Monkey Village

We headed to the Volta Region for this weekend’s excursion. As soon as we arrived, we were once again surrounded by kids. They just lined up and stared at us as we sat in the bus.

We went on a walking tour to see the monkeys, which was great. One moment there were just empty trees and the next they were teeming with monkeys.

Apparently they stick pretty much with their families. Lots of females and only one male. We got to feed them bananas. You just hold it up and they come right down and peel it in your hand, eat a little, then take the rest up the tree.

Now I was a little hesitant since last weekend I had a bit of a run in with a wild monkey. But these were actually nice monkeys.

Next, we took a tour through the village and spent some more time with the village kids. We then took dibs on which rooms we dared to sleep in. Luckily, our room had two beds and two mosquito nets!!!!! We managed to fit 5 of us in those two beds.

Hello bum!

Our tour guide took us on a walk to Wili Waterfalls. It was beautiful. Lots of greenery and totally rainforest like.

Cocoa Pod...we got to try the seeds. Yuck

It took about 45 minutes to get up to the falls and then we got to swim in the water. I assumed it would be freezing but it was great. We all waded in the water to take a group photo, and even though none of us jumped in, the wind and water blowing off the falls was enough to get us drenched and almost knock us over.

And to top it off, the whole rock wall to the left was covered in bats. We wanted so bad to wake them up so we all screamed together…nothing. After a few tries our guide, taking pity on us, took a big board and slammed it against the dock. That did it! All the bats woke up and the sky was dotted with black bats. Creepy but so fun!

Dinner in the village was better than expected. We went to this little thatched roof kitchen and had a huge mound of rice with some bean sauce and pineapple. I was not expecting such luck. Then we were invited to culture night. Gathering around a fire, we were told stories by the blind village storyteller. He spoke in his dialect, then our young guide interpreted for us. Every story was followed by him saying, “The first moral of this story is….The second moral of this story is….” Kind of funny. The little children were then asked to do a dance for us around the fire. So cute. Next…drums. The fire was put out and anyone who wanted was asked to join in dancing around the now fireless fire pit. Gladys, who was sitting on my lap, pulled me up off my chair and we danced together. For the record, I do NOT move like an African. Quite regrettable really. But there is just something in their genes. There was one mama who had her baby on her back fast asleep but she was just dancing up a storm. Maybe that’s how they learn to dance…they’ve literally been doing it since birth.

Jordyn, Carlie, Ashley, Sarah and I then went back to our room, played a mad game of UNO, took sleeping pills and called it a night. It was not nearly as terrifying as I thought. Only a few spiders, mostly relegated to the bathroom. However, if it weren't for the mosquito net I don’t think I would have slept at all.

On the ride home we went on a little boat ride. Our planned hike got totally rained out so we drove to our first rest stop and decided to have a little fun. It was kind of humorous actually because we all looked so dead. We were crashed on the bus, would wake up for the rest stops, then crash again. Any chance we get though to take photos and see Africa we take it.

Glad we did. We saw lots of water front little homes with everyone out doing their wash, taking baths, and fishing. Just a regular day for them that we happen to catch a glimpse of.

It was by far the most rural of our African adventures. It of course made me anxious and I did not like being dirty, but I made good memories!