Kakum & Monkey Forest

Seeing as the entire "botel" looked like it'd been periodically flooded by swamp, I wasn't surprised when our hotel room looked like a really dingy version of this:

Hans Botel Room

But then again, we paid about $20 for both of us to stay the night. We were also able to shower under running water, so I guess we got more than we paid for.


We woke up early and headed off to Kakum. After haggling with a cab driver for what seemed like an hour, we were on our way. Kakum was beautiful, and very expensive. We paid for a brief walking tour and then paid more to go on the Canopy Walk.

The Canopy Walk

The canopy walk is a rope bridge suspended about 100 or so feet above the rainforest floor. The bridges are made of steel bars with wooden planks covering them and a huge net draping around and underneath them. I didn't feel unsafe but judging by the fact that some of the boards had pulled loose or completely off, I'd guess that the safety standards are more lax in Ghana than in the U.S. There are eight bridges suspended between six platforms and all of them bounce and sway under your weight. The view was incredible.

Canopy Bridge

Looking out onto the rainforest.

Awesome!

After Kakum, we ate some red-red and walked two miles to Monkey Forest Animal Sanctuary.

Red red

Entrance to Monkey Forest

The Monkey Forest Animal Santuary was started by a couple from the Netherlands. A thin middle-aged woman named Annetta greeted us at the gate. Seven cedis to see the place and play with the monkeys, she told us, and we agreed. Annetta led us around and told us how her husband came to Ghana, fell in love, and called her to tell her that she should come to see Ghana because he was moving there. "And I thought, 'Oh, well that's just lovely, isn't it?'" she said laughing. Luckily she fell in love with the place too, so much so that--though their families beg them to come back for the holidays--they haven't stepped foot in Amsterdam since and don't plan to. They weren't there for more than a year before they rescued their first monkey, and things just sort of took off from there. Before they knew it they were getting calls from folks with a monkey, or a deer, or a turtle, or another animal that they found wounded or just couldn't care for. Annetta said that this was what her husband wanted to do all along, so they settled in and expanded the place--bought more land, build new cages and sanctuaries, found help. I loved being there. It was a more personal look at forest life than Kakum. I could sit back and enjoy the view instead of being rushed through it. I got to play with the monkeys, and one of them almost stole my glasses. Annette says that he's their most expensive monkey because he has stolen phones and glasses and engagement rings--anything he can pull from your pocket.

Mona Monkey

Turtles

The Monkey Thief!

When we left Monkey Forest, we went back to Cape Coast to catch a bus back to Buduburam. We are the first ones on our bus, so we had to wait for about an hour. (They don't move unless the seats are all sold). I'm reading my book while we wait when a preacher jumps on the bus. He started preaching, and I wasn't sure what to do. Is this like church where it'd be rude not to put the book down and pay attention? I decided it wasn't. He jumped on the bus unsolicited, and so I can just keep my nose in my book. Some people were very attentive and responsive. Tony even took out his Bible to follow along. But I wasn't the only uninterested one. Right in the middle of the preaching ("Brothers and sisters do you understand what I am saying to you today?.."), a man stops the preacher and askes him to call for the ice cream boy, he wants vanilla. Though these kinds of interruptions in religious services aren't unusual in Ghana, I wanted to die laughing. It was really unfortunate that I was alone, because any other secular American would have found it hilarious and I would have enjoying having someone there laughing with me.