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After over nine days we left Cote d'Ivoire and entered Ghana at a border town called Elubo. There we changed money; whereas most of West Africa uses the West African Franc (CFA), Ghana uses the cedi - from the Akan word for cowry shell, small seashells that Africans once used as currency. Besides money, Ghana differs in language from the other countries we've visited so far. The French colonized most of West Africa and these countries speak French. However, Ghana was colonized by the British and speaks English as an official language. Curiously, Ghanaian drivers follow French tradition on the roads by driving on the right side. Another change from Cote d'Ivoire: fewer police checkpoints. Maybe Ghana has grown more liberal as the first African country to gain independence from Europe in 1957. We talked about these things as we camped on a family's front lawn. This couple and their eight children lived in a small compound of shacks along the highway. We treated our hosts with chocolate banana custard and then pitched our tents next to their goat pen.
There's a nice port and beach at Elmina, Ghana.
There's also this grim reminder of the slave trade.
Slavers crowded over 300 slaves into this dungeon to wait for the transport ships that sometimes didn't arrive for months. The heat and smells must have been horrendous.
The "Door of No Return."