Like usual I got ahead of myself but after seven weeks of mostly rice and chicken with bread without substance food became a real focus yesterday! That and walking for miles and miles and miles! Before I get into the details of Genoa let me tell you about our departure from Ghana. We woke wednesday morning thinking to complete our packing and to spend the day sitting/walking on the beach! Well they don't call it the rainy season for nothing!! I ventured out around 5:30 am (my usual waking time now) to take some last pics - it wasn't raining by that point but the day was dark and the waters were stormy as they crashed along the shores. I knew that a day at the beach wasn't going to happen but I was on the ocean with my camera so I didn't really mind - besides the moody weather seemed to fit my own emotions! I was definitely excited about heading onto a new adventure but sad to be leaving Ghana and ending that one. As mom pointed out - the plan is to return again with students next spring so I'm really only saying goodbye to Ghana for about 10 months!
Anyway, as I walked along the beach one of the first things I started to notice was that the new anti-erosion measures the resort is taking seem to be working. The pics show the pilings method which is definitely not working I'll try to add one shot of the cages (filled with quartz and granite - can you imagine?) that are. These measure are necessary as they are losing a lot of ground each month (I noticed a difference in just 3 weeks!!) to the relentless waves and as it is "winter" right now the waves are stronger and the tide was SO high! I'm looking forward to comparing the photos from last year to this one - sea level rise will be a HUGE issue for this resort and many of the villages and costal town (like Cape Coast) where people live barely above the high tide line! Okay - that's a rant I don't need to get on so back to our last day...warning do not walk in front of the cages during high tide with large waves - I got soaked but managed to keep the camera dry!
After my photo safari, which ended with me being wet, sand covered, and smiling, I headed back to the room for the best shower in all of Ghana and started the packing process. Once our breakfast break was over we headed back to the room to finish the packing process - trying to get as much into two bags that will hopefully be left with our hotel rather than taken on the cruise! We had previously arranged for George (024 387 1377), the safest and best taxi driver I've had in all of Ghana (he's in Accra and it cost us $60 Ghana Cedis for a ride to Anomabo from Accra about a 2 1/2 to 3 hour journey depending on traffic), to pick us up at 2:00 but we were done packing by 11:30! We ended up hanging out in the room - mom created another email (our sticks were out of credit by this point but weren't working well anyway) while I lounged on the bed watching a video. Amazingly the morning went really fast and before I you could say (no more fufu) we were on our way to the airport.This was an interesting ride - George drives a clean and comfortable taxi but I had only been in it during the "dry" and it was monsoon wet for the first part of our journey! I had just commented that "the day was cool and that we wouldn't arrive too sweaty for our flights", when the heavens opened and three things happened all at one: a) We had to close the windows - goodbye cooling breeze, b) the windows fogged up and we had to turn on the heater - we actually had the heat on, and c) the rain penetrated the rather weak seal along the top of George's windshield so while I was hot from the heat I was also getting a mild shower every time we hit a bump (every foot or so in Ghana!). In actuality it made the journey to the airport (really only about 35 minutes of it) another Ghanaian adventure and the cool wet weather didn't prevent mom (and George and I) from having another Fan Ice on the way!
I've often commented about the road conditions and driving in Ghana and there have been a few times that I have felt somewhat scared but nothing compared to hitting Accra on Wednesday! Due to the heavy rains, road construction and a few million people trying to get home (or out of town) the roadways were clogged with people! At one point I felt rather like a pimple on the highway of life as we were slowly being squeeze by trotros and buses (not too mention big trucks, taxis, and other private vehicles). The one instance that sticks in my mind was a place where about 4 (unmarked) lanes of traffic were attempting to merge into a single lane - we were in that lane behind a bus, that was spewing black smoke like a chain smoking bingo player, and had two trotros on either side who seemed not to see us! That would have been somewhat normal but when you add in the large truck and two other trotros that were also trying to squeeze in it gets a little hairy! By this point the rains have stopped but many of the streets, circles (roundabouts), and intersections have been flooded so chaos is the name of the game. As I'm in Italy - we obviously made it but I think it was largely due to the expert driving and George's ability to take a million side roads to get us where we needed to go.
The airport checkin was a breeze and we were happy to learn that our luggage was tagged all the way to Genoa! I'll briefly (promise) stop here to rant about how ineffective our North American (and yes I'm adding Canada to the US for this rant) airports are! We arrived at the Accra airport hours early (normal time for Jean) had our bags searched (using that term lightly), wrapped, and sent off within 30 minutes (no real traffic but this isn't the experience I'm going to rant about) - had dinner with Amanda, converted our money, and then headed off to watch Uruguay beat South Africa in world cup action. Approxmiately 9 hours later we arrive in Amsterdam where we have about one hour to clear immigration and catch our flight to Rome. In North America this would likely result in a missed flight as it would take about that long to get to immigration let alone clear it and get to the other side of the airport. In Amsterdam there have a separate immigration section for those folks who are connecting into another EU country (assuming you've managed to check your luggage), so we simply went there. Not being EU Passport holders we figured the lines could be long - but wait! They have a special priority line for those folks who need to fly within 35 minutes... having traversed the entire airport we were now in that line! The whole process took less than 5 minutes which is why we had enough time to get to Starbucks before heading to Rome! I have to say that my travel experience in the EU has been nothing short of brilliant! The airports are bright and clean, with lots of opportunities to get or exchange money (as well as chances to spend it), and pretty easy to navigate even when most of the announcements are not in English - that being said all the airports we've been in have had announcements in English so that too is easy.
The flight to Rome was good, though I slept through a big chunk of it! The sky cleared about 30 minutes before landing and the my first glimpses of Italy were of fields, hills, and lakes - beautiful indeed! There was so much green that it was almost like landing at home! We caught a glimpse of the Mediterranean as we neared the airport but it all of a sudden hit me that we are only days away from the cruise! We didn't have much time in the airport before switching from KLM (GREAT AIRLINE) to Alitalia for our flight to Genoa (another great airline).
I have just finished reading Eat, Pray, Love of which about 1/3 is set in Rome so I was prepared (somewhat) for the fact that I (coming straight out of Ghana and having been in the same clothing for almost 24 hours - 7 weeks really but who's counting!) would feel somewhat slobbish! Thank god I was prepared! Something that perhaps best captures the differences between Italian and North American culture... the regional (domestic) flight from Rome to Genoa (think Vancouver to Kelowna) not only have food/drink service (similar) it had the most leg room of any flight that I've been on and the back of the seats had little buttons on the side so that you could hang your jacket rather than shove it into the overhead bin!!! At this point I knew that I would love Italy but that I really need (no REALLY NEEDED) a shower and to break into the stuff sacks (not kidding here) of 'cruise clothing' that had been in hiding for seven weeks!
Ciao for now - Ag
I feel the need to add this - it is now 10:20 am (Italy is 2 hours ahead of Ghana) and mom just awoke! We realized that we have missed our "included" breakfast... guess that means that the day will start with a pastry - gotta hate that!
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