FYI - Lizards = Ghana's version of a Canadian Squirrel

Heya Folks,

So I made it to Ghana... after a 20 or so hours worth of travel and no sleep on the plane, we finally arrived yesterday!  It's very hard to explain in words the first few moments of stepping off the plane and onto the runway... the smells... the instant sweat... remarkable.  We were greeted by Aryn and Chelsea (two past particpants) after we made it through customs.  We headed to our hostel in a couple taxis... driving is, well, different here.  It's pretty agressive and I don't know if I could handle it.  We were in the cab for a while until I noticed the spedometer was broken... not that that matters, I was just curious how fast we were going.  We made it safe and sound to the Salvation army Hostel.  It's a nice place, complete with a fan to keep the 6 of us cool during the warm night.  We ventured around quickly, bought some water, then needless to say, crashed hard and slept through the night.

Today we had some great experiences! We got to ride in our first ever trotros!!! Which absolutely lived up to all expectations... they're kinda a van, that fits 15 people in it.  Pretty fun!  We also took at trip around the market for the most part of the day.  For Breakfast we had Coacoa, which went down surprisingly easy.  Oh!!!  We also had Bofruit (spelling?), which is, quite frankly my favourite... essentially a ball of deep fried dough.  SO GOOD!
At lunch we had delicious Watchay (spelling?)... spicy beans, with cassava sprinkling and shito (shrimp sauce).  And now we're at the internet cafe.

So I'm feeling very good about things... I don't have much more to say as I've only been here for a day!  So things are great!  Also... mom and dad, and all you other amazing race fans, I think I saw a place the teams were at in Accra... Africa Link?  Maybe.. it looked familiar.

Alright yall, it'll probably be a while till I write again.  We're in Accra for the next few days, then we head to Nkawkaw where we'll stay in the villages till christmas.  So I'll try and keep ya posted, but will have (VERY) imited internet access...
Oh and the title of this post... we have seen lizards... and it must be real funny for Ghanaians to watch me chase after them to take pictures, it's like someone taking a photo of a squirrel... except they're like super fast squirrels and, ultimately, I have been foiled in any attempt to capture them on film.... alas... it's only day 1... I'll get one.

I miss you all!

Cheers,

Matty
PS... I'm going to try and upload a photo, if it works it's of us in a trotro... if not... just ignore this...