To Go to Togo...

I took a local trotro Sunday morning from my hotel in Accra to the local market place (Makola Market). Found a long distance trotro going to Afalo, the border town on the edge of Togo. The Ghana trotro is like the louage in Tunisa, the sept-taxi in Gambia, and other share taxi systems that seem to exist everywhere except the US. They all have set destinations (for the local ones, a set route that usually goes in a circle). From their start point, there is no set time table – they go when they are full. For the Ghanaian trotro, this means filling about 20 or so seats. The trotro is somewhere between a large minivan and a minibus. 4 seats deep (not including the front seat that takes 2 passengers), which each sit 4-5 people, depending on the vehicle. The good thing about arriving to a relatively empty trotro is that your pick of the seats, which for me meant picking the window seat in the front (driver’s) row. The bad thing is you have to wait for the rest of the trotro to fill up before you can go anywhere.

Waiting an hour on the fringe edge of the Makola Market really wasn’t that bad. Yes, it was hot, but I found a nice shade spot under a tree. An old woman was selling tomatoes on the sidewalk right next to the trotro, and decided I was her new best friend. Which, to her, meant having the absolute right to grab my hips with both hands or slap me on the butt anytime I got near enough. Strangely enough, this isn’t my first occurrence with this behavior over the past week. While the men stick to the hiss or tongue click (the Ghanaian version of the mild cat call), women – older women in particular – get a kick that I have what they call “Ghana hips”. Yep, the women here are curvy, and they are proud of it. So I walk into a shop, or market stall, and get slapped on the hips/butt by some old woman, who just then gives me a big smile and thumbs up. I think most of the white people they see here are young students/volunteers, who are little skinny things from what I’ve seen. So they aren’t used to seeing a white woman with the Ghanaian figure. Nice to finally fit in somewhere. 

So, around 11:30 or so, we were filled up with all sorts of people (me being the only obrini, or foreigner/white person), and on our way. Three hours later we arrived in Afalo. It was a really easy drive – the road is in great condition, and our driver liked to go 100 kph in 50 kph zones, passing pretty much everyone we came across. The only people that passed us were nice private cars – mostly SUV’s. Got to the border crossing, exchanged a bit of money (I already had some Togo cifas, but decided I could use more), which involved me beating a common con and actually getting a better exchange rate than I should have. (Con = exchange guy promises a great rate, but then tries to keep changing from small bills to large ones, back to small, etc., hoping to confuse the poor tourist who ends up paying twice.) Got my Togo visa without any hassle (both Ghana and Togo border people were really nice), and then haggled with a taxi driver for a ride from there. Ended up having him drive me the full 50k or so across the country (yes, it’s that skinny at the ocean end) to Aneho, which sits just outside the Benin border. I think I overpaid, but not by too much, and it was worth it to be in a car by myself for a change.

Staying the night at Oasis Hotel (not to be confused with Oasis Beach Resort, which I stayed at in Cape Coast). Rooms are a little blah, but the patio and outside dining room sits right on a small lagoon that opens up onto the ocean. Really tranquil spot.