Oh the lovely beach

I can't believe it's already the 28th! Where has this year gone?!? In the past i have mentioned some of the terrible ingredients we get on the ship.  Here is an example of some of the eggs we get.  Absolutely would never see these in an American store...it's been weird to deal with.  I've gotten used to cracking eggs into a separate container because of the fear of getting a bad egg in with all the other good eggs you have already cracked.

Today Julie and I decided to go to the beach.  It was GORGEOUS!!! We were told it wasn't to touristy but i'd say of anywhere i've been in Ghana so far (which isn't that much) it was the most touristy.  The beach was quite pretty though.  Lots of shells and pretty rocks to collect.  The water didn't have to much garbage in it either (always a plus).  We didn't go swimming because we were told that the rip currents here are very bad.  However, a lot of people were swimming so we probably would have been safe...but...better safe then sorry.

This was the sign board at the entrance to the beach.  It cost us 15 Ceidis to get to the beach and then 3 ceidis to get into the park.  

There were two very large hotels located on the beach.  Also, lots of beach clubs and bars.  As you can see in the background, there were a fair number of people at the beach.  

Horse ride anyone?

I just thought this was pretty cool.  The guy on the 4X4 was riding up and down the beach  on two wheels.

I'm holding all the shells and rocks i collected.  Some of them were really pretty!

Toes in the water!

We were stopped by so many people who just wanted to say hi that we finally asked someone to take our picture.  It took a couple of tries before they figured out my silly touch screen phone but eventually we got a nice one ;)

While walking around on the beach we came across a fishing boat with some guys mending nets.  We asked to take their picture and they agreed.  i think they wanted us to either buy them drinks or they wanted to buy us drinks...we said no either way.

The back of the fishing boat.

After walking up and down the beach for a bit we stopped at one of the restaurant/bars and got a delicious pineapple drink.  It was so good!  people kept coming up to us and trying to sell us stuff though.  This lady had a chart with all the meanings of the necklaces she was selling.  We didnt end up buying anything from her.

The lovely drink...i would totally get it again.  Wish we had it in the states.

These guys were weird.  It was a band of people playing Christmas carols on their drums and whistles and something else i didn't know what it was.  Then there was a guy dressed like a woman dancing to the music.  It was really strange.  We were told that they didn't have a woman dance because people thought it was funny that the man dressed like a woman.  We just thought it was kind of strange and slightly amusing.  

These two ladies kept coming over to our table and wanting us to buy pedicures or manicures from them.  Finally Julie caved and got a pedicure.  The other lady wanted me to get one too but i just didnt want to.  I dont like spending money on stuff that i cant take home.  But she just wouldn't leave me alone.  I felt very rude being so harsh and saying no so firmly but she still wouldn't go away.  No matter how many times i said no she just pressured me and pressured me.  So finally i just let her paint them so she would go away.  It was quite amusing how many people came up to our table to try to sell us stuff. 

We had a great day! We started walking back to Tema (it was probably 15 miles) just because we wanted the exercise and it was still a very nice day.  Traffic was pretty bad so we were moving just about as much as the cars.  A taxi driver stopped us and said he would drive us as far as he was going for free.  So we got in and he ended up driving us most of the way to Tema.  It was so nice of him.  I think he wanted to marry one of us to get into America.  So we told little white lies that we were married...just bending the truth a little right?  We took a tro tro (the ghanian version of a poda poda) the rest of the way to Tema.  Boy was that an experience! At one point everyone in the tro tro was bickering about how much we had to pay.  There is a driver and a collector.  The collector sits at the door and lets people in and our and takes their money.  The collector was trying to overcharge us and the other people in the tro tro wouldn't let him.  Julie and I were just sitting there watching the whole thing take place.  It was a matter of pennies that they were talking about.  i was amused by the whole scenario.  We made it home safely to our wonderful Africa Mercy though.
Tomorrow we set off on another adventure into Accra.  Should be fun.  I will keep you posted. night!