Day 4 in Praia Tofo

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Another day with no diving or ocean safaris…..most of the group are learning to dive today, which leaves four of us with nothing to do, Marcel, Pieter, Ben and I. Our coordinators from All Out Africa had to leave to renew visas and so nothing has been scheduled for us, but we have been notified that tomorrow we will be on an ocean safari (which is out on the boat looking for whale sharks). Yay! Hopefully I’ll be able to post whale shark photos tomorrow!

So I was up at 715a.m. (can’t sleep late here), had peanut butter and toast for breakfast, then decided to go and check out the beach. Marcel came along. I’d like to fix my daughter up with Marcel, he is a sweetheart. How many 23 year olds want to hang out with someone old enough to be their mother? So we hung out on the beach a little bit, swam, then walked down the beach to Fatimas, a bar/restaurant on the beach similar to the Money Bar in Cozumel. We ran into Pieter there, he is hanging out with a Swedish girl named MacKayla. Marcel bought me a coke (Ally, he is such a doll!) and we sat and watched the waves coming in while the tide went out. The tide drops amazingly here in a very short period of time. Also, the sand here makes weird noises when you walk on it! Almost a squeaky sound…the sand is abundant and very deep. I checked this strange phenomenon out on the internet...it is called singing or whispering sands. They don't know exactly why it happens, but it has somethiing to do with the level of quartz in the sand.

I love learning about the people in the house. Marcel has been in Australia where he was certified, and he went to an English language school (he is Swiss German). What the Europeans here apparently do is save up their money, then either quit their job or take an extended leave so they can travel. These are Marcel’s last four weeks, then he goes back to Zurich, tapped out, to start saving again. The same is pretty much true of Leslie (Swiss) and Daniela (German). A great idea, don’t you think?! They have had so many adventures all over the world! they

We have a couple of house cats....they are very tiny and very pretty.

The market is an interesting place…they sell bags, wooden art, paintings, fabrics, jewelry, produce, and purses with pictures of Obama on them….all kinds of things. They are very persistent, which does not surprise me. After our trip to Zimbabwe where the guys practically crawled into the bus this is tame. No worries. Tofo is a place with few cars…everyone walks here. I’m putting in miles a day (no clue how many, but enough, believe me!) up and down steps and steep hills….it is a work out to get anywhere, even to the beach. I should be in great shape by the time I get back. The “kids” are out and about much more often than I am, obviously, their young legs and intact spines give them an edge. I am very happy at how well I am doing, though.

Dinner is pasta tonight. Last night we had Mapata....some kind of leaf, green veggie with coconut milk and peanuts. Actually, quite good. The other big local food is peri-peri sauce, which looks like salsa but is the southern Africa way of making chile peppers. It is quite hot, and most everyone loves it. I haven't tried it yet. One thing I am doing is drinking a lot of water, yes, me, the water hater. I like it now! I am craving it.

Tofo will be very different in five years I think. The Foundation for the Protection of Marine Megafauna is encouraging the government to support tourism instead of fishing the magnificent whale sharks and manta rays, and if they really do that Tofo will boom as a tourist destination. The whale sharks and mantas are here year round, so tourism is a reasonable solution to fishing and killing these animals. Mozambique’s economy would get more from keeping the sharks alive than from killing them for their fins. Representatives from the foundation are coming to the house this afternoon to tell us more about what they do.

We have to learn 60 fish in order to do our fish surveys, and we cannot take the test until the organizers get back. I’m ready for the test. I’ve scheduled a dive for Saturday….we are supposed to get 4 dives a week and 2 ocean safaris, and we’ll have 1 this week, so I’m diving over the weekend. Can’t wait to get out on the ocean and in the water with my cameras!

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