Bolgatanga

Known as "Bolga"  is the capitol of Ghana's Upper East Region.  It is a bustling city of 70,000 people and was the  "jump-off" point for our final destination, Jon's home in Bawku. 

Jon had reserved a room for us in Bolga at the very nice Black Star Hotel, but when we arrived on Friday afternoon, they claimed to have no record of the reservation and they were filled up for the night.  After a couple of phone calls, Jon got us a room at the Sand Gardens Hotel, down near the river.  As it turned out, we liked this place much better than the Black Star, which turned out to be quite the party place - lots of noise well into the early morning hours. 

The only problem seemed to be that there were no rooms available with air conditioning.  And the room they gave us was basically an 8 x 12 "cell" with a small bed and an overhead fan.  The bathroom was a shared one, located at the end of the hallway, as was the shower.  But it was cheap! 

After about half an hour, the girl at the desk called us over and asked if we would like a room with air conditioning.  We jumped at it.  Kathleen and I moved in to that room.  Jon decided to stay with his little cell, but actually, he never slept there anyway.

After checking in and getting settled, we discovered that we were short of cash, the hotel did not take credit cards and there was no ATM machine in Bolga!  What to do?  Jon decided it best that he take our bank card and head back to Tamale to get cash for the rest of the trip.  Apparently, Bawku did not have access to electronic banking either.  Kathleen felt bad for Jon who now would have to travel back to Tamale on a tro tro and spend the night there.  He figured he would be back with us in Bolga by noon the next day.

I have inserted some pictures below, but wish I had taken more in Bolga.  It is a thriving town with a huge market area which some local boys took us thru.  Jon recruited a driver to take us to Bawku at the end of our stay in Bolga, but we had to go to his house so that he could get some cash and let his family know where he was going.  He planned to stay with us for a few days.  The pictures with the kids, below, were taken at his house from the car we were in.