Blogs from Southern, Mozambique, Africa - page 8

Sometimes life is too good to be true, huh! Mozambique is one of the most amazing countries in the world and we don’t want to wake up from this awesome dream. Here you’ll find crystal blue water, friendly and smiling people, incredible weather, white and long beaches, fresh seafood and paradise for every tourist. But reality for locals is much darker than we expected, life isn’t easy for the locals and the tourists don’t make it easier either since they are spending a local monthly salary for a dinner in front of their eyes. We have tried to come as close to the local life in Vilankulo. It has been great an experience to visit the cozy markets, to buy fresh fish from the beach, to laugh and share the new experiences. So we are learning, ... read more

From Island to town... Well guess who has returned from a wonderful ten days on Inhaca, sure internet was present there but I choose to ignore this and forget about the digital world for a while. Spend my first two days in Maputo at Fatima’s backpackers, cosy little place with a camping area for those like me who enjoy staying really cheap... Mostly been spending my days walking around town, seeing what’s changed and taking the chappa to the beach for some well deserved relaxation time. I’m learning. So far only got scammed once and it was simply a stupid mistake made by me not agreeing on a price of the food beforehand. Kind of hard to bargain when you’ve already eaten... Took the ferry to Inhaca in Sunday (22/1), already red skinned and acing so ... read more

Sunday was quite different than Saturday – mainly because we spent all day being comfortably toasty and didn’t find it to be cold at all. After breakfast it was around 9:30 a.m. and we decided to take a walk before heading to the beach to lie out – we walked to the south of us and there is a beautiful rocky point that we explored there. We agreed that if it was at least 11 a.m. by the time we got back to the room – then we could start drinking without feeling bad about it :) Turned out it was past 11 so we popped open a bottle of sparkling wine, toasted a day full of nothing but beach and sun, and took the bottle and glasses to the beach to lay out. There is ... read more

Day 68, Wednesday, May 4th, we left Tofino by taxi to Inhambane. We took a 20-minute ferry ride across the bay to Maxixe. We had to extend our visas since we planned to head north and explore more of Mozambique. After two hours in the busy immigration office they told us it would take a week minimum (John had been to the office a week earlier and they had said they could do it same day for a fee). Discouraged we walk to the bus station to figure out transport to Vilanculos (250 miles North). It was a hot dusty afternoon and the ground was muddy from rain the night before. We walked from bus to bus asking questions in broken Portuguese finally finding a Chapa going our way. We had to pay extra for our ... read more

Thursday April 7th, 2011 Off the Coast of South Africa Latitude 28 degrees 21 minutes’- Longitude 32 degrees 34 minutes east Yesterday we were in Maputo, Mozambique and it was a nice clear day. Our four day crossing from the Seychelles Islands was some of the roughest seas we have encountered since we left Fort Lauderdale. The dawn brought a soft light spreading across calming seas with a pleasant cool breeze from the southwest. As we rounded the headland and came into the bay it was easy to see why the Portuguese had made this their main seaport for over 400 years. The protected natural harbor was large and easy to navigate. There on a raised promontory the city of Maputo watched over our approach. Mozambique achieved independence from Portugal in 1974. From a distance the ... read more