Spring Break- Part 2, Hideout Lodge, Green Turtle Lodge, Stilt Village

Spring Break Part 2

We arrived at the Hideout Lodge by early afternoon, after three hours of navigating tro-tros and taxis, down red dirt pathways, through jungles, until the road opened up on the most beautiful beach. The green lushness of the scenery, the open blue sky, the turquoise water…it was absolutely stunning. We went through a tiny local village, crossed a rickety footbridge over a lagoon, and walked down the beach for about 5 minutes, before arriving at Hideout. It was so secluded, and we entered this fairytale, Swiss Family Robinson-like paradise. There were little red bungalows, one of which we stayed in, with a shower, fan, beautiful bed…there were also tree houses that you could stay in. There was a restaurant that served every delicious meal on wooden tables next to the sand, about 15 feet from the water. There were hammocks, palm trees, and the nicest staff. I think that we were one of two groups there, and the other was a quiet couple, who we never really saw.
The afternoon that we arrived there, we had lunch, jumped in the ocean, and I went for the most glorious beach run, before Mara and Camilla and I walked at least a mile down the sand to “our” rock, a huge outcropping into the sea that we climbed up and just watched the scenery, and natural beauty all around us. We returned at dark for lobster and cocktails on the sand, for the US equivalent of 5 dollars. Wow. Sleep that night felt euphoric, and being in a real bed was so nice.
We woke up the next morning and went on a canoe ride of the river with a local guide who offered to take us. We got up around 6 and set off in search of crocodiles and monkeys, which we didn’t see, but we definitely saw some beautiful birds. Back in time for fresh fruit, tea, oatmeal and omelettes at our favorite table on the sand…I ran again and we sat on the sand, journaled, and I painted and charcoaled before lunch. After, we packed up our things and before we left, we crossed the river and climbed up a cliff where we could make out the presence of some old ruins of some sort. It turned out to be a surprisingly intact Dutch slave fort, build in the mid-1600’s. It was so beautiful, green vines encasing the ancient structure. We climbed all over it, and the view from the top was honestly one of the most beautiful I have ever seen in my life. The untouched rawness of the jungle, set against the ocean was unreal.
After we climbed down, we caught a tro-tro again, headed for the Green Turtle Lodge, a cheap, but amazingly well known backpackers resort. It took an hour or two to get there because of the conditions of the roads even though it was about 20 km away, but it was worth it. We made it, ran into a group of NYU students who had been there for their entire spring break already, and checked in to another lovely bungalow. We swam, got cocktails, played in the sand, and found out the Camilla’s family, who was traveling around Ghana, hoping to meet up with us in a couple days, was randomly staying down the beach from us, about a ten minute walk! They were the only two lodges for miles and miles, and the odds of them staying there were quite small, so we were thrilled that they were there! It was so nice to be around a family! We met up with her parents and younger brother and sister, and they treated us to fancy dinner at their lodge. It was such a treat. Then we went on a turtle hike along the beach around ten at night with some guides and other travelers from Green Turtle Lodge. Again, the open expanse of the ocean and the sheer clarity of the starry night sky was enough to make you feel both incredibly small, and at the same time, so blessed to be alive, to see places like this, so unexplored. Sleep felt fantastic.
The next day, the girls and I luxuriated and had breakfast on the beach again; I don’t think I can convey the sheer joy of having all of our meals in this setting. We got so spoiled! I ran, we read, did art and journaled again, and met tons of other young people from all of the world we had also ended up at Green Turtle. There was a group from Denmark, Sweden, some Peace core volunteers, some Ghanaian students…it was wonderful to hear how everyone came to be there. This was our most relaxing day, and it ended with Camilla’s family treating us to another beautiful dinner at their beach lodge (yes, on the sand) where we were their only customers and they served us fish that we saw locals literally swim in from the ocean to the back door of the kitchen to serve us. That night we spent at Green Turtle, staying up late and lying on the sand, letting the immense beauty of the sky, and the ocean soak into our bones.
Mara and I woke up early the next morning and she wanted to join me on my daily run, so we had a blast, just sprinting down the sand for as far as we could, until we were far away from any civilization. We stopped, did yoga, before running home. It was a beautiful way to start the day. After our beach breakfast, we sadly packed up, but headed to the Nzulezo stilt village, about a three-hour trek via tro-tro, taxi, etc. We reached the Village, or the river that we would catch a canoe ride on, around 4:30 and caught that last canoe headed toward the village. An hour ride through the jungle and a beautiful lake, we arrived. Nzulezo is a very special place in Ghana, and many people do not know about it. However, a friend who had been on this NYU program before had recommended it to us, so we ventured there. It is a little local village of about 500 people, and it is entirely on stilts, everything, every structure made from bamboo and raffia. We were the only tourists there when we arrived and the entire village greeted us, gave us a room to stay, and a tour of the tiny village. It was so wonderful.
We were able to take our canoe out at sunset, and in the middle of the lake, the girls and I jumped in and skinny-dipped in the fading evening light. I will never forget it. We paddled home right as it turned night, and our host, we called him Danny, had cooked us some kind of rice-dish, and soup and fufu, typical Ghanaian fare. We ate as much as we could because in Ghana, it is extremely rude to not finish your food if it is prepared for you. Luckily, Danny was a good cook☺
This town had no electricity either, so we went to bed earlier. When all is quiet in these villages, and everyone is settling in, it is hard to make it past 9:30! As we were in our room however, we saw tarantula size spiders hanging out by our beds. And Camilla is incredibly terrified of spiders. A local boy came running when he heard shrieking and didn’t look twice at the spider. After convincing Camilla that it was harmless, I asked him, attempting to back up my claims of them being innocent creatures, “Do this spiders bite?” “Yes,” he replied, smiling. Dang. So then, I asked him, “Well, is it poisonous?” To that, he also replied, “Yes.” Ooookay. I remember thinking, so much for making Camilla feel better. (We later found out that this boy did not know a word of English, except “yes” apparently, but we did not know this at the time, so the spiders were in fact harmless). Lets just say that we swiftly picked up our mattresses, and moved out onto the open dock, in the center of the village. We spooned close together, determined not to roll off, which was actually not that hard to do so im glad that we stayed dry. All of this said, once we settled down, I we ended up sleeping incredibly well, spider free, and dreams full of stars.
The problem with sleeping in the center of the village was that waking up in the morning at 6 meant that we woke up to the entire village surrounding us, looking down and wondering why these girls had camped out there. I specifically remember opening my eyes and seeing a mother bathing her child literally off the dock next to me, then turning over and seeing 5 naked Ghanaian teenage boys scrubbing themselves down on my other side. This was the ultimate moment of the trip where we said, “Where ARE we?” once again. Our guide roused us, and we headed out on our canoe around 7 in the morning, back to the village on the mainland. This was our last full day of traveling and our goal was to stay the night in Kokrobrite, at Big Milly’s Backyard bungalows, about an hour outside of Accra. Traveling is very difficult in Africa on Sundays because of the amount of religious ceremonies that occur, so we wanted to get the majority out on Saturday, and we wanted to have a relaxing day on Sunday. The day was stormy but beautiful as we navigated our way back along the Western Coast towards home, and we luxuriated in knowing that we had just had some pretty incredible experiences. We arrived at our beautiful, lofted bungalow at night, had a beautiful dinner and slept in a tiny double bed in the cozy wooden loft of our bungalow, sad about our last night together.
We woke up to a light rain on the roof and headed out to the thatched roof restaurant on the sand where we had a celebratory breakfast. After a final beach walk, we packed up our things, soggy, dirty, muddy etc. and caught a tro-tro back to Accra. Pulling into Church Crescent, the complex where we live, was completely surreal, but we had the wonderful feeling of returning home, at least for now that is☺

These last few days being back has been great, everyone that traveled, my roommates especially, had amazing trips in Egypt, Rwanda, Mali…I want to travel EVERYWHERE now! When I came back to New Horizon yesterday to teach, the teacher and students cried they were so happy to see me. It was a wonderful, wonderful reunion. It feels good to be back, I cant wait to see you all!!
MUCH love.