The Good
The Beach: This was the most beautiful beach I have ever seen (continue reading this post and consider what the beach looked like after the bus ride from Maputo to Tofo). Incidentally, our motivation to leave it was completely shot after only one day (one meaning of the word "tofo'ed: complete lack of motivation) so we stayed for 5 days and drank cheap beer, sun bathed, and body surfed.
Maputo (the capitol city where we went after Joburg and before tofo) has a great vibe. There are still remnants of the colonial era but mostly it is just an explosion of color. A lot of the streets reminded me of New Orleans- there were even horrible road conditions. My only complaint was that there are no garbage cans in the city and consequently there are piles of trash everywhere in the street.
This picture is of the hostel (Fatima's) where we stayed in Maputo at the beginning and end of our trip. Awesome vibe, there are even hammocks on the roof.
8 years of spanish NOT wasted: turns out portuguese and spanish are "close enough" so I was able to talk to the locals and be a semi-translator. (just add a "shh" sound wherever you can in spanish) Unfortunately, when I returned to Botswana I had forgotten most of my setswana as a result.
Busting out peruvian vibe: Speaking of spanish, bargaining is a hard-core activity in Mozambique. (PS, don't let a cabby lock your bags in the trunk before you have agreed on a price or they will hold them hostage until you pay triple...oops). What was really neat about Maputo though, was that EVERYTHING you could possibly want was being sold on the street by some local. (actually, this was more a sign of the unemployment rates and extreme poverty in the city, I think, so it was actually a depressing sign of desperation) In any case, there was a HUGE tourist market by the seawall where we all got some fast lessons in deal-making. (PS, most of you are getting mozambiquean gifts...they are cheap)
The Absurd
In which Sarah is sat on by a large man (Between Tofo and Maputo, part I): The busride from Maputo to Tofo was about 6 hrs (it was so long partially because the roads were so bad- thankyou 30 years of civil war) The bus was a mix between a 15-seater van and a school bus (and tetanus. There were normal, semi-padded seats and an aisle but there were also tiny fold-down seats in the aisle-with 8" backrests- where I fortunately got to sit (It was like being stuck at the kid's table for 6 hrs. There was also a bag at my feet so my knees were almost at my chest) This would have been all well and good but then one of the bus employees who collects the fares saw the attractive girl next to me and proceeded to sit on me, with the assumption I would move, so that he could get to know her the rest of the way. It was a safe assumption, I was very alarmed and quickly moved as far over as I could (aka off the seat) and then he turned around to me and said "Esta bem?" with a grin and a thumbs up. (meaning "it's all good") At that point the bus ride was just so absurd that I started laughing and my friends and I talked about how ridiculous this guy was (he couldn't understand english) for the entire trip.
Climbing in the Window by a slaughtered cow (Between Tofo and Maputo, Part II:
On the way back from tofo we were the first people to get onto the bus so I quickly grabbed a window seat with a grown-up chair and settled in for a comfortable nap back to the capitol (we left at 4am) Unfortunately, I had nothing to eat for breakfast and I forgot to put on my motion-sickness magic sticker so I spent the first 3 hours aquainting my stomach contents with the mozambiquean countryside. We had no plastic bags or anything so I just had to stick my head out the window and throw up into the wind (that ended poorly for my hair, might I add). Several times during this process I would be tapped on the shoulder and a local would say "shut the window, that woman is trying to sleep!" I don't exactly remember what I said back to them but I suspect it was similar to Clancy's interactions with the printer. At one point the bus stopped because there was a cow being slaughtered on the side of the road and the driver wanted to buy some meat. I quickly took the opportunity to be sick in private behind some bushes but when I returned the bus had already been loaded and since I was sitting in the back row the driver looked at me, opened the back window and indicated that I should just climb in- which I did via a somersault over the 5' tall window ledge.....everybody laughed, fortunately I did too. Luckily, I started to feel better about 3 hours in and everybody agreed that I got first shower when we got to the hostel.
Maputo's street names: I have mentioned the 30 years of civil war in Mozambique (yes, they are over). In any case, Frelimo, the communist party, won and is currently in power. Part of their campaign was apparently to rename all of the street signs in the capitol, resulting in the cooolest intersections ever (see pic)
I especially appreciated the names because I could remember where we were staying (Mao Tse Tung avenue) where the busrank was (Intersection of Marx and Ahmed Souke Toure) and where the museum was (Vladimir Lenin and Ho Chi Minh) Awesome
The Sketchy:
The Chappas- a Chappa is a 15 passenger van, just like a combi in Botswana. They are dirt cheap in Mozambique (20 US cents) and we took one from Tofo to Inhambane, a cool city about an hour away. The thing about Chappas, however, is that the driver gets to pick up as many people as he wants along the way...... There were 31 people in our chappa at one point, including a few kids in the trunk and three adults hanging out the window. I dare you to fit 31 people in one of the roadtrip vans for the church and then drive it on roads that are the result of 30 years of neglect in the jungle.
The Mysterious Red Bumps/ Sarah tangos with falciparum: The second meaning of the word "tofo'ed," by the way, is the sudden appearance of hundreds of bug bites on your arms and legs. (we suspect bed bugs) I was fortunate enough to avoid that experience but I was the main course for every mosquito in town. I looked like I had smallpox by the time we left and all I could think about was the life cycle of P. falciparum, the form of malaria endemic to the area. (no worries, I am on the malaria meds.... I am just weirded out by the fact that trophozoites are probably dying by the thousands in my bloodstream right now)
Aubri and the AK47s: Turns out that in Maputo there are certain government buildings that one is not allowed to photograph (not that there are signs or anything). Our group got stopped by AK47-toting policemen and one girl (aubri) got singled out for taking a photo. She erased the picture but they wanted her to pay 1,000 Metcais to them on the spot or they said they would arrest her. (Read: bribe now please) I am not really sure how but she managed to convince them otherwise and we quickly escaped (no, I don't have a picture of the incident, we thought that might go over poorly)
"Traditional Mozambique Food"- While in Tofo, my friend Mark and I decided to go in search of traditional local food. We were told by a fellow traveller that it was being cooked somewhere in the market so we went exploring. We ended up finding several women cooking behind some stalls and before we knew what was happening, for 50 Metcais ($2) they brought us a plate of coconut rice and fish. Mark and I looked at each other, sighed, and tucked in.... sketchiest meal I have eaten since the guinea pig.
Okay, this post just took me an hour to type and I actually have to go to class now. So in summary, mozambique is pretty much pure awesome and I have numerous stories and pictures to come....stay tuned!
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