Kpalime, Togo

While at the falls, we met a Scottish man named Alan who was kinda funny. It was fun just listening to his accent. However, he started hitting on our friend, Ana who is more than half his age and we decided it was time to start our journey to Togo. We hitched a ride with Alan to the border, (about a 3 min. drive!) and then proceeded with the border check-in. We were planning on walking to the border of Togo to check-in (a 15 min. walk), but by the time we were all stamped and ready to go, there was a full-fledge rain storm in motion! We luckily were able to catch a ride in another tro tro that was going all the way to Kpalime, a city in the mountains of Togo. I wish that it hadn't been raining so hard because it was a gorgeous drive! We were in the rainforest mountains and were driving up a small winding road that was carved out of the mountains by the germans when Togo was a German colony. At the same time, it was so surreal to be in this beautiful tropical place, with the rain falling all around and listening to some fellow passengers speaking french. It took about 3 hours to get to Kpalime and we checked into a nice hotel. I loved Togo!!! We had been told that the food was amazing, so after checking into the hotel we immediately left to get some dinner. Ohhhhhhhh! Our friends weren't lying. finally after 5 months, my children ate well!:) The next day, we decided to go on a toured hike through the forest. It was amazing! I can't believe how much we learned and saw. I was marveled at how many natural and useful products grew naturally here. It wasn't just food. We saw all kinds of things! Our guide only spoke french, so of course Ana had to interpret.

This is a cocoa tree. You can see the pods hanging down. He broke open a pod so that we could taste the seeds. They tasted fruity, not chocolatey! We learned the process behind it and from what I understood, they take the pods, open them and let the seeds (which are white) dry out. Inside the seeds if you were to bite them is the cocoa. We only sucked on the seeds because it would be a very very bitter taste had we chewed them! They dry the seeds and then ship them off to cocoa plants for the rest of the process of grinding, etc.
Just a pretty picturesque view.
Our long dred-locked hair guide's name was Rafael. He gave the most educational tour I've ever had. We just followed him on this skinny little trail and then he would disappear into the forest to show us some plant or fruit or tree that provides some sort of use for us in the world whether for food, medicinal, smelling scents, or paint, etc. Above: he cut the bark off of a tree and showed that the sap, or whatever it was inside the tree, provided a yellow paint that they use for painting art and other things.
This is a banana tree. You can see the bananas with a long dangling vine and red pod hanging from them. He told us that when bananas grow, this vine will grow and will get longer and longer and when the pod falls off, then the bananas are ready to eat.
Along the way, we came across a house, livestock, and occasionally people in the forest. This lady was carrying some type of plant that is used for mats or something like that. I think that there must be a village in there somewhere because there was quite a few people harvesting things all throughout the forest.

In the end I think we saw all these naturally growing: avacados, mangos, mandarine oranges, some other type of fruit, cocoa, coffee beans, pineapples, bananas, pepper corn, yellow paint, green paint (which after sitting for a few hours will turn to blue paint), red paint (this plant was also used for medicinal purposes), a few other medicinal plants that I can't remember their uses, casava, musk, a vanilla type scented flower, a plant that when placed on your arm and pressed firmly, will leave a tatoo in some type of white powder, palm nuts, citronella and basil (although I think they actually planted these because they were near a home), and more. I just can't remember any more at this moment.