Heavy history

October 10
We took a break today, heading out early with a cooler of frozen water bottles to explore. We left the paved road to reach a historically significant village near the mouth of the river from which slaves were shipped across to the New World. This area was explored by Portuguese sailors and settled by the French and English. This strategic island was on loan from the local king who was paid for his help in the slave trade.

The visit to the museum cannot be classified as fun but it was very interesting and important to see. We were disappointed to find that the replica slave ship had burned down (!!) the night before in a freak bee hive removal incident (?!?).

Dr. Ben Carson has long been featured in a gallery of photos of famous West Africans and successful African-Americans. And everything in the village--from nature trails to the names of preschools--pays homage to "Roots" and Alex Haley.

The day was sunny and calm for crossing by long boat to the island where we explored the ruins of the slave trade fort and found creepy spiders with "brick and mortar" camo. We enjoyed being the only tourists in town today.