Mozambique

Last week, Conor, Sydney and I went to Mozambique. Although our trip was a little unplanned, it was an incredible experience. Our trip started with a two hour flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg. We spent the night at a hostel near the airport, and while it wasn’t the greatest accommodations, we got the chance to meet a really cool guy. Dennis was a beer delivery man from Holland, who had recently quit his job to drive a truck with a house attached to the back of it from Holland to South Africa. His three and a half month trip was a volunteer trip to help rebuild in needy areas. He told us many stories of his travels throughout Africa and showed us pictures. Very interesting and amusing. We woke up early the next day to catch a bus from Jo’Burg to Maputo, Mozambique. Luckily, we made it across the border with no problems (We just had to buy a visitor’s visa for Mozambique). Along the drive, I saw a herd of elephants just hanging out less than 30 feet away from the road! We arrived in Maputo fairly late so we didn’t have much of a chance to explore the city. 3 major differences: language barrier, everyone speaks Portuguese! This made it very difficult to ask for directions, get information, read menus, etc. Another was the currency, instead of rand, they use meticals, which are about 25mets to 1USD, (a little trickier to convert than the 10rand to 1USD). Also, you can’t drink the water! This was surprisingly difficult, especially at night when you weren’t able to purchase a water bottle or needed to brush your teeth. On the first night in Maputo, we ate at a small restaurant across the street from our hostel and called it a night. The next morning we woke up very early and ran (literally) through the streets of Maputo with our backpacks on to catch the bus to Tofo Beach that left at 5AM. We missed it. LUCKILY and unusually, there was one that left at 6AM. We boarded the bus, which was more like a jam-packed, rickety mini bus with blaring music. Along our 6 hour drive, we stopped a couple of times each hour in different settlements where the inhabitants would run up to our bus and try to sell us anything ranging from fruit, vegetables, sweet rolls, bread, drinks, etc. I tried a couple of the bread/muffins—very good and extremely inexpensive (less than a quarter for a muffin). When we arrived in Tofo Beach, we realized how worth it our trip was. A beautiful, white stretch of sand with clear, warm, azure water. Accommodation at our hostel, Fatima’s Nest, was adorable little thatched beach huts. That night we went to a market which is very close to our hostel and met a lot of the locals. We had dinner there that night-delicious calamari and rice and vegetables at a very low price. It was great getting to know all of the locals, and much better than just spending our time at the hostel. We also made friends with a group of guys from Australia who were traveling around in Africa. We went back to the market several times over our two days in Tofo Beach, and bought cool handmade artwork, absolutely delicious skewers of beef and chicken, tapestries, etc. At night, the stars in Tofo were the best I have ever seen. It’s such a small town and right on the Indian Ocean so no lights were in the way of the skies—beautiful. Also at night, when we would walk along the beach hundreds of little sand crabs would be digging in and out of the sand and running back and forth between the water and the shore. We had to depart Tofo at 4AM to catch the bus that took us back to Maputo. I liked Maputo much more the second time around. The first time we didn’t really have much time to experience anything, we just kind of stayed there overnight. This time, we had a great lunch, saw more of the city, stayed at a much better hostel, and just had an overall better experience. Maputo is an extremely poor city, many of the buildings are run down and abandoned and at night the streets are filled with homeless people and beggars. Not once did I feel threatened or scared in Maputo, and found the people overall to be very kind and honest. Even when you were making trades with the vendors that would run up to your car, if you gave them 5 cents extra by mistake, they would hand it right back to you, or give you an additional item. Another side comment about Mozambique-the women there can carry literally ANYTHING on their heads. A bag of coconuts, a huge plant stalk, water jugs, anything and everything. Much like the second time in Maputo, I enjoyed Johannesburg a lot better the second time around. The first time all I saw was a dirty, dreary, industrial, dangerous city. The second time we stayed in a better neighborhood, a friendlier hostel, and saw a completely different side. Almost like we were in an entirely different place, with a mall full of high-end stores and luxury cars. Our last night in Jo’Burg and an early morning flight back to Cape Town concluded our beautiful, busy, insightful vacation.