You have now been eliminated from the Race

The theme for this adventure has been the amazing race. We're all ridiculous and continuously make reference to the show...this is our roadblock...this is a detour. Apparently Phil voted off Jennifer a long time ago but miraculously she is still here hehe :)

We have thus far closed down 3 bars where the staff have gone home while we continue to drink our $2 625ml beer, I love Africa!! In all seriousness, i've been to 3rd world countries before but have not ventured past the resort walls. I'm in absolute awe of how impoverished it really is here. We wandered around James Town in Accra where the sewers are open and the streets are made of dirt and i loved it. The kids here are quite incredible. They were waving from balconies, yelling "how are you, how are you?" giving us high fives and running up and holding our hands, it's amazing. The people in Accra are quite friendly, our waitress sat and chatted away the evening with us. I have tried some great food, red red beans and fried plantains...yummmm, as well as these rice balls in a crazy spicey sauce that i'm sure burned a hole in my esophagus and i loved it...so good!!

We visited a market where the locals were literally grabbing our arms, pulling us into their stalls to purchase drums and masks. We've taken to just walking away from the big crowds or you get sort of encompassed by everyone. I declared my love of Africa to Jennifer on our 2nd evening here. A few days later whilst standing on the dirt road with all our luggage, surrounded by people barttering for a ride to Anomabo, she looked at me and said "so do you still love Africa" and we just laughed and laughed, it was mayhem. We made a 4 hour trek to Anomabo from Accra. It took longer than we had hoped and it became dark. K asked Dan if he was ok driving in the dark (we had a driver but the roads can get a bit scary at night) he looked around at the greenery surrounding us and declared "no K, i'd love to sleep in the jungle tonight, " which was hilarious as there was nothing but palm trees and bushes and nowhere for us to stop. After a rather frightening drive for the last hour or so on a not so paved, potholed road, swerving to miss the potholes going 120 we made it.

The "resort" in Anomabo was really quite nice, we stayed in a thatched roof mud hut surrounded by palm trees on the beach. It felt kind of strange knowing what was just around the corner and how the people were living, for us to be somewhere rather decadent.

In Anomabo we relaxed on the beach in the morning and headed up to Cape Coast to the Slave Castle. We also wandered along the beach into town which was quite an eye opener for me. As we were further and further from our "resort" the area became a bit sketchy. Kids running up and asking for money, vultures and goats eating garbage together and the kicker for me, was all the human excrement along the beach, fresh turds as the guidebook said, oh my!! It was a little bit uncomfortable but was fine.

We were waiting on the side of the road for a cab and a boy of about 10 was across the street selling coconuts. Jennifer decided i should get one so we wandered over. He told her it would be 1000 cedis. Jennifer said she didn't want the white person price and said she wanted the same price he had just given to a local woman. The boy just stood and smirked at her, so she gave him the 1000. Later on Jennifer remarked "that little shit charged me 1000 cedis" K pointed out that 1000 is like 10 cents in our money. We all had a good laugh at Jennifer trying to barter with a young boy over a 10 cent coconut and she called herself appalling. I pointed out the area in which this poor boy had to be, the diesel he was breathing in standing by the road, the goat eating garbage across the street, 10 cents was a bargain.

We went to Kakum National Park and walked on the canopy above the rainforest on a suspended rope bridge. We also took the nature walk through the forest and learned about the various trees and medicinal purposes. It was really beautiful there, we also saw this enormous blue scorpion that the guide told us was "really small." It was hugggeee. We then went to Elmina which is a little fishing town and went to the Slave Castle there as well. Standing outside this little boy came up to me and was chatting. He then pointed to my leg and said "you're dirty" i was like "what", he said the same thing and pointed to the little bit of dirt on my leg from the rainforest. I gave him a sucker and sent him on his way..little shit :)

We made the 6 hour trek to Lome, Togo yesterday and are taking it easy today, emailing, getting our fabulous African Lady dresses made. Everyone is thrilled that i no longer want front seat privledges after our drive yesterday. There were people walking along the road, tones of potholes that we were serving to miss as were the cars coming at us and almost hitting people, all while going 120...i'm content to not have a front row view of that again. As far as bug bites and what not, i'm totally fine, other than this lump that developed on my neck yesterday, i'm sure it will go away on it's own :) (though Jennifer says it may be guinea worm, she'll get a stick and twist it out haha.) KIDDING!!! No worms, but there is a lump. I've also developed this bruise on my entire arm and shoulder as i had a mishap in the shower at Jeccels house last week and slipped on the non slip mat, go figure. I smashed my neck and landed on my side. Thankfully i was ok and noone had to come and rescue me naked in the shower. I'm sure they are thankful for that too. (Oh and Jeccel is quite the looker i must say, he's in the marines as well.)

For our remianing time we are going to K's, a village and to Benin. Hope everyone is well, i still LOVE Africa!!!!!!