Distilling Palm Wine

Next along the road to Kumasi, we stopped at a palm wine distillery. The first photo shows the first step - cutting down the palm trees - and also makes clear that growth of new palms cannot keep up with destruction of the older ones, so this overuse of natural resources cannot continue much longer. After some photos of the workers at the facility, the last photo shows members of our group viewing the siphoning of the liquid into containers for shipping and eventual bottling for sale.

Roadside Funeral Procession

Next along the road to Kumasi we encountered a funeral procession. Red and black are the standard colors for the mourners/celebrants at funerals.

Ghana Cocoa Plantation

After two full days in Accra, we drove into the countryside toward Kumasi, the second largest city in Ghana and "the spiritual and historical center of the flourishing Ashanti Kingdom" (Wilderness Travel). Along the way we stopped at several places of interest, the first being a cocoa plantation. Here are some photos of a cocoa tree with pods, a mother, children, and grandmother who live and work on the plantation, and a few aspects of turning the cocoa pods into cocoa butter. (The cost of our tour includes payment, disbursed by our guide, to the people who allow us into their lives.)

Elmina Fishing Village

Next to Elmina Castle is the vivid, remarkably crowded and lively Elmina Fishing Village. It's quite an intense experience.

Elmina Castle

"Elmina Castle, another of the slave forts, was erected by the Portuguese in 1482 as São Jorge da Mina Castle, also known simply as Mina in present-day Elmina, Ghana. It was the first trading post built on the Gulf of Guinea, and the oldest European building in existence south of the Sahara."(Wikipedia)

Cape Coast Castle

"Cape Coast Castle is one of about forty 'slave castles', or large commercial forts, built on the Gold Coast of West Africa by European traders. It was originally built by the Swedes for trade in timber and gold, but later used in the trans-Atlantic slave trade." (Wikipedia). Slaves, brought from inland, were held in forts like these before being shipped overseas.

Guide outside and inside the Male Slave Dungeon. There was a similar dungeon for women.

Mending nets outside the walls.

Canopy Walk in Kakum National Park

Each end of the six rope bridges in this canopy walk loop is anchored to big trees about 120 feet above the ground, with good views of the rainforest in Kakum National Park. The students were waiting for our group to finish before they walked the circuit. The last photo is of a large (ca. 4 inches) millipede on the forest floor.