Tofo and Inhambane, Mozambique

May 7

LONG day, but certainly eventful. It started very early with a 6a.m. wake up call and a ride to OR Tambo airport at 730p. The flight from Joburg to Inhambane was late, and I have a feeling that is not unusual. I met fellow travelers, most of whom are probably Alexandra’s and Wesley’s age. I am a little disappointed about that, I admit. I know Lexi (the girl I contacted through Flickr who did this trip) had women in their forties on her trip. League of nations here: Marcel, Jasmine, Lesley from Switzerland, Felix and Suzanne from London, Patty, Tam and Melissa from the states, and Daniella and Elke from Germany. There may be one or two who are close to 30. They are looking at me in panic, I think, asking questions about how I am going to handle the boat and other small issues which are age related. There are challenges ahead, I know, but I am the only experienced diver among the newbies, so that will help. The walk down to the beach is steep…coming up will be difficult. The boats are zodiacs without ladders, so I’ll have to talk to the scuba guy about someone to help me in, and to carry my gear/tanks. I will just do what I can do and hope for the best. So far, I am keeping up…with some strain.

Tofo is somewhat reminiscent of Holbox, a small island in the Yucatan, the roads are not paved and instead of golf carts there are four wheelers. Of course there are hills here and more foliage. The market is bustling, Tofo is obviously an up and coming resort area….not quite there yet, but on the cusp. The airport has to be one of the smallest I have ever seen….even smaller than the old Cozumel airport. The prop plane was interesting….it did sort of shake and I wondered if all of the screws were going to pop off!

I am picking up this narrative on May 8, 2012; after a full day in Inhambane, the nearest “big town”. Our guide, the name sounds like “messiah”, helped us out. We changed money, the currency here is the metical, and many of our group bought new sim cards for their phones. It took them so long to get the cards I thought we were in Mexico. The culture is very similar…hurry up and wait.

We did experience the Mozambique “bus” service, the “chappa”. The van drivers fill the van…and I mean fill it. I could not believe how often they stopped and picked up more and more people. The van was so heavy I worried it would scrape the road, and it could not move very fast. A guy from Washington commented, “ a two car accident in Mozambique kills 50”.  At one count it was 29 people and a chicken!

The poverty here is quite overwhelming. I will try to remember it the next time I feel like complaining about anything. There are little villages off the road on the way to Inhambane, a group of maybe 5 to 10 little houses woven out of palm fronds. There were fences in Inhambane that were woven. Homes are huts, very, very small. The women here work in the fields, work in the markets selling their produce, and yes, they carry everything on their heads. I saw a woman in town today carrying a wooden plank on her head.

Messiah, our “guide” who works for All Out Africa (the volunteer organization) told me that the many of the men stay at home if they don’t have outside work. Children and adults offer bracelets, cds, baskets, candy in the streets. Once the people down a street shouted for us to walk by them….Messiah said the children used to be a little scared of white people, but they like to look at us now, they aren’t afraid. We had a meal at a local place in the Mercado (market), the others ate chicken curry and rice, I had a small amount of fish and rice. The language is Portuguese, so I can understand just a little bit….Spanish is similar.

 

Right now everyone is sitting around eating dinner, and two little kitties are wandering about looking for food. They are so tiny, like the island cats on Cozumel. Oh, Marcel just showed me his GoPro video of cage diving with Great Whites in Cape Town….the video is really clear. I am anxious to use my GoPro, but I haven’t been in the water yet.

 

The house here is nice, but hot, and the kitchen looks very scary (to me, anyway). Annabella comes in daily to cook and clean. The weekends are when we take turns cooking, but I cannot imagine cooking for 14 people in there. The beds are bunkbeds, and I sleep on top of my sleeping bag and under my mosquito net. There are so many impressions that I am still on overload. I’m sure I will start to settle in during the next couple of days.