Wednesday, July 10, Akwidaa Beach, Ghana

The “road” is rutted and rock strewn. It takes an hour of jostling, twisting, and bouncing to get here from the last conurbation, Agona Junction. This morning I was at Busua Beach, which I thought would make a good jumping off point for Akwidaa, but the taxi driver at Busua wanted 40 cedi’s ($20.00) for the journey and I knew I wasn’t paying that much.

I decided to backtrack to Agona figuring that the taxi competition there would drive the price down. What I didn’t know was that there was a tro-tro at Agona that would take me here for two cedi, $1.00.

It wasn’t that easy, though. I had money problems. Every year I have money problems. This year I planned ahead and stashed $600.00 in various spots in my luggage. Everyone takes US dollars. Except when they don’t. They don’t in Agona. They have a bank in Agona. It has an ATM. The ATM is broken. They didn’t know when it might be repaired  But I didn’t despair, I knew any bank worth its salt would exchange Uncle Sam’s currency for cedi’s. But they wouldn’t. Morons.

So I had to backtrack another half hour to Takoradi (remember Takoradi? I was there three days ago). I found a bank and—major bonus—I found a little store with some decent books. I bought the biggest one she had, 531 pages:  Small Island by Andrea Levy (“Winner of the Whitbread Book of the Year and Orange Prize for Fiction).  I just finished an Anne Rice novel and a western (?) from Robert Parker of mystery fame. That reduced my inventory to two books—one of them a very slight autobiographical thingee by Joseph Conrad—so I should have enough to keep me going till I get out of here.

The beach here is the equal of the one in Busua and the lodge is much better principally because it is crowded. I’ve already met up with two Brits from the Guernsey Islands (matriculating at Cambridge!). I never got to talk with anyone at Busua except staff.

A typical Ghanaian fishing boat, this one laying just outward of the village. You can see the ocean in the distance.

This place is better also because they have tours. I’m always up for tours, any kind of tour. You got a tour to look at seashells? I’m there. So tomorrow I supposed to walk eight minutes up the beach to the next village to hire a guide.

This is the end of my lagoon trip near Akwidaa village. The fisherman's area is in the distance.