20241215 Seabourn Sojourn Grand Africa Cruise Day 20/96 - Takoradi, Ghana

Grand Africa Cruise Trip Day 20/96 -Takoradi, Ghana - we're 90% of the way to visiting 100 countries

Gye Nyame African Cultural Troupe

Wow - it's hard to believe that we're 90% of the way toward making our goal of visiting 100 countries, but here we are, setting foot in our 90th country, Ghana. The next ten that we will visit on this journey are:

1. Sao Tome & Principe
2. Angola
3. South Africa
4. Mozambique
5. Tanzania
6. Seychelles
7. Madagascar
8. Mayotte
9. Zimbabwe
10. Zambia

So Zambia will be our 100th country visited. We have more to come before we go home in March, but for now, it is fun to count down to our goal. On to our activities in #90.

We awoke this morning to a warm room - really warm. Then, we realized that we weren't hearing any air moving. As we walked out to breakfast, we met folks a few rooms down who said their room was the same. It appeared that the air conditioning for our block of rooms on Deck #5 starboard had crapped out. We called it in and crossed our fingers.

Takoradi, Ghana is another industrial port, but nowhere near the size of Abidjan, Ivory Coast. It was easy to get into and out of.

I don't think these three are going anywhere

We boarded our bus - a surprisingly nice and new Yutong bus with great air conditioning and USB ports at every seat. They have been cautioning us about poor buses, but so far, they've been great. Today's tour was a Twin Cities tour of Takoradi and its twin city, Sekondi.

Ghana’s outgoing President Akufo-Addo who lost the recent election in a landslide

At least 50 egrets were hanging out in this tree

Housing is rough - Ghana exports manganese, bauxite, and cocoa, but we sure didn't see much evidence of any wealth generated from that process

We crossed into Sekondi

Faces of Ghana

Wesley Methodist Church

Abandoned buildings with trees growing through the roof

Western Regional Coordinating Council

We arrived at our first stop, the Sekondi Fishing Harbor

Building new boats by hand

Darn it, now I have to change plans...

We were given an overview of how they make ice blocks for the fishermen.

Ice molds under the floor sit in a super-cooled saline brine bath - the addition of salt in the bath allows it to be chilled below the standard freezing temperature for water

This circulation motor circulates the icy water around the molds

They brought up an in-process mold so we could see the water in the mold was freshwater

They exposed another mold that had completed the freezing process

The mold was taken to the wash station where fresh water was added to release the ice from the mold

The mold was tipped and the new ice blocks slid out and onto the floor

The mold is refilled and placed back under the floor in the cooled brine bath and the nine-hour freezing process begins again

Each block lasts two to three days and fishing vessels take 50-100 blocks per voyage to keep their catch fresh and safe

Wheeling the new batch out to a fishing vessel

The manager of the block factory is also the inspector who inspects catches when the fishing vessel returns to port. If there isn't enough ice left, he will reject the entire catch as unsafe. The fishermen then need to buy even more ice blocks the next time they go out. It is a bit of a racket.

The harbor was quiet as it was a full moon and they don't do much fishing during a full moon

There was a new catch on the dock and they were sorting the fish - the one fisherman was showing off his Calvin Kleins

The fish were counted and placed into buckets

These are flying fish - the same kind I've photographed in previous blogs

This guy loved posing for the camera

Once again, I had to adjust plans...

With that, we departed the port and headed for our next stop a market in Takoradi.

We had a police escort the entire day to deal with any traffic issues

The roads here can only be described as punishing

The statue of Sekondi shows traditional dance

We caught a glimpse of Seabourn Sojourn across the bay

Another look at the presidential statue

We saw lots of kites (birds) flying

Arriving at the market

That structure in the background is the market, but it is still under construction so all the vendors are forced out along the street

It wasn't much of a tourist area - we walked a few blocks and headed back to the bus

Ambassador Arlona, conducting international diplomatic relations

We popped into a grocery store and found this "Tall Horses" wine - ha!

We left the market and drove to our last stop, the Raybow Hotel.

Our escorts, securing the area, we're not sure why

We were treated to a few local snacks and a folkloric performance from the Gye Nyame African Cultural Troupe

Of course, a Ghanaian beer was in order

The dances were high-energy and fun to watch

We made the bouncy, bumpy, twisty, turny, rocky, rolly, rutty ride back to our ship. Vendors set up tents near the ship so we wandered through, checking out the local wares. Throughout the day, we found the Ghanaian people to be friendly and the vendors to not be pushy. After enough equatorial Ghanaian heat, we returned to our room and found that the air conditioning had been repaired and our room was comfortably cool. Whew.

After pre-dinner drinks in the Observation Bar, we attended another hosted dinner, this time by Cruise Consultant, Rachel. It was another nice dinner and we enjoyed the conversation.

We were both tired and decided to end the evening and came back to the room. Tomorrow, we have another day in Ghana, this time in Tema, about 135 miles east and north of Takoradi. We will be shopping and cooking with a Ghanaian chef so it should be an interesting day.