Monkeys, Waterfalls and Mountain Climbing

Today was an early day for the team with a breakfast of toast, eggs, fresh pineapple, and coffee being served in our hotel in Ho at 5:30 AM, but I'm proud (and pretty impressed!) to say that everyone made it to breakfast on time, and we hit the road at 6:15 to check out the monkeys at the Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary, home to about 5 groups of mona monkeys.

Pretty cute, right?!

This was one of the team's favorite experiences thus far- we held small bananas in our hands, and the monkeys jumped out of the trees, landed on our arms, carefully peeled the bananas, and ate them. One of the best parts of the monkey sanctuary is that all entrance fees are used to develop the tribal community that lives in the center of the forest. About 1,500 members live in the tribe, and the sanctuary proceeds have helped fund a computer lab, electricity for the villagers, and an ongoing library project. We have videos and pictures of each team member bonding with the monkeys, but we don't have WiFi, so they'll be posted soon....keep an eye out!

After leaving the sanctuary, we traveled about an hour to Wli Falls, the lower level of a beautiful two-level waterfall in the Volta region. 

The waterfall...if you look closely you can see bats surrounding the waterfall on the face of the mountain!

Most of the team had the chance to get in the water and stand under the waterfall. It was a truly amazing experience, and we have a great set of pictures (including a VCU pride one that was a bit of a struggle to take!) under the falls. The 45-minute hike to the waterfall was more than worth it, and we were lucky enough to have an engaging, knowledgeable tour guide, Isaac, to teach us about the forest and its history.

We had a chance to do a little souvenir shopping after the waterfall, and some of the team climbed the highest mountain in West Africa while others took a break on the bus. Tomorrow, we're very much looking forward to attending a traditional Ghanaian church service with Reverend Bankas, our outgoing and dedicated guide and honorary father figure while in Ghana. Reverend Bankas is also organizing a welcoming ceremony for the team tomorrow evening to introduce us to the community and local culture. I'll report back as soon as I can with more pictures and a recap!

~ Shikha