Into exile...

So it's the swansong of our Ghana sojourn, as we're off to Burkina Faso today. We've had our last morning omelette-toast-and-Milo combo a la Ghana, and we're about to head off and pack our bags. Tomorrow, the morning hot drink will be African cafe au lait (see previous posts). Then we're going to head to the desert and hang out with Tuareg.

Yesterday was Easter Sunday, and being in Ghana we felt we ought to pay homage to the Real Meaning of Easter, ie chocolate. But it's a strange thing: despite being the world's second-biggest cocoa producer, and sitting right next door to the world's biggest cocoa producer (Cote d'Ivoire), Ghana really doesn't do chocolate. The closest you normally get are various Nestle-produced hot drinks, such as our friend Milo.

I think this is more about milk and refrigeration than anything else. Dark chocolate's probably a mite too expensive to really fly on Ghana's domestic market, but you can't really do cheaper milk chocolate because it doesn't cope well with hot climates. And maybe people just don't have a taste for it.

In a few places you can get a locally-produced chocolate which isn't bad; the milk chocolate's a bit powdery, but they do chocolate-orange and chocolate-lemon versions. It's a serious luxury product though, with lavish Kente wrappers; an average bar costs 6,000 cedis, about 30p/75c but a relative fortune in Ghanaian terms.

Anyway, Tamale is by no means a shopping Mecca, especially on Easter Sunday. So we contented ourselves with sitting on a couple of bollards and sucking away at a couple of FanChocos, which are by all accounts one of Ghana's most venerable ice cream products. They weren't all that good and they weren't egg-shaped, but what else do you do for Easter in northern Ghana?