Saturday, September 25, 2010

Mozambique-Trapped in Paradise


This trip was fantastic and amazing but it was also splattered with disasters and misfortunes. All things worked out and it’s the good things that stick in our memory.
Rise and shine, 4:30 am taxi took us to the bus stop for our 6:30 am bus. We were a little early...but better safe than sorry. 6:30 sharp found us sitting in spacious seats on a clean two story ‘Intercape’ bus. At the South Africa boarder things were still going smooth until we were two people away from the immigration desk and Katie realized we had forgotten our exemption certificate. This is very important paperwork that either keeps us in Botswana or keeps us from re-entering Botswana. An honest brain fart kept us from putting them back in our passports after we got our visas at the Mozambique embassy. So needless to say, the bus continued on to Johannesburg without us on it. Our first speed bump led us to contact a network of wonderful people that pulled strings, called in important favours and got us across the border. Plan B was to delay, loose our bus fares, drive back to Salajwe and possibly have to abandon the trip all together. After 3 hours of running around, begging and pleading, and spending extra money we walked across the border onto South African soil. We caught up to our lay over bus in Johannesburg thanks to a racecar driver turned Kombi driver who made quick time of the drive. Our original layover of 9 hours was pleasantly shaved down to 2. The overnight bus ride was excellent in the way buses go.

The morning sun warmed us as we stood in a belligerent line to get our passports stamped to enter Mozambique. At one point, everyone was pushing so hard, Katie said she could have lifted her legs up and been held in place. Our bus driver got all our passports and got them stamped for us so the adventure was just another experience to remember. In Maputo, the Mozambique capitol, we dropped our bags at a backpackers and explored the capitol. We were warned about the 17 hour unreliable bus ride over horribly maintained roads so we decided to seek cheap plane tickets at the local airport. In no time we were holding 2 one-way tickets to Vilanculos. Back in our co-ed dorm room we relaxed and met some world travellers. Paul is an American married to a Mozambique woman who he hadn’t seen in a year of working in the states. He joined us for pizza and we were glad he did because all the menus were in Portuguese. The next morning, the 29th, we taxied over to the airport by 10am to catch our 12:00 flight. The Mozambique airlines, LAM, hooked us up. We had a small sandwich and guava with a beverage while we waited in the lobby. Then on the plane we had another meal, and it was only a 2 hour flight. At the airport in Vilanculos we waited with the other passengers for our luggage. A luggage cart rolled in and everyone started picking up their bags, then everyone left. Where were our bags? We waited, and waited until I finally grabbed the only English-speaking guy on staff who ran after our plane but came back empty handed. There we were, two Americans in a foreign airport with the clothes on our backs, our passports, some cash and some odds and ends.
“This Is Africa” one man explained as we arrived at our backpacker bungalow for two. We finished a dinner of 3 crabs each with salad and chips for just over $3. A lot of labour goes into eating a crab! After a dreamless night of sleep we woke to the crashing of waves not 50 yards from your front door. The entire day was spent in the village, through the market and past all the craft stands. Haggling is a game that everyone plays with the white customer. Caucasian = Money. We stopped at the airport just after lunch but our bags were still not there. We were given ~$50 to compensate for our missing luggage until the bags could be located. We were coming to terms that we may never see our luggage again. But we agreed that that would not stop us from enjoying paradise. We booked our deep sea SCUBA dive for the next day and our 5 am fishing/snorkelling/ island lunch trip for the following day.

The following morning, our SCUBA instructor picked us up and gave us refresher course before we went on Big Blue. SCUBA is like riding a bike; it all comes back once the gear is on. Katie has been certified since she was 12 so she had no problems. I acted like I had done it a million times and it worked out great. We had two dives on Sao Sebastian Reef, both extremely beautiful, full of colour and countless exotic, vibrant fish. The Arches were an amazing collection of coral that was shaped in arch way that allowed the diver to swim through them, gaze into caves, and explore hidden beauty. We love being underwater, especially when a 300lb logger head turtle swims from it hiding place 10 feet from you. We also saw: radial fire fish, crocodile fish, unicorn fish, surgeon fish, honeycomb moray eel, green turtles, and trumpet fish just to name a few. The dives were breathtaking and the simple lunch on an uninhabited tropical island made a great ending to a memorable experience.

We still had no word on our lost luggage. The day wound down with an amazing sea food pizza, and locally brewed coconut beer. The beer showed up late in the evening in a dirty water jug looking like grey skim milk, smelling a little like meat and tasting similar to egg whites but nothing I’ve ever tasted. We suffered through a few glasses, sharing the majority with other backpackers and locals, not once tasting alcohol or feeling the legendary effects. Once was enough for that little beverage. Before curling up on our mosquito net-covered bed, I concocted a sea water/bottled water saline substitute for my contacts. It worked fantastic!
The prospect of huge fish, screaming reels, and a seafood lunch motivated me out of bed at 4:30am. The dawn was trying it’s best to burn off the dense fog that had settled on the bay. Katie backed out of the fishing trip when she saw another guy along to accompany me; a very nice German with a bag full of fishing equipment. Let me summarise our 7-hour fishing trip: got lost and disoriented in the fog; started trolling late; controlled fire on the boat for making tea and fried eggs; guides forgot bait; more trolling; snagged 3 fish not much bigger than the lures; saw whales up close swimming and blowing; and the German tried spear gun fishing to get us bait...no luck. By 1:00p we met up with Katie and the snorkelling crew on Bazaruto Island. We hungry fisherman helped themselves to what was left of an amazing seafood lunch of calamari stew, barracuda fillets, rice, orange and salad. I relaxed for a second before Katie had me breaking the ‘don’t swim after eating’ rule. The snorkelling was absolutely gorgeous. All along the shore was a reef ledge teaming with fish. We saw an active octopus that could change its skin colour and texture to match its surroundings. Katie spotted it and I didn’t see it until it moved out of my clumsy way before I almost stepped right on it...oops. We speared two fish for dinner and headed back to Vilanculos. Our boat erected its huge, traditional African single sale and we rode the wind all the way in; a lovely way to travel. Back at our lodge we paid the kitchen staff to cook us up the fish we had speared plus potatoes. It fed 6 of us with no problem and tasted wonderful. It was only hours old and done to perfection. Yum. Our multi cultural table consisted of Katie and I with English and Setswana, the German guy who spoke German, English, and a lot of Spanish, his Columbian wife show spoke Spanish and German, an Iranian guy who spoke English and Hebrew, a German girl who spoke German and English and a SCUBA instructor who spoke any number of languages with confidence. The news had been playing in the background and we noticed some riots had broken out in Maputo, the capitol city of Mozambique. They were saying it was due to the rise in the price of bread. The footage was fairly violent but the locals around the camp said it should cool down by tomorrow. As expected, we received a call from Peace Corps Mozambique Country Director. She said all volunteers were on ‘Stand Fast’ until further notice. Standfast refers to our Emergency Action Plan which means no volunteers are allowed to travel and must stay put wherever they are until further notice. Well, there are worse places to be stuck. Bags still lost.

Our last day in Vilanculos was meant for relaxing and any last minute things we wanted to do. We made a list of all the gear and the replacement cost of everything in our luggage. The value was in the thousands. The plan was to go to the airport and start the paper work for lost luggage. We went into the village market, bought two cheap replacement backpacks, razors, lotion and some more clothes. The lesson we think God was teaching us was to not be attached to worldly things. We survived very simply on 2 sets of clothes and few belongings. Peace Corps Mozambique contacted us to let us know that the situation in Maputo had escalated to Critical. We were instructed to cancel our flight out of Maputo and were given contacts for the Peace Corps volunteers staying in Vilanculos. I contacted our friend at the airport to tell him we were coming in to fill out the missing luggage paperwork. Much to our surprise, he told us our luggage had arrived! Wholly smokes, better late than never I guess. The bags were just fine, only a few missing items but the bulk was there. Katie lost her Chaco sandals, and I lost a few random electronic charger cords, for reasons I still don’t understand. The paperwork for those losses is still pending. Just when we had accepted our things were gone forever, the universe gave them back. God just wanted us to know what nothing is ours, everything we have has been given to us and when we realized that, He gave us our toys back. This called for a night out in our best attire! That is exactly what we did.

I accompanied my beautiful wife to one of the fanciest restaurants in the village. I had a grouper fillet with rice and Katie had prawns and a salad and we split a piece of key lime pie. We settled the bill somewhere around $25US and had a lovely evening walk home. Before we got to our room I received a text message: “Dear PCVs, hope u r well, plz review yr Emergency Action Plan. In the event the cell network goes completely down, plz listen to Radio Mozambique, 92.3FM for PC-MZ official communications. Plz make sure u have extra phone credit, food & water and money on hand. Stand fast continues indefinitely and we want everyone to continue to remain at site or where u r and be prepared. We r taking all precautions possible in advance and we want u to do the same. Thnx” We knew we would be staying in Vilanculos for a while.
Bless those Peace Corps volunteers for taking us in! The next 5 days were spent in a sloth/slug state. We relaxed in hammocks, read books, we watched season 5 of The Office, walked the beach, swam, toured the village endlessly, napped, we hug with the local volunteers, partied one night, ate raw coconut, ate traditional food, we cooked fish tacos and generally felt like we got out of Vilanculos what it had to offer us. We were in limbo. It was nice in a way but also equally uncomfortable because we were missing our own place. Meanwhile the standfast continued to be extended. After getting permission from Peace Corps Mozambique, we booked plane tickets from Vilanculos to Johannesburg, South Africa, bypassing Maputo completely. The operator assured me we could purchase the tickets at the airport the day of departure. It looked as if we were getting home after all. We just had to wait for the flight date. When it arrived we were more than anxious to leave paradise, for no reason other than we were done with our vacation a long time ago. All was going as planned until we got to the air port. And why would we be surprised, the credit card machine was not accepting any of our cards! One more road bump. What was happening? It was like everything was against this trip. I quickly remembered I had stashed some American cash for emergencies and now it was to the rescue. We pooled together US cash, South Africa Rand and Mozambique Metacais to total the price of the tickets. We couldn’t believe the attendant accepted it. The next thing we knew we were on a large plane leaving Mozambique.

We were landing in South Africa with about $30US between us and a long way to go but luckily our credit cards worked at the ATM. To wrap up this saga, we made it home to Salajwe safe and sound. The only hickup was getting back into Botswana with our certified copies of our Exemption Certificates. It all ended up working out and we almost kissed Botswana soil but were glad to be home in our own village with our own home and bed. We had been living out of the same backpacks for 3 weeks and had only planned for 9 days. Lessons were learned: Always have all your travel papers, Always plastic wrap your luggage for international travel, always keep emergency cash somewhere, and always...always be flexible to what life throws you. We always have this story now.