Art, Food and Craft

Your first day in Accra will start off  your wonderful experience in Ghana whiles we explode your taste buds with a plate of hot spice. After breakfast at your hotel, we set out for the tour of Accra and its vicinity, passing through the economic and administrative districts.

Our first visit will be Makola Market where you will have the opportunity to show your bargaining skills at the largest open market in Accra whiles you shop for some food stuff like shrimp, fish, pepper, onions, and tomatoes, to prepare our kenkey with seafood?

We will visit James Town—one of Accra’s most historic neighborhoods, where history resides on every corner.  Best known for its lighthouses (the first of which was constructed in 1875 by the British) as a navigational aid for trading vessels sailing through the Gulf of Guinea. The original structure was ruined, but a larger and improved lighthouse completed in 1921 still functions today.

Make our final stop in Jamestown the home of the original Ga kenkey known at komi or otim. We would watch and practice the preparation process and get to prepare our sauces and fry our own protein to eat with it. Get some paper towels to dap your runny nose, it could get hot in there.

Hotel: Roots Apartment

Meal Plan: Breakfast

Enjoy breakfast at your hotel. Depart to the golden city of Ghana. Before we check in to our hotel, we will make a brief stop at aunty Attas. This is the place were you will learn how to prepare fufu with chicken soup. Fufu is a very rhythmic dish that originates from the akan tribe with a mixture of cassava and plantain mix in a mortar and pistil normally eaten with different types of soups, but we would try it with the light soup, to the Ashanti man a day without fufu is a day without food at all. Fufu is usually eaten in an earthen wear bowl.

Hotel: Lancaster Hotel

Meal Plan: Breakfast

Our exploration continues. This day’s tour will take us to the three main craft villages in the Ashanti region. Our first craft village where would be Ntonso where Artisans hand-stamp patterns on a cotton cloth to make Adinkra Textiles. Black-on-Black and Black-on-Red Adinkra Cloth is worn for funerals and other solemn occasions; learn how the Black Dye is made in the village from the bark of trees and create your own Adinkra sash to take home. You may also purchase large pieces of the Adinkra Cloth handmade in the village.

We will continue to the village of Adanwomase where we’ll see how the famous Kente Cloth is handmade on looms in a time-honored tradition passed down through generations. See the Kente patterns with each having a meaning. You will have the opportunity to make purchases.

We will also visit Ahwiaa were fertility dolls are made.

After our tour we would have a little farm tour here we would watch and practice the preparation of Ampesi with palava sauce this dish is known to be the farmer’s companion because all ingredients needed for this dish can be easily accessed in the farm it would amaze you to know that this food can be eaten in an earthen wear bowl or a leave of plantain right in the farm no cutlery needed.

Hotel: Lancaster Hotel

Meal Plan: Breakfast

After breakfast, you will be allowed time for shopping prior to our departure to Cape Coast

Today, we depart for yet another adventure, we stop at Assin Manso, the burial site of two former slaves from the USA and Jamaica whose remains were re-interred in August 1998 during Ghana’s first Emancipation Day Celebration.  A visit to “the Slave River” or “Donkor Nsuo” offers the chance to see the place where captured Africans were washed before being confined in the Slave Castles to await shipment to the Americas and the Caribbean. This tour is the most emotional especially for our brothers and sisters from the Diaspora.

Continue to Cape Coast, enjoy a scenic drive through the city with monuments dedicated to the past and present gold coast.

Hotel: Coconut Grove Beach Resort

Meal Plan: Breakfast

Cape Coast, the former Capital of Ghana serves as the one place that Ghana’s history re-plays itself. Our visits today we will starts with Cape Coast castle, a UNESCO world heritage site. The castle is a thought-provoking monument to a harrowing period in the region’s history. You will take an emotional journey through the castle which held more enslaved Africans than any other in the region, viewing the dungeons and the infamous “Door of no return”. There is a significant historical museum inside, which explains the castle’s history and Cape Coast itself. You can purchase literature on Ghana’s forts and castles, as well as the cultural history and traditions of Ghana.

This afternoon enjoys the sights of the many colorful fishing boats bringing their daily catch into the harbor and take the opportunity to mix with the locals at the nearby market. We visit the boat builders a short distance from the market, building colorful fishing boats using traditional tools and methods spanning centuries. We will get some fresh fish here for our day’s cooking lesson.

We would fix a quick meal known as the fisherman dairy Fante Fante.

Fante Fante is a fresh fish sauce, made with palm oil. As the name suggests, Fante Fante is a local dish that originated amongst the people of the Fanteland, predominantly the people of the Central region. Traditionally, Fante Fante was only made with fresh fish and eaten with fante kenkey or Etsew. These days, there are several modifications in the preparation of Fante Fante; some people fry their fish before the actual preparation of the Fante Fante to prevent the fish from breaking into pieces. Despite these variations in the recipe, most Fante people maintain that any self-respecting Fante Fante should have fresh fish as its major ingredient.

Hotel: Coconut Grove Beach Resort

Meal Plan: Breakfast

Breakfast at your hotel. Depart for Accra arriving in time for a Batik and Tye dying workshop. You will have the opportunity to make our own fabric at the end of the workshop.

Hotel: Roots Apartments

Meal Plan: Breakfast

After a leisure morning,  we will visit happy art Academy. At the academy, you will witness first-hand experience of molding & making all kinds of earthen ware from specially crafted pottery. We will have the opportunity to design our own artifacts using the clay technique.

Today we would try some street food like plantain chips, Bofrot, and Kebabs. Egg & pepper (Kosua ni meko) etc…

Hotel: Roots Apartment

Meal Plan: Breakfast

Today’s activities will depend on your flight time. he day is leisure for relaxation and individual activities. There is also the opportunity to do last-minute shopping before you are transferred to the airport for the onward flight.

Meal Plan: Breakfast