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We said goodbye to eight members of our group and hello to seven others that joined for the second leg of this trip. We're sorry to see people leave for home, but we welcome new personalities. To the bright side we've noticed that prices are better in Ghana compared to Cote d'Ivoire; a group of twenty can eat three meals on much less than $35 US dollars per day. Even with cheap prices, Ghana seems prosperous by West African standards. While driving through the countryside we noticed that middle class housing is more prominent here than anywhere else we've seen in Africa. Our trip took us along the coast. We visited the slave fort at the Cape Coast. Europeans once called Ghana the Gold Coast, but most people traded slaves, not gold. The forts are grim reminders of this slave trade, and they still dominate the coastal towns even though they're empty. Standing in the fort's dungeons that once held slaves, we can only sense how horrible it must have been for those locked away in a dank and suffocating cell, crowded with hundreds of sweating bodies, with only an arduous and bleak life awaiting at the end of a long journey over the Atlantic.
The slave fort at Cape Coast.
We cooked up a huge snail for dinner. No one ate it. Part of the problem was that we watched this lady cut up the slimy beast. You've heard of Hamburger Helper, how about Snail Helper?
The cooks called this food 'yambos.' Very tasty. I think they were spicy potato balls, but I didn't want to find out too much. We've learned not to ask too many questions about the food we eat.