Saturday June 23, 2012  Africa:  Day 13

            I woke up this morning relieved that I hadn’t been eaten alive by mosquitoes and any other large insects and had breakfast with the crocodiles.  The restaurant is essentially a patio that the sits right on the edge of the lake, so we watched a couple of crocodiles that were just over the half-wall basking in the morning sun.  There were also thousands of black and yellow finch-sized birds making nests in the trees right by our table.  A few yards away in the pond was a little island where the finches and bigger white egrets were nesting. 

            We then drove to Kakum National Park.  I was so excited to see my first rain forest, but I was nervously anticipating part of the hike.  We took a short trail through the towering trees, vines, and green undergrowth until we came to the Canopy Walk.  This is a series of seven suspension bridges that are hung between the tops of the trees.  As you stand swinging on the bridge, you can look down the hundreds of feet below you and see the layers of rain forest growth.  I guess if you are extremely lucky you may see the snakes, monkeys, and pygmy elephants that live in the jungle.  I don’t love heights, so it took a lot for me to even want to look down at all.  Despite the fear, it was amazing to see the world from this unique vantage point.

            After I was happily on solid ground, we drove for a couple of hours to the small coastal village of Busua where we stayed in a little bed and breakfast run by a French couple.  It was quite the change from last night’s accommodations.  We were immediately introduced to Miss Monkey.  We were warned to keep our doors locked and valuables close to us because this monkey that adopted the hotel about three years ago loves to explore and abscond with visitors’ belongings. Miss Monkey also likes to join you at the restaurant patio and will lie down on the table in front of you waiting for you to scratch her behind her ear.

            The Busua Inn is right along the beach, only about fifty feet from the ocean.  Just off the coast there is a very small island with two coconut trees growing at the edge.  I’m pretty sure that’s where every cartoon or movie with a deserted island got the idea from.  We dropped off our stuff in our rooms and walked down the mile of white sandy beach.  It was so refreshing to have the beach mostly to ourselves.  There were a few local kids playing soccer, but other than that, we pretty much had the beach to ourselves. 

            Well, we thought we had the beach to ourselves…We had gone to explore a little tributary that was coming through the thick jungle growth that surrounded the beach.  As we turned around to head back to the ocean, the next thing I see is five 10-year-olds with machetes blocking the exit of the small path we had just gone down.  I suddenly had a Lord of the Flies moment and wasn’t sure how we were going to escape this scene.  My next thought was wondering why Ghana had child soldiers and was racking my brain about any discussions we had in school about recent conflicts in this country.  We all kept walking with nervous smiles toward the beach, and the kids just kept staring at us.  Then they started running down the beach in front of us, pausing every once in a while to swing the machete through a sand pile or use it to rapidly dig in another area.  It turns out they were crab-hunting.  They thought it was fun to catch a crab, chop of its pinchers with their large knives or just rip them off if the machete wasn’t working, and then want us to hold their prize catch.  The kids were amazingly fast, too.  If a crab got loose and ran into the water, the kids within seconds would chase it and then scoop it right out of the surf.  I still can’t figure out how they got them back every single time. 

            I kept laughing at how much we do to protect our kids.  The phrase “don’t run with scissors” seemed so ridiculous at the time as I watched the kids running, jumping, and clambering up coconut trees with their heavy blades.

            We cleaned up and had a delicious dinner at the little French restaurant at the Inn.  We ate under the patio while looking at the bright lights of the big dipper and listening to the sounds of the waves.  The peace and serenity were abruptly interrupted when I realized I wasn’t the only one who was enjoying my seafood dinner.  As I was finishing up, my friends told me there was a cockroach on my plate.  I didn’t believe them at first, but then I looked and saw a giant roach crawling right up on my plate and settling itself on the rest of my rice.  James, the quiet head waiter who grew up in this village told me that this is the first time that this has ever happened. It would have to happen to me-the girl who ranks these awful little creatures as her #1 fear.