Wednesday morning was already hot. We left campus shortly after dawn to catch the early tro-tro to Ho-Hoe, but we must have missed it because by the time we arrived at the Kpong station- 7:45 am- the tro-tro we needed had only three people in it, including us, and eleven empty seats. Ugh. Because it’s not a terribly popular route, we knew we had a long wait ahead of us. For a while, it was okay. We found a spot in the shade next to a video store and there was a breeze and several scruffy lambs wobbling around after scraps. We were entertained.

Take a minute to appreciate the titles of these movies, mostly from Nigeria. How could you turn down Swagger Pastors?! Exactly. That’s why we brought a copy home.

My second-favorite tro-tro snack, plantain chips. Fried to a crisp in palm oil. I am seriously drooling a little bit as I type this.

Matt’s favorite travel snack, hard-boiled eggs. Vendors carry these heavy trays on their heads, and to prevent the eggs from tumbling to the ground, they cover them with some sort of paper mache mixture. If you buy one, the vendor will whip off the shell like a pair of tear-away pants, slice the egg down the middle, and fill it with a topping of pepe, garlic, and onions. The whole thing happens in like 14 seconds.

Clearly, the novelty of livestock all over the place had not worn off yet.

So like I said: for a while, waiting was fine. But an hour and only two additional passengers later, the heat and the fumes were getting to us- me, mostly. I’d eaten those plantain chips, testing out my weak but treated body, but I wasn’t feeling that strong. And we were both feeling a little dehydrated. We used the urinals at the station- two open-air shower stall-like structures that cost us 10 pesewas each- but even though we’d each had 32 ounces of water that morning, it was pretty much a waste of 20 pesewas.

After another 30 minutes or so, the driver/mate motioned that we should get into the tro. We did, but it was (not unexpectedly) stuffy and the sun moved into my window. Sweat was pouring out of us, even though we were only breathing and blinking. I tried to read, but the frequent interruptions from vendors, mostly small children, and the intense heat made it hard to focus.

We stalled out with four seats left. It seemed like enough people would never come. Two hours in, Matt pulled what he called “a kind of jerky rich white man move” and decided to purchase the remaining seats, just so we could leave. I was so relieved. And even if it was a showy thing to do, nobody in the tro-tro cared at all, according to everyone’s happy faces, and it only set us back about $14 American dollars. Since we hadn’t even really started the trip, we still had three-ish hours of tro-tro time before we made it to Wli, our final destination, and the sun was only getting higher (I’ve mentioned that most tro-tros don’t have AC, right?).

Since I was already on Cipro and Malarone, I figured I should throw some Dramamine into the mix, because at least then I could sneak in a nap. But with the incredible speeds, sudden stops, and theme-park-ride potholes, sleep was impossible.

Hard to see unless you enlarge the picture, but the paved road often gives way to great dirt dips. Much swerving ensues.

A relic from the 2012 presidential campaign.

 

Crossing the Volta Bridge.

The scenery was beautiful.

Approaching Wli.

The Volta Region is one of the most beautiful in Ghana.