Ghana, West Africa
15 July 2001

I'm in Accra right now- the capital of Ghana. I just spent 8 days here hanging out and seeing the sights with my good friend Tory. He will be leaving this evening for Tunisia while I'll be staying on for a few more days. 

I have to arrange my visas for Benin and Ethiopia. I plan on taking a bus to Benin, through Togo, in about four days or so. I'll be staying there on my own for about 1.5 to 2 weeks. Then I'm coming back here to meet up with my friend Damien and we'll be going to East Africa. 

I've been having a great time here in Ghana. So far we: chilled out on the beach for 4 days, saw some slave trading forts and castles from the colonial days, took a canopy walk in the rain forest (Kakum National Park), saw a monkey sanctuary (they had two species which are well-habituated to humans: the black and white Colobus and the Mona monkey), and checked out the old Ashanti kingdom of Kumasi. 

Ghana is much more developed than Guinea. There is so much variety of goods available. When driving around in towns, people obey traffic lights and wear seat belts. (There are no traffic lights in Guinea whatsoever.) 

I'm staying at the YMCA in town. It's not so nice, but it's very cheap, and seems to be safe as it's set up like a dormitory. After Ghana, I'll go to Benin and Togo. You may want to check a map or an atlas to see where these places actually are. It seems to be a pretty interesting place; I've been wanting to check it out for the past year or so. When I first heard her talk about it, I thought that it'd be hell on Earth, but now it seems interesting and even less hell-like than Guinea. 

Keep in touch, 

love your traveling brother Mike (like your Uncle Traveling Matt from Fraggle Rock)