Mozambique: Land of A Thousand Palms

(Photo by Regina)

Mozambique was everything we had hoped for (and more). It better have been, though, given the ordeal it was to get there. Once our overnight bus arrived in Maputo, we discovered that the hotels were full and that the next bus out of there left a 4 a.m. It ended up working out really well, though. Maputo, despite being overbooked, felt abandoned. There were hardly any people on the street and most of the restaurants were closed. (We later found out that there had been riots and other civil unrest just days before we arrived . . . Oops.)Although it was the prettiest city we’ve seen on this trip because of the old buildings--almost none of the cities in Africa have any historic buildings. There are a couple of explanations for this: 1) many of the native Africans were nomadic by nature and did not build buildings that would withstand time, 2) the buildings that were built by the colonialist were either destroyed by the colonialists when they left or by those they left behind because they were a constant reminder of colonial rule--we were not sad to make our way quickly to the next stop. We paid The Base, a very cool backpacker place, to let us hang out there until we left for the bus at 4 a.m. By two the next day, we were in the beachside town of Villankulos.

The water in Villankulos is aqua and amazing. The food is delicious and inexpensive seafood. And the weather was perfect. We started at Zombie Cucumber, but quickly moved to Dolphin Dhow, which I highly recommend. It has just barely opened up its rooms and it provides accommodation deals for those doing day trips with them, which I also highly recommend. Zombie Cucumber does have great food, though. The owner/chef made us amazing banana muffins on our first night in Villankulos.

The next day, we went with Dolphin Dhow to the island of Margaruque, which is part of the Bhazaruto National Park. There we had the island mostly to ourselves. They made us a wonderful seafood lunch, and we snorkeled along the beautiful reef. The coral and fish were really beautiful. We saw several really long skinny fish with horn snouts (much bigger than trumpet fish) and many, many trigger fish, parrot fish, and a few porcupine fish, to name a few.


(Photo by Regina)


(Photo by Regina)
(Photo by Regina)

(Photo by Regina)

That night we stayed overnight on another island, Banque. We found out later that this is not technically legal. We had that island completely to ourselves. We sat around the fire watching the stars and drinking the local rum and Laurentina Preta. It was perfect! Then, right after we got into the tent, it started raining and blowing. The tent was not as waterproof as we had hoped. We got soaked. And the wind blew the whole night, pushing the edge of the tent right over our faces. We did not sleep much that night.





On the way back, the water that had been so calm and blue the day before was murky and rocky. It was still raining and pelting our faces. Luckily, it was pretty warm so no one got too cold. And, when it cleared up that afternoon, we were able to enjoy ourselves on the Villankulos coastline. We also hit up the ATM, which only work very occasionally, and got some more good seafood at Nah Sombra. It and Mama Tize’s are the best places to eat in town. I tried a local dish, Matuka, a peanut, curry-like dish.

The next day, we headed to Santa Carolina, aka Paradise Island, also with Dolphin Dhow. The island was pristine, and for most of the day, we were the only ones on it. The water was aqua and the whole island is surrounded by coral. We snorkeled for an hour. There were so many cool fish that I had never seen before, including a monster angel fish, a little fish that looked like a hummingbird, and some blue bottle-nosed fish. We also saw some of my favorite, porcupine fish.


(Photo by Regina)
(Photo by Regina)
(Photo by Regina)










(Regina with Jeff (our captain), Photo by Regina)

(Photo by Regina)

(Photo by Regina)
(Photo by Regina)

Later that night, back in Villankulos, we joined our captain, Jeff, his cousin, Alfredo, and our friend from Dolphin Dhow, Mike, at the local hotspot, Smugglers. Although there were a lot of people there, the music was horrid. Mike, who was beyond drunk, was our only entertainment. We went to another club, where the music was great, but we were essentially the only ones there. I danced all night anyway and made a few new friends, Vanessa and Slyvia.

(Haji, the son of the owner at Dolphin Dhow and our able guide).