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TRAVEL BLOG ENTRY
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“An ambience created by the beautiful water, dhow sail boats and local fisherman” |
Fala Ingles? What happened to easy traveling? For those that don’t know Portuguese, Mozambique was colonized by Portugal and this is very apparent in the language, buildings and love of chicken – NANDO’s and Peri Peri for everyone. Although Mozambique is a country known for boats, it was anything but smooth sailing getting from Swaziland to the country’s capital, Maputo. A brief run down – the Swazi locals on the bus demanded the police involvement as it became apparent that there was a problem with the brakes. This was prior to 3 breakdowns in traffic requiring popping the clutch in reverse every time. Needless to say we did not catch onward transport that day and spent the night in Maputo to catch the next day’s shuttle to Tofo (To-fu). The “shuttle” picked us up at 5:30am and drove directly to the mini bus station where we sat for 3 hours fending off hawkers and waiting for the bus to fill with passengers.
9 hours later we arrived back in the tropics in the surfing/diving village of Tofo. Baby blue water, crashing waves and impeccable beach of the Indian Ocean made it very easy to spend a few days here relaxing. In Tofo, we were pleasantly introduced to our friend – Tipo Tinto – the local $2 bottle of smooth rum. “Tipo” spent a few evenings with us in Tofo and in Vilankulos, our next stop.
Vilankulos was absolute paradise with an ambience created by the beautiful water, dhow sail boats and local fisherman. The colors of the water (ranging from turquoise through to green and deep blue) were constantly changing along with the tide throughout the day. Just off Vilankulos is a group of islands designated a National Park called the Bazaruto Archipelago. We ventured off to the Island of Margaruque on a Dhow for a day of snorkeling, hiking and island dining. Completely relaxing (with the exception of Alisa being cornered by a poisonous lion fish) this was a fantastic day spent with our new friends from Austria and Ireland (Thank you "the Director").
However, getting out of Vilankulos was by no means completely relaxing. Due to safety concerns, walking the dirt road from our hostel to the bus station for the 4:30am departure, we decided to check out early and spend the night on the parked bus. We spent some of the evening playing cards with Portuguese speaking ticket sales people and other parts dodging 200lbs boxes of fresh fish that were joining us on the bus for the 9 hour journey – not a great sleep that night.
Our last stop in Mozambique was Beira, the second largest city in the country. This city would have been stunning in its prime but past years of civil war have left only small hints of how special this city must have been (Portuguese style buildings and mansions). We spent 3 nights here essentially just to soak up the atmosphere of Hotel Mira Mar’s pub. With our Irish friend from Tofo, we enjoyed the mix of bedazzled “ladies of the night” dancing and lip syncing to Michael Bolton, Celine Dion, Roxette and Lionel Ritchie that were being projected onto a large screen, all while dining on Beira’s famous crab and prawn dishes.
Ciao Mozambique…..it’s off to the warm heart of Africa – Malawi!
previous travel blog entryComments or Questions for the Author
barb and tanis says:
Again, I don't like the spider!! Seriously, are there other bugs you can take pictures of? What is on it's back?
Uncle R says:
Your photography just gets better and better; the one of the children was excellent. With the leaves blowing in the fall wind here, the blue water and surf is almost like a holiday. Thanks guys, we really appreciate it. Uncle r.