My friend Natalie arrived the day after my last day working at m2m and we immediately jumped on a plane to Maputo, the capitol of Mozambique. Our aim was to relax and enjoy some warmer weather before heading back to Cape Town to experience the World Cup. Mozambique was a former Portuguese colony, and it’s the first place in Africa that I’ve traveled to where English wasn’t widely spoken. Most of the touristy places had English speakers, and that in combination with the fact that we both had decent Spanish knowledge didn’t make it too hard for us to get by. The country gained its independence from Portugal in 1975 but then suffered through a very destructive civil war lasting from 1977 to 1992. It is just now starting to become a major tourist destination, famous for its beautiful beaches.
Our first afternoon in Maputo was quite hot, but nice. We checked in at our hostel and explored the city by foot. Maputo was very different from Cape Town – not nearly as developed. Still, there was a lot of culture to enjoy (an interesting mix with the Portuguese influence) and it was fun to experience and explore. Also, Mozambique has great food. Lots of fresh, spicy seafood and chicken. They are particularly famous for their peri peri sauces and prawns.
Walking around the city, we ran into some sort of big religious parade
Since we had to catch the 6am bus the next morning, we tried to go to bed pretty early. The noisy roosters (and noisy fellow hostel-mates) didn’t make for a great night’s sleep, but we managed. When we got up in the morning, we comfortably piled into the minibus waiting outside our hostel that was supposed to take us to the hostel on the beach up North. With the bus about half-full of other people from the hostel, we figured we would be on our way. Not exactly. We proceeded to drive to the minibus rink in Maputo where our driver walked around for about an hour trying to fill up the bus with other passengers. By the time it was all said and done, we had absolutely no space whatsoever and weren’t exactly looking forward to spending 8 hours in that condition…but I guess we couldn’t complain too much considering we paid like $15 for the ride, as opposed to a $500 plane ticket! It was actually quite fun to experience all the hustle and bustle of the taxi rink at 6am – so many people walking around, trying to sell you things through the bus window – everything from sunglasses to hair clips to bananas to cashews to bread…you name it!
The taxi rink
The bus ride was definitely long, hot, and dusty, but it too was interesting. Always so many sites to see outside the window! Mozambique was really fun to see, and I’m glad Natalie had the chance to experience it – definitely “real” Africa, as opposed to Cape Town.
Natalie's very cute seat- (and sometimes lap-) mate
After a long day, we were dropped off at our hostel in Tofo, the small beach town we were staying at. We had to plan ahead a bit because there are not ATMs in Tofo and very few businesses take credit cards, but we managed. It was a great vacation spot. I loved the fact that it was really underdeveloped – even though it was a destination beach and diving spot, there was not a single large resort to be found – just a handful of quaint little lodges and our hostel. It was definitely a vacation done on the cheap – we paid about $15/night for our little beach bungalow. It was a little hut with just enough room for 2 beds and a dresser. It was very rustic – just a little grass hut with sand floors, situated right on the beach so you could hear the waves all night long. I loved it!
The beach in front of the hostel
The big building on the left was the main area of the hostel
Not a bad place to hang out!
The huts we stayed in
Upon arriving in Tofo, we grabbed a nice dinner in town (about a 10 minute walk on the beach from our hostel) and then enjoyed the beautiful night hanging out in the bar area of our hostel. The hostel was actually quite the hopping place – music going until 4am we were told (though we went to bed waaay before that). We had to get up very early to catch sunrise (since we were facing East and the sunsets weren’t as spectacular), but it was well worth it. So beautiful! And it was especially nice because we were literally the only people on the beach.
Sunrise #1
Tofo is particularly famous for its diving and snorkeling. Apparently it is one of the top ten dive spots in the world, or so we were told. Well, neither of us were divers, but we decided to try snorkeling. One of the most famous things about Tofo is its large, year-round population of whale sharks. Whale sharks are huge, plankton-eating sharks – the largest fish in the world at something like 50ft! (I highly recommend googling them to see some picutres – unfortunately we couldn’t take cameras out on the boat.) Our first day out we were in a group of about 12 snorkelers. Before getting started, the instructors asked “ok, who doesn’t know how to do a beach launch?” and of course Natalie and I raised our hand. I had no idea what they were talking about. Well, it was quite the experience just getting out to sea, let me tell you! The boat was a small, regular-bottomed boat, with big inflatable rubber sides on top so it just looked like a regular raft. Anyway, a “beach launch” involved us holding onto the ropes on the side of the boat and walking it out through the surf until it was deep enough for them to put the motor down, at which point they yelled for everyone to get in and you had about 10 seconds to pull yourself up over the side of the boat (waaaaay harder than it sounds, I assure you!) before the boat sped off through the rest of the waves. We all sat on the sides of the boat, with our feet hooked under ropes on the inside and holding on to the ropes on the side of the boat so we didn’t fall out. On that particular trip, we actually didn’t see anything underwater to go snorkeling with (though at the spot where we stopped to practice, there were TONS of jellyfish!). However, we did find some humpback whales. Having previously done all my whale watching from rather large boats, it was quite the experience to be in a very tiny, low boat! The boat landing was another adventure. They drove the boat in relatively close to shore and then instructed everyone to hold on really tight as they just sped the boat into the sand on the beach, at which point there is a rather big impact and the boat topples over to the side and everyone tumbles out.
The next day, hopeful for a whale shark siting, we once again signed up to go snorkeling. (Well, Natalie signed up to go snorkeling; I signed up to sit in the boat, having discovered the day before I actually didn’t really like snorkeling.) This time there were only 4 of us on the boat, but at least we knew what we were getting into with the launch and whatnot, and we did see whale sharks after all! Even though I was just in the boat, the water was clear enough that I could get a good view, as they often swim near the surface. It was definitely really amazing to see them! The ones near Tofu are juveniles and much smaller (I think the one we saw was only about 4 meters), but still – they look pretty big! We also saw some dolphins on that trip. All in all, definitely a good experience.
Aside from water and beach activities, we enjoyed relaxing and having delicious food, exploring the little local restaurants of Tofu, and also doing some market shopping and taking long walks on the beach. The beach stretched out forever, with amazing sand and absolutely no seaweed to clutter things up. The sand made this really weird, loud, squeaky noise when you walked around (I’m serious!). Being rather nerdy, we also spent one of our evenings attending a scientific lecture on whale sharks at one of the nearby lodges. There are a bunch of researchers who live in Tofo to study the sharks, and it was really interesting to go learn more about them.
More beach and hostel pictures
The bus we rode up to Tofo
A typical Tofo street (no pavement to be found!)
Sunrise #2
Some very colorful boats along the beach
The dive shops and restaurants that lined the beach
One rooftop restaurant we enjoyed
The inside of our little hut
It was sad to have to leave Tofo – such a great place! After 2.5 days, we piled back into the minibus at 4am, this time much more prepared for a crowded ride. It didn’t turn out to be nearly as uncomfortable as the ride up, and the time passed fairly quickly. Back in Maputo, we enjoyed walking around the city some more and eventually settled down at a really nice bar/restaurant to watch the big concert for the World Cup opening on TV. The next day, we hopped back on a plane back to Cape Town, ready to start the celebrations for the World Cup, as it was opening day (more on that very soon). All in all, it was a fabulous trip, and I can now understand why everyone falls in love with Mozambique!
More views driving back to Maputo
The Mozambique flag
In the busy outskirts of Maputo
Selling wood (not sure if it's for fire or building structures)
So many colorful buildings!
Why can't all auto shops look like this? So colorful!
The road sign for getting up north to the beach area
Back at the taxi rink, with tons of people selling stuff. (The tub on top of the woman to the right is filled with bread.)
Some residences outside of the city
Maputo from a distance
My fantastic prawns!
The waterfront area of Maputo
