Free Diving and the Ilha de Mozambique

I stopped on the outskirts of a town that most travelers don’t bother visiting. And I wouldn’t have either except it has a large deep water port and I thought I might have a chance of finding a crew position on a sailing yacht heading…well, anywhere. The plan was to spend one night evaluate my chances then head on. But when I arrived at the Pensao (little hotel) I fell in love. The place was a diamond in the rough. Completely isolated and perched on an overlook of the bay. The setting was very mellow. The food while reasonably priced was probably the best I’d had in Moz. The dorms were exceptionally nice but at $8 a night a bit more expensive than I was used to, though the fact that I was the only one staying in them made up for it. There were only a few other people staying in the bungalows, a few Dutch doctors on vacation from their work in Malawi, a couple from Zimbabwe, and a handful of South Africans, including one UN mine clearing explosives/demolitions expert working in the area. If you don’t have a couple of screws loose before you sign up for that profession then a couple decades of handling unexploded ordinances will get you on your way. He seemed to have a warm spot for Americans after years of relying on protection from the Marines and he thoroughly entertained me every night with stores of being held as an enemy hostage in Sudan, or working around the Taliban in Afghanistan. All of this was well and good but probably not enough to make me change my plans till I realized the Pensao was temporarily accommodating a 2 time world record setting Free Diver from Cape Town. (How deep can you swim simply holding your breath) While he was training he was willing to provide lessons provided the students met his standards of acceptability. I have no idea what those are but apparently I past. And for the next 4 days I trained with him. Three ocean sessions a day topped with night lectures on physics, physiology, rescue techniques, and meditative breathing.

By the third day I was making dives to 20 meters with nothing but a mask and fins. That’s 60 feet below surface or approximately 8 stories down. Everyone wants to know ‘how long can you hold your breath?’ To be honest I have no idea. We never timed dives, he didn’t believe in it. Because the scary ting is that you can panic, freak out and burn all your oxygen in 30 seconds in a stressful situation. And 8 stories underwater without supplemental air is certainly a stressful place to be. What I thought would be a macho “tough it out” exercise in holding your breath turned out to be much harder. Its all mental discipline, body awareness, relaxation (bordering hibernation) and consciously overriding your body’s instinctive neurological responses.

On the third day there was a massive school of jelly fish where we were diving. Literally thousands of translucent pink jellys about the size of your face in every direction. Most of them had these little white starfish, some 3 or 4 at a time, in the stomachs. They didn’t sting so it wasn’t a problem but the sight of all of them surrounding you tranquilly pulsing in unison was unreal. My last dive at 20 meters I had trouble equalizing pressure and ruptured capillaries in my sinuses and eye. I surfaced hacking up blood with my right eye completely blood shot. A little freaked out and as my health insurance had just expired I decided that maybe it wasn’t best to be pushing for depth anymore. My trainer who seemed to believe anything less than blacking out and having your lungs pumped was minor, consented and decided to focus our last day on skills training 12-15 meters. I could barely control my giddy 13 year old boy excitement when he informed me that meant we would spear fishing the entire last day.

Hovering over a tropical reef 40 feet under water with a 6 foot long spear gun was defiantly one of the cooler experiences I’ve had on this trip. Although I could have stayed another week I knew I had to get going. I was still eager to see Ilha de Mozambique before my visa expired.

Ilha is one of the most interesting and picturesque places I’ve been. It is enchantingly dichotomous; degradated Portuguese buildings coupled with the vibrant colors and lively local culture. In the early 1500s the Portuguese established the island as the capital of the East African trade system. A role that provided a diverse influx of cultural influences from Madagascar, Persia, Arabia, Western Europe and Africa...

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