Ghana Tastes: Day 16: Near Death Experience

Tema: Well, it finally happened. Cab ride from the underworld finally caught up to us. We were taking a break at the Ave Maria Hotel in Tema after traipsing around dirty, dusty, hot docks looking for information on food imports. After we were done, we ate lunch and had a swim at the hotel where Kwame Nkruma entertained Queen Elizabeth II on a state visit. We got to see the rooms where the Queen and Nkruma slept. Yes, they are available for rental.

Anyway, the doorman was kind enough to get us a cab when we were ready to go. As soon as we started driving we noticed an awful clunking sound. With each pot hole his tools and hubcaps in the back would jump up and crash back down. We zigzagged all around the city trying to avoid the traffic out to Accra. In the process of one of these diversions, the driver scraped the undercarriage from the front all the way to to back on the sidewalk we drove over. He absolutely would not yield to any other drivers and there were a couple of near scrapes with two different trucks near the port.

The really scary time came while on the expressway. The driver is speeding and cannot stop in time to avoid a smaller truck who had come to a halt. He pulls over to the shoulder. Only problem is that there was a bicycle rider on the shoulder. I closed my eyes as we were going too fast and I was sure that someone was gonna die or end up in a ditch and I didn't want to see it happen. Tim tells me that somehow our driver squeezed between the truck on the expressway and the bicycle rider on the shoulder. I about kissed the ground when we finally made it home.