Home » Ghana » African Adventure to Ghana - Summer 2003 (part II)

My summer of 2003 was a very exciting one. I went to Jonquière, Quebec to learn French for 5 weeks, and with only a few days to prepare (including a party at my friend Paul's cottage in between) I was off to Accra, Ghana landing July 1 (Canada Day, and also Ghanaian Independance Day). After that, within 3 days I was back at Ottawa to complete my Economics degree, so it was a very action-packed summer.

African Adventure to Ghana - Summer 2003 (part II)

Andrew Wozniuk
2006-04-02 10:41:09

Displayed times (last time: )

Jul 13, 2004
Cape Coast

Well, my bargaining skills are definitely getting better. Getting a taxi for a reasonable price is getting easier every time I do it. I used to really have to argue with the driver to get a good price, or try many taxis, now I can get it within the first few without too much hassle.

Food on the street is great. You can get meals like Fried Rice and Chicken for 8,000 cedis usually ($1.33CAN), and you can get fruits as well. People sell bananas, pineapple (They cut it up right in front of you, and you get the whole pineapple for 2,000 cedis (33 cents CAN). The pineapple here is the best pineapple I have ever had. It is really sweet and juicy. Another great snack I like is Fan Ice. It is an Ice Cream Bar - vanilla flavour, and really creamy. It is in a plastic wrapper with no stick, so you can just make a hole in it and press it out. It only costs 1,500 cedis (25 cents) and you get a good sized bar. You can also get Yogo which is frozen yogurt in the same type of package as Fan Ice for the same price. People on the street are always selling it so whenever you need something to eat, it's right there. It's interesting how prices are. The food I just mentioned is pretty cheap, however other stuff is par with Canadian prices or even higher. Eggs are 1,000 cedis an egg, so a dozen would be $2. Same as in Canada. If you buy a crate (30 eggs, then you can get it for 24,000 cedis, which is $4, but you get 2.5 dozen for that price. A bottle of water is 5000 or 6000 about $1 for a 1.5L bottle, or you can get it in 0.5L bags (not as good of water, but still alright, and has a bit of a chlorinated taste) for 200 cedis. One thing that is interesting is that you can buy whole chickens still alive from the market, or they will wring its neck and pluck the feathers right in front of you so you know it is fresh. I still have not purchased that, so I'm not sure how much it costs.

...