Knocking It Out Of The Park - A Ghana Travel Adventure

 Newly vaccinated and ready to travel party. 

Once I got my first shot, I rescheduled a badly needed trip to Ghana to drive Theodora Africa Project forward. 

Travel in this Covid world has all kinds of requirements that add complexity. First there are many countries you can't get into period. Second, there are countries that won't let you change planes (which limits your options for getting places). Third, there are a multitude of testing requirements. As I wrote back in October of 2020 when last I went. 

Ghana, relatively speaking, is one of the better places to go. They 1) let visitors arrive, 2) Have a system that has kept travel borne variations at a minimum, and 3) have a significantly lower reported incidence of infection (I say reported because in a country like Ghana I am sure that a lot of people who get Covid and just think they are sick from something else). They are one of the few countries in the world that have invested in and have operational a system for testing you using the PCR testing system upon arrival and getting you results in under an hour. So you arrive and exit the airport with a clean bill of health. 

Having said that, there is still a bunch of hoops you need to jump through to get there, all of which require both paperwork and money. 

1.  The pre-flight Covid test. You must get this 72 hours and have a negative result before you depart. You must have the proof in writing and show it when you check in or you will not be allowed on the plane. If you are me and you are taking two separate reservations to get to your destination, you have to time your test to be sure it is exactly 72 hours or less before you take off. After you take this test you have a required worry time until you actually get the test results back.
2. Prepayment of your Ghana arrival Covid test. This is also required. You must show proof of payment or you cannot board the plane to Ghana.
3. Filing your Ghana arrival Health Declaration information. This you do online - for fee of course - so you don't have to deal with entering the information awkwardly on small kiosk when you arrive. Of course when you do this, the site tells you your information will come in two to three business days. But you are leaving the next day. But for an extra fee, you can get it expedited so you get it in 24 hours. I pay the extra fee. The confirmation comes in 10 minutes. Hmmm how do you spell scam? I think it is Ghana Health Declaration Online.
   

 Having prepared all this ahead of time, I do the two airline dance to get to Ghana. This is because (as I am sure I have written before) it costs way less to book a flight to Ghana from a U.S. hub city than to book it directly from Albuquerque. We are talking about many thousand dollars of savings for business class fares. I can save 40% to 50% booking my flight out of Chicago versus Albuquerque, save $3 to $4 thousand and book a flight to Chicago separately for $500. But then you have to worry about your first flights not having any problems. In our case, there are none this trip.

On the connecting flight on my second airline from Chicago to New York, they only look at my Covid test. They don't even check the time, just the date. I don't know why I worry so much about having it exactly right. When I get to New York, now they really check all your documents, including the prepaid Covid test and your visa. I have all my papers in order.

Our flight leaves at Midnight East Coast time. We are scheduled to get into Ghana at around 2pm Ghana time. But we come in much earlier, almost 45 minutes early. I am one of the first off the plane. At each check point, I show my pristine paperwork and am sent ahead. After my Covid test, I go through immigration without a pause. Then there are the bags already off the plane! Crazy. That never happens in Ghana. My Covid test result comes within 15 minutes of that. I meet up with my driver, Frimpong and we are off to my apartment. We get to the apartment at about the time I was supposed to land!

Of course nothing is ready and we end up cooling our heels until the manager shows up. But that is a different story.