (apparently). Andrej and I thought about it, and we have no clue what days we were born on...

Cape Coast Castle

That first evening in Cape Coast, we were wandering around and happened upon a nice little shop called Global Mamas. They support local women by selling locally made craft products and clothing and offering cooking and textile making classes. It was a great shop with a great mission. To our surprise, the lady working there told us that there is a former Peace Corp volunteer from Minneapolis involved. I didn't get the whole story, but as it turns out, they also have a shop in Minneapolis. If anyone knows where it is, I encourage you to check it out. You can get some fun, unique gifts for a great cause. They also have a website: www.globalmamas.org . We also signed up for a cooking course for the next day.

That next morning we were met by a young man named Matthew who took us to his sister's restaurant. We spent the next 5 hours going through a cooking course of various popular Ghanian dishes. They had creative names like fufu and red red. We cooked with things that we have never used in cooking before, including cassava, yams, pumpkin seeds, and plantains. Despite the stifling heat in the restaurant, we had a good time learning how to make it all, and Matthew was a good teacher and showed us how to properly prepare everything. In the end, we got a tasty feast. Technically, they closed down the restaurant while we had our class (it was a pretty small place and a Sunday afternoon). However, that didn't stop their regulars from coming in and demanding drinks. Matthew's niece, who couldn't have been more than 8 years old and could barely reach the counter, ended up serving some beligerent men shots while we proceeded with our lesson. That was certainly something you would never see back home!

Andrej and I preparing our Ghanian dishes

The next day, we went to the area's other main attraction- Kakum National Park. The park is famous for its canopy walk above the 'rainforest.' Its a very neat, lush looking forest, but not what I would think of when I think of rainforests, like the Amazon. The canopy walk turned out to be a series of rope bridges connected to platforms. There were seven in all. The bridges themselves were made out of ladders with boards nailed to them and ropes wrapped around them. It was surprisingly safe and stable. It was pretty neat being up above the trees and looking out over the forest. We also took a guided nature walk and learned all about the local trees and their uses in construction, medicine, etc.

Andrej walking along the canopy bridge.

The canopy walk.

Later that afternoon, we took a short hike up to one of the other forts in town. It was up on a hill looking out over the city and the ocean. It apparently functioned as a lighthouse for a while. Unfortunately, it seemed that there were some squatters living in the fort (or at least doing heaps of laundry and leaving them strewn all about the fort. There was also a mattress out, which made me think people were living there). Despite that, the views from the top were quite nice.

The view of Cape Coast from the top of the fort.

We made our way back to Accra after that and have been enjoying the city the past couple days. Today we will take a bus out to a curiously named town called Ho. We hope to be in Togo by next week. I will try to post again soon!

The hidden beauty of Namibia

On arriving in Windhoek, Namibia Jill and I quickly realized that the best way to see the vast landscape was by driving ourselves, hiking through the national parks and camping at night. So, after a few days in the capital city, Jill and I drove out in a newly rented truck packed with 75 liters of drinking water, food, camping gear and an extra 20 liter can of spare gasoline--worthy provisions for and expedition into the Namib Desert.

Poring drinking water from a 25 liter jug.

Our first stop, Khorixas, a small outpost at the threshold where paved roads meet gravel. Here we camped for the night at a nicer lodge to ease our transition into the vast, desolate spaces to come. Unbeknownst to us, our lodge was home to the most persistent chickens and peacocks in all of Africa.


Day 2 started with an assortment of interesting wayside stops from dusty, desert craft shops staffed by life-sized voodoo-dolls to a petrified tree trunk spanning 30 meters across the ground.

Whats for sale? Rocks, of course.

Burnt Mountain

Frozen in time

After our first eerie sensations of desert life Jill and I aimed our truck for the Skeleton Cost--but first, the two dried up rivers between us and the ocean...

Wanting to cut a few kilometers off the trip I had the great idea of taking smaller roads around Khorixas instead of going back through the city. This route took us through the back yards of desert dwelling folk who I must say are very solitary people. Out the window of our air conditioned cab we would see a few dozen makeshift houses in any given settlement but would be lucky to see just one head poke out eying us cutting through their town.

My back road changed from gravel to dirt, from dirt to packed sand and eventually opened out onto a wide expanse of soft wavy sand shaped by a river that had long since dried up. Knowing that a heavily loaded 2 wheel drive truck wouldn't fare well on soft sand I pushed the vehicle into second gear and flew into the sand gliding to the other side with only a few big bumps and a small amount of sand over the windshield.

Deciding that a real road would suit us better I steered us back on the main drag and let Jill take the wheel resuming our drive to the Skeleton Cost.

The Skeleton Cost in a strip in Namibia where the hot sun of the Namib Desert meets the cool waves of the Atlantic Ocean. So named from the shipwrecks spotting the cost from whom shipwrecked sailors once emerged to see the ocean waves give way to waves of dry desert sand stretching all the way to the horizon.

The Skeleton coast seamed to play tricks on the eyes at times with such amazing features as a salt pan that looked like snow.

Salt, not snow or ice

Jill feeling the cubic crystals of the salt pan.

Jill and I spent two days and a night driving up and down the coast, camping on the wind blown beach, taking in shipwrecks, a seal beach and just admiring the bazaar landscape.


Moving on, we next drove through Swakopmund and Walvis Bay to Namib-Naukluft Park, which we were to make our home for the next four days.

Our first camp site

And our view that evening

Our favorite camp tucked under a granite cliff overlooking the vast plains.

Namib-Naukluft Park is extraordinarily large and varies in landscape from arid grass lands to granite outcroppings which eventually give way to dark red sand dunes. Some of the wildlife we found consisted of herds of zebra, kudus and ostrich—one of which raced our truck and we clocked it going 30 kilometers per hour.

When not chasing animals in Namib-Naukluft Park, Jill and I enjoyed some long walks around very interesting formations.




After 4 days in Namib-Naukluft Park Jill and I moved on to our final destination of the week, Sossusvlei. In this part of the Namibian park system the landscape is made up completely of semi stable and shifting sand dunes. Jill and I had allot of fun struggling to the top of these dunes which was an amazing amount of work. On the most difficult dune that I summated I was continually sliding down while climbing up much like being on a treadmill. The dune also swallowed up my feet in sand so to pull one foot out of the sand meant driving the other foot deeper into the sand creating a vicious cycle. The fun part, of course, was coming down and we could take huge leaps falling many feet down but would always be cushioned by the soft sand.


At this point all three of our water jugs were dry and it was time to head back into civilization. As the week came to a close we knew that Namibia would always hold a special place in our hearts. A place to explore and enjoy the natural beauty of the world around us.

Victoria Falls

Ever since Andrej and I began planning our African adventure, I have had Victoria Falls on the top of my list of things I wanted to see in Africa. Victoria Falls is a huge waterfall area in the Zambezi River. It is located on the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia. Due to the current state of affairs in Zimbabwe, we decided to only see it from the Zambian side.

On our way to the falls, we had a calm border crossing and went to a town on the Zambian side of the Malawian/Zambian border called Chipata. We were there on a Sunday, and it was essentially a ghost town. So, we didn’t do much there.

The next day we had a very long bus ride to Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. Lusaka was a surprisingly nice and modern city. We enjoyed some good food and went to see a Zambian movie at the theater. We only spent 2 nights in Lusaka before heading to Livingstone (the town near the falls).

Once again, we bussed it to Livingstone. Livingstone was a quaint little town. It had the token banks and grocery stores and hardware stores, but it also had a nice, old fashioned small town feel with an old fashioned movie theater, ice cream parlors, and little craft shops. We stayed at a fantastic backpackers called Jolly Boys. There, we enjoyed getting great assistance arranging our activities, cooking lots of meals in their big communal kitchen, and in general liked the friendly atmosphere of the place. They also ran a free daily shuttle to Victoria Falls, which we took advantage of the day after our arrival in town.

The falls were said to be at a record high water level. The Zambezi River was practically overflowing. In fact, many high end resorts around the banks of the river were said to be closed due to flooding. What this all meant is that there was a whole lot of water going over the falls. The spray was absolutely enormous. You could feel it walking on trails quite far away. I was told that the falls span about a mile wide. You can’t see it all from one point. In fact, about ¾ of the falls are located in Zimbabwe, and we couldn’t see them from the Zambian side. But we definitely saw a lot from where we were! We hiked out to some viewpoints, and then we walked down to the bottom of the falls to a place called the boiling pot. The boiling pot is where the falls and the lower river meet and combine to make a giant whirlpool. It was really neat to see, but getting down there was half the adventure! Because the water level was so high, just the little streams going down the hillside were not so little anymore, and much of the path was flooded. So, we were walking through mud and wading through small rivers to get down. But it was worth it, and we had a nice lunch on some rocks at the bottom. After lunch, we decided it was warm enough to get a close up look at the falls. You can walk out onto a bridge that juts out in front of the falls. We put on not one, but TWO heavy duty rain jackets and made our way to the bridge. The spray was so huge that even with two rain jackets, we both got completely drenched. Unfortunately, you could see very little because of the spray. It was like standing in torrential rain. But, when we looked away from the falls, out towards the lower river, we got a very beautiful rainbow. At the falls, we also took a walk down the river and saw where it turns into the falls from the top. Right now the river is very fast and dangerous looking, but I am told that when the water level is low, you can actually wade out on rocks and look over the falls.

Victoria Falls during a brief break from the spray.

Andrej and I in front of the falls.

Andrej hiking down to the boiling pot.

Me getting ready to wade through the water to get down to the boiling pot.

The boiling pot. Lots of people bungi jump off this bridge.

A beautiful rainbow looking away from the falls.






The view of the Zambezi at the top of the falls.

The other thing of note that we did near Livingstone was go and spend a night in a local village nearby. It was another cultural tourism activity similar to our other village visits. We were shown around the village by a nice young man named Chanda. He is the grandson of the village Head Lady. Many of the people who live in that village work at the local high-end resorts. The people who worked at the resorts seemed to be a little bit better off- their houses were a bit nicer, or they could afford a small luxury like a car battery to make electricity, or even a TV and satellite dish. But, they still lived in houses made of mud with dirt floors, and still had an outhouse instead of a bathroom. They also had to go pump there water, and often walk quite a ways with a jerry can on their head or shoulders just to get water for their home. It must seem like such a stark contrast from their workplace, and I wonder if they ever get bitter at the wealth disparity they are confronted with every day. Anyways, Chanda showed us around, introducing us to his friends, taking us to see the insides of houses, showing us what people were cooking, showing us the local bar (the center of social activity at all time of the day). We met the headmaster of the local school and went to see the school. We were educated on the different problems that face the village- teen pregnancy, failed marriages, drinking, etc. In addition to all we learned, we got local food for lunch and dinner (nshima and veggies). Nshima is maize meal mixed with water and heated up to a sticky consistency. It is very filling, and the people there really do eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We also stayed in a mud hut, but it was nicely done up inside and made for a pleasant night.

Andrej and Chanda outside his grandma's house.

The next day was our last morning in Livingstone, and a big morning it was! For Christmas last year, Andrej had told me that he would put me up on a flight over Victoria Falls. So, bright and early Sunday morning, I took my first micro light flight, right over Victoria Falls. It was absolutely amazing. You are totally out in the open, so you have to wear a big, puffy flight suit to keep warm. There are only 2 seats, and its basically a hang glider with a motor. It felt surprisingly stable, and it was really a lot of fun. I saw a lot more of the falls from the air than you could see from the ground. I could see the canyon that the river cuts out after the falls, and I could see what was on the Zimbabwean side. After the fantastic flight, we went back into town and arranged for our bus trip out of town. We decided to go all the way to Windhoek, Namibia, and we found an excellent bus that would take us all the way there. So, with that, we left on a bus at lunch, and were on our way to our next adventure!

Me taking off on my microlight flight.