Lomé

Another new country for us.
I was uncomfortable taking a private tour, so we booked expensive Oceania tour to two castles: Cape Coast and Elmira.

Sekondi-Takoradi are twin cities. We left the port and our convoy of few buses with a policeman on the motorcycle drove for two hours to our first stop: Cape Coast Castle. It is a world UNESCO heritage site.

Cape Coast Castle is one of about forty "slave castles", or large commercial forts, built on the Gold Coast of West Africa (now Ghana) by European traders. It was originally a Portuguese trading post, established in 16 century. It originally was a centre for the trade in timber and gold. It was later used in the Atlantic slave trade.

They were used to hold enslaved Africans before they were loaded onto ships and sold in the Americas, especially the Caribbean. This "gate of no return" was the last stop before crossing the Atlantic Ocean.
We were given an excellent tour of the slave history that was continued for three centuries. The horrible conditions people were kept. Very somber experience.

On the way to the second stop we passed a fishing villages and saw the team work by fishermen. Only men are fishing, the process of the fish can be done by women only.
In general people are very friendly and we were met with smiles.
The living conditions are pretty poor with few nice houses here and there.

Our second stop was Elmira Castle. It is bigger then Cape Coast Castle. Another good tour was given by local guide.

After that we drove to the resort and were treated to a good lunch with local music and dancing.

Our tour guide was very good and kept us engaged all the time during a long ride.
One interesting fact: they have only 7 male and 7 female first names for each day of the week. So by name you know what day the person was born.

We were back on the ship by 4:30pm.Read more