Trip: $52, Bananas: $2, Feeding Monkeys: PRICELESS

What a day. I am exhausted!!! This would be a pretty normal statement for any other day considering how tiring sweating is but today was definitely special and one that we won't forget for a long time. It started off a little rough. Usually that's pretty typical of a day that starts at 4:45 AM. Yes. We were up and ready to go by 5:00 as we waited for the Woe group to join us. They arrived shortly after five and we were off! We tried to sum up the hours we spent in the car and I think it came up to something like 6.5, maybe 7, hours of being on the road and just waiting for people to get ready.

I don't really know how long it took to get to the monkey sanctuary because I passed out as usual in the car. That doesn't matter. We arrived at Tafi-Atome monkey sanctuary and before we knew it, we were walking along what looked like any dirt road. But this wasn't just a dirt road. Less than five minutes in, with our guides Patrick and Sylvester making this weird, prolonged kissing noise, the monkeys showed up!!!! They were all over the trees. I think if I could be any animal, I'd be a monkey because they get to swing from branches and slide down vines and do other crazy things. The guides gave us each a half of a banana and we all took turns feeding the monkeys. Some of us didn't realize that you had to hold on really tight because monkeys are strong! They'd rip it out of your hand and scamper up the tree. We even witnessed one monkey stealing from another monkey and then a there was a bit of a fight. The volunteers from the other site didn't seen to want to feed them (which Silan really did not understand....I don't really understand it either). We had breakfast, walked around the town, and then we were off to the falls.

These falls aren't just any falls though. We're talking about the LARGEST in West Africa and the SECOND LARGEST in all of Africa. Cool eh? They are called Wli Falls. It was like a 40 minute drive from the monkey sanctuary. We then had to walk another 45 minutes to get there. Nothing too hard to cover but still, it felt like forever. I kept thinking that we'd turn around this corner, hear the rushing of the water, and the falls would just appear. AND THAT'S HOW IT WAS!!! It was phenomenol. We all went for a swim in the water. It was definitely colder than we would've liked but it wsa like nothing before. We all tried to get to the back to touch the face of the wall and I think everyone succeeded. Not without some difficulty though. It felt worse than a tornado. Though I've never been in a tornado so I can't really say that. The ground was mostly sandy...very shallow. Except for this one part that was around 5 or 6 feet deep. Everyone tried not to touch the ground because it felt like the ground was enveloping you. This wasn't just normal mud. It was freakishly soft mud that could've very well not been mud and just a lot of bat guano.

I FORGOT THE BATS!! While we were swimming we all looked up and the sky was so dark because of the bats that were flying around. They covered wall after wall near the waterfalls. It was so beautiful. I probably am not even giving the waterfalls credit because it was just so gorgeous. The picture below was taken by Silan. She's recently mastered the art of self-photography. It is an important skill. It will come in handy when we travel the world together and don't want to be the annoying tourists asking locals to take our picture. We'll be tools instead.

Silan says: This may have been the coolest experience of my life. Hiking through Ghaniain rainforest to swim in a waterfall 1000 ft high.

We are leaving tomorrow for the Cape Coast. It is going to be more time spent in a tiny van but I'm sure it'll be just as beautiful as today. Hope you enjoyed the pictures!!! AND KEEP COMMENTING!!! They make our day.

SIDE NOTE: I forgot to add that in this oh so shallow water, I still managed to fall. And fall. And fall. We tried to take a picture of the five of us on this log and everyone was at the log, ready to take the picture except me. Because I slipped on a rock. Then I couldn't even get up in the water because it was so shallow. Only that would happen to me. I also fell in the mud. Atleast I wasn't like Emily and fell on CONCRETE because she was running to get in line for food. She wins.