Well, this weekend a group of us decided we wanted to venture up to the highest waterfall in Togo: Akloa Falls...we really didn't have all the details together before we left...one of our translator friends had tried to help us make a hotel reservation for the place we wanted to stay at up north, but the number had been disconnected...after multiple calls, he turned to me and said "you know, in Africa, we don't usually make reservations anyway"...I laughed and realized he had a point...so we headed out Saturday morning praying we'd find a bus up north and a place to stay when we got there...thankfully, most of the friends that I travel with are laid back like I am, so we weren't too worried...we figured we'd just go with the flow and enjoy the adventure...
Saturday morning, we headed out to catch a taxi to the bus station....after lots of Africans arguing over us (we were all amused that they were more worried than we were about which taxi we were going to take), all eight of us squished into a taxi together and took off...for about 30 seconds....the taxi stalled and then wouldn't start again...we hadn't even been driving for a full minute and had already broke down...we all laughed and got out...transferred to another taxi and took off..
In all my travels around the world, I have driven in some pretty shanty-looking vehichles, but I think our little mini-bus up to Badou topped all of them....some of the chairs were only halfway latched in and would move up and down with the bumps that we hit...the back door made a really awful cracking sound every time they opened it and the sliding door on the side looked like it was about to fall off every time it was shut...we all found the state of the vehichle very amusing...we looked at each other and just laughed...we all agreed that it would make for a more interesting time and started off...The ride ended up being about a 6 hour drive...a huge part of that was in the mountains...before we went, I heard that the road to Badou (the city the waterfall is in) looks like the moon: full of craters...well, that ended up being no understatement! It was an interesting combination of bumps and bouncing seats...not to mention, the driver attempted to dodge the bumps, so we were all moving back and forth like we were on some kind of rollercoater ride! It was actually pretty fun...but we were all in pain after the ride! Shockingly enough, we broke down up the mountain on the way to Badou...but the bus driver fixed it in a few minutes and we were back on the road again!
Our lovely chariot to the mountains :)
The best part of the drive was that we picked up random passengers along the way and at one point had 18 people crammed in together, including 3 adorable babies who got passed around! The cute little boy that I had didn't seem to mind all the bumps in the road and even fell asleep on me! It was precious :)
Me & the cutie pie who joined us for the ride
Some of the African mammas and their kiddos all crammed in
We said goodbye to our new friends on the bus and managed to arrange for our driver to come back the next day to drive us back in the afternoon...Badou was a great little place...I just really like being in the countryside...it's so different from being in the capital city...everything is much more quiet and laid back and we were able to just walk around the town and meet some random people along the way...the kids were adorable as usual, but a little more shy up in the countryside...I don't think they see white people up there quite as much...
Sunday, we headed to the waterfall..all 8 of us, along with our bus driver and another guy named Sam, a random passenger who we met on our way to Badou...he spoke English and helped us negotiate our prices with our driver and at the hotel (which cost a whopping $6/per person for the night...and didn't even have mice...gotta love Africa)...Sam was from the city, but was up north visiting his sister...he told us he hadn't been to the waterfall in years and really wanted to see it again, so we invited him to tag along...it's great how often we just meet random people in Africa...I love it!
Hotel Abuta
The waterfall was beautiful and we enjoyed swimming in it since we were all hot from the hike up the mountain! Akloa falls is the biggest waterfall in Togo and was definitely worth the journey up there!
Akloa Falls
Me & the girls by the waterfall
It's said the waterfall is "like something out of a shampoo commercial"
so we had to do our shampoo pose :)
After the waterfall, we gassed up at this little Texaco & headed home
1 comment:
Haha! That car episode was funny to read about. Glad you had fun!
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