Heading up North

Two days ago Brandon and I began our journey up north and already we have had some of our most memoriable experiences.
The plan was to head up towards Tamole, a major northern city nearby the famous Mole National Park (A wild life park). Instead of making it all in one trip, we decided to split it up by stopping at Techiman and checking out some of the sights in villages around there.
The first place we wanted to check out was the Fiemma Monkey Village. This village is known for having loads of monkeys that are seen regularly throughout the village. Monkey's are considered sacred there -- so much so that they even have funerals and propper burials for any monkey that dies. When we first arrived to the village we were taken on a tour through teh forest. This took up the majority of our time and was a little dissapointing. We were able to see some incredible trees and the monkey grave site, but other than that nothing too spectacular. The really great part came at the very end when we got a chance to feed the monkeys. We had brought a bundle of bananas and all it took was whipping them out and the monkeys began to flock. I was a little nervous about teh monkeys (especially since i opted out of the rabies vaccine) but they were totally friendly and just excited to grab at the treats we brought for them. We got some really good pictures with the monkeys and a video of me feeding them. Unfortunately though, these will never be seen. After get a ride back into techiman we realized that I had left my camera on the taxi. I know, I suck. Anyway, we had the phone number of teh taxi driver and called him. He came to us, let us check all through his car, and took me back to the spot where we got out to see if it fell out of the car. We asked all the street vendors around that spot an no one had seen it fall out or anything. Our driver even went so far as to make an announcement on the radio saying we were looking for it. He was so nice and concerned about it. But we still had no luck. I came to the conclusion that teh woman we shared teh taxi with must have taken it when we left it there. ugh. so frustrating. Not only did I lose my nice camera, but i also lost teh opportunity to document teh rest of our trip. So bummed.

Anyway, the next day we made a trip to Bouyem, another small village in the area known for it's bat caves. I was more excited about a taking the trail along large rocks and to a waterfall, but they were convincing and brandon was also pretty excited about the bat cave, so we decided to do both hikes. We started off treading through some thick bush. The vegitation was very thick and it probably would have been wise to have worn pants instead (my legs were cut up from all of it afterwards). Numerous times our guide had to pull out his knife to cut away vines and branches. Our first stop was a water cave and it was bat free. We crawled in on our hands and knees until we reached water that trickled down from above into a stream. Later we went into another cave that was full of small bats. I had heard too many stories about people getting bats cuaght in their hair and was a little freaked out. It was incredible though when our guide caught a bat in his hand. He took a hold of it and spread its wings out for us to see while the bat tried frantically to escape. When he finally let him go the bat responded with a pathetic bite (didn't come close to breaking the skin) and then quickly flew away. After we left his cave we rested briefly and had some fresh papaya that our guide had picked while we were on the trail. The last cave we visited was definitely the most remarkable. It is cave used by fetish priests for doing traditional ceremonies. However it was past this, and deep inside that stood out the most. Once again we had to crawl far into the cave. However, this time it wasn't just low down but we had to go through a tiny little tunnel. The space barely had enought room to crawl through, which was already scary enough in itself. But in addition to that it had bats flying through it so while we were crawling through in this impossibly tight place bats would fly through and brush against us. ughghg it gives me chills just thinking about it. This was the moment when i realized that I am terrified of bats. Once inside the belly of the cave, we were finally able to stand but that did little to calm me down. We could hear the bats screeching their wings flapping. There were bats flying around everywhere, swooping closely near our heads and with eachswoop you could feel the air from the wings. Looking up on the top of the cave you could see them hanging with their beedy eyes gleaming. After watching for a minute I was ready to go back -- only problem was that meant going back through teh claustrophobic tunnel, and probably another run in with a bat. There was an opening upwards in teh cave and a latter leading out. I asked out guide if we coudl go out that way, but he said it wasn't safe. Our only choice was to head back through. So I got on my hands an knees, shaking and trying desperately not to cry, and i crawled as quickly as I could back through. Finally, I was out! And as traumatizing as it was, I am glad that I did it. It was quite an experience.
After this we checked out some impressive rocks and were able to get an amazing view of the rainforest below. Our last stop was Bibiri falls, a small waterfall that was great for cooling off after a 5 hour hike. When we got back to teh guesthouse we had a meal waiting for us and after that we collapsed into bed.

Today we headed up to Tomale where we are staying for the night. Next we will hit up Mole! Can't wait. =)