The first travel day we drove for 15 hours through 3 countries and made it to the capital city of Mozambique - Maputo. We stayed overnight there and got up early the next morning to make the drive up the coast to Vilanculos. It was a 10 hour drive through “real” Africa, as we like to call it. Buses with luggage piled 10 feet high on the roof, trucks with goats on the top, 17 people crammed into the back of a small pickup truck, people hauling water in buckets on their heads for a mile back to their homes.... And it was so green! A stark contrast to the desert that is Botswana (kind of like comparing Riverside to Santa Barbara!).
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In Vilanculos we rented an amazing house on the beach. There we stayed for 5 nights relaxing, sun bathing, swimming in our own private pool, and cooking real seafood. (Photo: our house).
One night we bought fresh crabs (10 for $1!) and made a crab casserole; another night we got fresh prawns and made coconut shrimp. It’s a lot of work cooking seafood from scratch but well worth it! (Photo: me, Crystal, Emily and Kelly taking the crab out of the shells).
We were able to catch a beautiful sunrise over the Indian Ocean.
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This is a group photo of us on the beach in Vilanculos - from left: Emily, Reema, Crystal, Kelly, me and Stacie.
Christmas day we hired a boat and went out to the islands off the coast. On the way out we saw 3 different pods of dolphins and some of them even swam along with our boat! Crystal and I volunteered to be dropped off on an empty beach while the others went snorkeling out at the reef. For 2 hours we had our own private paradise! We sand Christmas songs about “walking in a winter wonderland” but instead of being surrounded by snow we were surrounded by white sand :-) (Photo: Crystal floating in the water).
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When the others came back for us we headed out to the reef ourselves for some snorkeling - it was beautiful! Later we went to another island called Pansy Island where our guide (Theirry from France) told us we could find the famous pansy shells - these turned out to be sand dollars and they were everywhere! (Photo: Crystal, Stacie and I in the water).
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We returned from the day tired from all our basking in the sun, but still with enough energy to dress up and go out for a nice dinner on the beach. It was not a typical Christmas day, but it was wonderful! (Photo: from left - me, Reema, Kelly, Crystal, Emily and Stacie).
After leaving Vilanculos we headed back south towards Maputo, but stopped for one night in Tofu Beach on the way. Tofu is a big tourist spot for the backpackers because of the beautiful beach which is great for scuba diving and surfing. We had reservations at one of the two backpackers lodges on the beach... an interesting experience! We arrived at the lounge and were a bit overcome to see so many white people! And it was HOT. In California when you go to the coast it’s always cooler than inland.... not in Mozambique! It felt like a 115 degrees with the humidity. And while I had reserved the most expensive accommodations the lodge had to offer ($10 per night) that meant we were staying in a small hut made of reeds with no windows on top of a sand dune- we lovingly nicknamed it “the crap shack”. (Photo: the crap shack - it does have a nice view though, doesn't it?)
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But the beach really was magnificent. And the next morning we got to experience the ocean in a way we never have before - on a surfboard! Everyone here thinks that since I’m from California I should be a pro-surfer, they can’t believe I’ve never been, so I had to at least give it a try! Most of the time was spent swallowing salt water, but I did manage to get up on the board for a few seconds a couple of times. I love this photo below though (yes, that really is me!!), it looks like I'm a pro! (Top surfing photo: Reema, Crystal, me and our instructor, Dominic, waiting for a wave).
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Photo's marked by an asterisk (*) taken by Stacie Barker
1 comment:
Hi girl. Your trip looks fun! One of my Christmases in TZ I traveled to Cape Town & Zimbabwe. Brings back good memories and makes me a little sad at the same time.
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