Mozambique is stunning and tropical with incredible beaches. But Goose was right, it is shockingly third world; in his own words "one of the most third world countries in the world." I still have yet to see an actual building here, absolutely everything is either a modest brick house or more often grass huts. Yes, really, grass huts EVERYWHERE. No plumbing, no electricity, no clean drinking water. Our hostel looks like a Hilton compared to the grass hut township we are next to. This is real Africa, not the movie set idea that we all imagine. South Africa seems like the States compared to this. But the weather and the beaches are so incredible. If any of these beaches were in the US or Australia or somewhere they would be too packed to move, but here they are literally deserted. Not even resorts or beach homes around the water, just giant stretches of white sand that you can access from right off the barely paved road. If this weren't Mozambique I would live here in a heartbeat.
Upon arrival into our awesome challet style hostel we got ready almost immediately for our sea safari. This was planned for tomorrow instead, but the weather and wind were perfect so we had to do it when we could. Apparently a sea safari means looking for and snorkeling with whale sharks. I have heard of whale sharks before but didn't know much about them. They are the largest fish in the world, not real sharks, and completely harmless since they are filter feeding planktivores. Turtle Bay, where we're staying, has some 13 resident whale sharks that you can spot by giant shadows they cast in the water on sunny days. As our group seems to do out on the water, we again got lucky in our sightings. The guides were literally teaching us how to snorkel correctly when Briana yells "whale!," and a mama and baby humpback whale break the surface not 10 meters away from us. It was INCREDIBLE. Then no more than 5 minutes later our guides tell us to get back in the water while a whale shark swims under us. This thing was huge, at least the size of a school bus, and directly below us as we snorkeled right above it. They look like they're not even moving, just gliding effortlessly through the water while we're all exerting ourselves to keep up. It slowly made its way to the surface to feed, and at its crest the tail fin popped up directly next to me and I got kind of nervous because of its size. There were another 3 or 4 baby shark-like fish swimming right behind it at all times, which was pretty awesome to watch. We found this fish probably another 2 or 3 times, then moved on to find more. We didn't see much else, and mostly just got a really bumpy, crazy fast ride in a rather small boat. It was absolutely terrifying. But to swim with whale sharks in the Indian ocean was worth it. I still can't believe this is real life.
Today (Sunday) was our surfing day. We left for the same place we went on our safari from to go for surf lessons. There we broke into groups of 8 and assigned each group a time for their lesson. My group wasn't until 2:30 so we walked about 20 min down the incredible beach to the market we've heard so much about. But based on what we've seen so far this market was pretty pitiful. All I wanted was a beach towel to lay on and a sundress to go out in tonight. No luck on either front, though I did buy a cool bag. Fortunately we had Claudia with us since the language barrier was significant enough to make any bartering difficult. Claudia then would break into Spanish which is close enough to Portugese to be understood. I had such a good time listening to her and then hearing them respond in Portugese, back and forth, and with my Italian I understood most of it. Thanks to her we got some pretty good prices. We love our sassy latina.
On the walk back down the beach we popped into a place called Dino's Beach Bar. Apparently this is one of the Top 5 beach bars in the world (I don't know who decides that thought...) and the major hang out in the area, not to mention an internet cafe. So I ordered a crazy strong margherita and checked gmail and fb briefly. And even after almost 2 weeks of no contact I STILL didn't get any good messages (with the exception of Little Nat and Kaitlin, miss you both too). Claudia had almost a dozen emails from her parents asking her if she was a live. You know what I got? Spam. Thanks guys, maybe I shouldn't come back after all. I think I'll start building my grass hut on the beach now.
After a lunch of fresh prawns and baracuda (new fav fish by far) we were finally up to surf. And of course the sun was now gone and the wind was really starting to pick up. We debated briefly postponing it until tomorrow, but would rather have the free day. So we got in cold rash guards and had our little lesson on the beach right as it started to sprinkle. Then we took turns going out into the surf with the 2 instructors, and they would push us when a good wave came by. Since it's the Indian ocean the water was incredibly warm, I could have stayed in it all day. But the surf was picking up and I took far too many big waves to the face getting out in it. After 4 or 5 attempts I still couldn't stand up. At one point I surfed in on my knees, but that was as far as I got. On my last turn I managed to get both feet under me but fell off as I tried to stand. They make it look so easy, but it is one of the hardest things I have ever tried. Not to mention that I no longer have any skin on my knees or the tops of my feet. I am going to come back with the most destroyed legs ever, it already looks like someone beat us all right in the knees after kloofing, caving, and surfing.
Afterwards Briana and I swam in the big, warm surf for a good hour more. I freaking love this ocean. But tomorrow we have a free day and I have signed up to go surfing again, believe it or not. I am going to get up if it kills me. Or cripples me, whichever happens first. It was between that or scuba lessons; is this place awesome or what? Then Monday morning before leaving for Maputo in the afternoon I am going horseback riding on the beach basically at sunrise. See, I told you I might not come back.
Right now we are getting all dressed and ready to go grab dinner as a group at Dino's. Then hopefully we'll stick around until it picks up and get to party with the locals. We're a pretty tame group so we'll see how it goes...
Dino's was ok. Long street was better. Not many people showed up so we basically had a huge group dance party until Goose walked us all home at midnight. See, I told you we were tame.
At least that was what I thought this morning before hearing about all of the goings on that I somehow missed. Goose said it was one of the most stressful nights out he's ever had, which is significant seeing as he used to lead the Australian tours--one big 2 week party. I guess while I stayed in the middle of the bar hanging out one girl had her nose accidentally rebroken, another girl refused to leave, about 15 girls snuck off to go skinny dipping, some random woman tried to get us to go to another club, and I'm pretty sure half of the group peed behind palm trees on the insanely long walk back. I don't know how I missed all of this. But it made for good stories today.
First thing this morning we headed back to the beach for our free day. I tried some surfing lessons agan and managed to stand up 4 times! And now I am in so much pain, absolutely everything is sore. Full body workout. I also ended up with some awesome rashes on my knees, thighs, and elbows from the wet board; let's just see how much I can trash my legs this trip...
The rest of our amazing free day was spent laying out near the beach and chilling with all the dogs around this place. Some have owners, some don't and are just beach dogs. They are literally our guard dogs and love to walk with you down the beach, especially at night, and will escort you all the way home. I have been told that they are also racist and will bark and chase any black people they come across while taking you home. Interesting, right? I'm living with Briana at this hostel, and last night she went down to another girl's hut to check on her. When she left to come back to our hut there was a dog waiting outside to walk her home, and it literally showed her the way back to our place when she got lost in the dark. Then the dog came in and sat at the foot of my bed for 10 or 15 minutes. It was fantastic.
Whoa! Where do I begin? Did you write this all in one sitting? It's all so Indiana Jones! I think that claustrophobic cave thing would have been my least favorite. All that was missing were the snakes. You look right at home on a surfboard and with an elephant trunk in you hand. I am in awe of your bravery and stamina and can't wait to see you, my love. I told you it would go by quickly.
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