Volta Region & Togo

I literally just got back from Togo, maybe about an hour ago. I'm pretty wiped out and I really need to decompress after a crazy journey but I want to quickly write about the Volta Region before I forget too much about that trip.

Last weekend I traveled with an exchange group from North Carolina, Greg from Penn State, and Becca from California. We took a 4-day tour of the Volta Region with an awesome guide, Mr. Pasa, and our lovable driver, Issac. We stopped at the Pnong Dam for a brief tour and then on to the Eastern portion of Ghana known as the Volta Region.

We hiked to two waterfalls, Wli and Togbo. We also hiked up what is supposedly the tallest point in Ghana, Afadjato. The hike was a lot more difficult than I anticipated. I was out of breath starting around the half-way point and wasn't help to catch it until the very top. By the time I reached the top my clothes were completely drenched with sweat. What's insane though is that while we were hiking up the mountain, the local village was having their annual climbing contest and guys were racing past us either bare-foot or in flip-flops. It took me about 45 mins. to reach the top and I was the first of our group to summit... the winner of the contest though, made it up and BACK DOWN in 30 mins!!!

More highlights from our trip include eating some bush-meat for lunch (Grasscutter is something like a beaver) , sampling some fresh palm wine, running into German Beat-Boxers (who are actually Bee-Boxers, you'd have to be there), checking out various artisan businesses (Kente weavers, a tie-dye place, and a bead-making "village"), and a lengthy African birthday cake ordeal (again, you'd have to be there). I have pictures of the trip posted on my flickr page, http://www.flickr.com/photos/renegadegast. I'll try to transfer some of those pics on to the blog when I get a chance.

Stayed tuned for my next post about my adventures in Togo... I'll tell you all about my death threats (Now I got your attention! Ha. Pretty funny huh?).