I spent chirstmas with a predominantly european contingency so the majority of the celebrating was done on the 24th. We had this big feast consisting of Portuguese fish, French beer meat (with fries) and this Brazilian fruit salad topped with sweet and condensed milk, boiled in its container to form a caramelized syrup type thing. My god. Infrequent are the occasions when I regret the amount of food that I eat. Eating too much need not necessarily include regret. However, on this night, the seeds of regret were sowed deep. soooooo deep.
The next day I made for the beach to lounge off the food (and guilt). Did you know the best way to get rid of guilt is through sloth?
At the beach I met up with a german who I had been hanging out with on and off for about a week as well as a few new comers to the Tofo beach scene. There was a woman, born in Tanzania and now living in Botswana and her 17 year old daughter. The german, who actually looks more like a columbian coffee farmer (well, probably more like a columbian coffee plantation owner) had taken a shining to the younger of the Botswans and was not being at all discrete about gazing at her with his coffee coloured eyes.
At one point, when both the german and the Botswan daughter were off somewhere, the mother asked me, "Does he thing he is going to get with my daughter or something?"
Having observed this particular 'german' for a few days, and having recognized somewhat of a pattern in his behaviour, I reassured her, "I think he is pretty harmless, he just likes the attention."
This seemed to solidify my reputation with the elder Botswan (ok, so Im not exactly sure what you call someone from botswana....) and for the rest of the night, she declared herself my surrogate christmas mother, and her and her daughter my surrogate christmas family. They even took me out for dinner. It was pretty great. The german, and a spaniard and a few americans came along too.
My plan all along was to hitch hike a ride home from the beach that night, and I didnt actually attempt to implement my plan until about 11:30 pm. This is a bad time and a bad day to try and find a ride from the beach it would seem. I walked for a bout two hours and covered maybe just over a third of the 25 km to my home.
Incidentally I had found myself in a similar situation two days earlier on my birthday, only this time I was with a few friends, and it was a full moon and there was faint drumming in the back ground that helped make it a pretty magical experience.
The fact that I had done this walk a mere two days before did nothing to contribute to its mysticism. Basically I was tired and wanted to go to bed. Just then I happened across a merry band of Mozambican youth singing African Pop songs. When I got close to them, the stopped singing and just sort of started at me. They asked me with sort of a disbelief where I was going. I replied with quite as much disbelief, "to Inhambane?"
They then launched into some explanation about why this was a terrible idea. I am going to have to say I tended to agree with them despite the fact I couldn't really understand what they were saying. They suggested I stay at their house, and then the next day I could get a ride home. I thought this was a great idea and off we went. They were drinking straight gin out of a pop bottle, which the passed to me and insisted I finish.
I got to one of the boys homes about half an hour later and crawled into bed, which is to say, laid down on a blanket on the sand. The house was one of those palm frond affairs. I think the family must have had some money though, cause he didn't live in the same building as his parents. This is where is spent christmas night.
I woke up the next morning and moved, blinking, into the bright morning sun. My presence was met with a lot of confused stares from this boys family, completely unsure as to why this white boy was emerging from their sons hut. There was a flurry of Bitonga and all was sorted. The father then climbed a coconut tree and hacked down a couple of coconuts. We all ate one and then they gave me another one for the road and I carried along my way.
I don't think I could find that place again if I had to.
Now is the part where the blog switches from reading to looking.
A few days later, I went via Maputo to Swaziland for New Years and what not. I'll let the photos do most of the talking from here on out.
Here is a quick view from the bus on the way to Maputo
Some buildings in Maputo. Some great things about Maputo. I am liking it more and more every time I go.
Mozambicans are pretty religious people, from Muslim in the north to Catholic. Now I know why. AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
Portuguese legacy. I think it is still used...barely....but now it is the home of several bars and is one of Maputo's live music venues.
They haven't bothered to get rid off all the old equipment that they used during the stations operating days. But it is pretty antiquated and neat.
Christmas in Maputo. This is about one million times as extravagant as anything that they had up in Inhambane. I think there was one store with a few lights in the window. and the store was run by an indian guy who was obviously just cashing in on the holiday. it was a refreshing dose on non christmas. but then Im a grinch.
This is my first shot of Swaziland. Green and English with no pollution. pretty refreshing. The juxtaposition here was too much to pass up.
Here is the main bus terminal in the city...whose name I cant seem to remember....somewhere in Swaziland.....I think its so busy because they actually enforce the suggested maximum capacities of the mini buses....
Now into the animal action shots. The next two are of a weird type of bird that builds these wicker type nests that dangle like.....hmmmm....a suitable analogy escapes me, but they dangle, none the less, from the tree branches.
An Ostrich! The most hilarious of all animals. A german I was hanging out with at the time around the ostrich learned the word hilarious....I think as a result of so many people using it to describe this silly bird. It could be a coincidence though.
Insert your own witty quote for this one....I just cant bring myself to use the one that we are all thinking.
Its weird to see zebras in the wild and not in photos or zoos like you are used to. The overwhelming temptation is to take thousands upon thousands of photos of them...there by putting them back in their rightful place I suppose.
I ate some of one of these for dinner! Delicious!
More Zebra. How can I resist your striped allure??
This bird is ORANGE
beautiful lil pond
HOWEVER!!!! beneath its calm exterior is lurks not one but 12 crocodiles. Apparently a few days before, one of them bagged a cow that was getting a drink. The word is crocodiles like to let meat get nice and rancid before they actually eat it.....well, the cow looked like it was ready to explode.....t'was ripe for the eating.
The next couple of photos are from this sunset safari thing I did.
This was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. However, even beauty gets boring after awhile. To put everything in nice sharp contrast, the next place I went to visit in Swaziland.....an abandoned asbestos mining town! What a place!
There are the quarters where all the miners lived.
This is an abandoned toilet in an abandoned factory in an abandoned asbestos mining town
As it turns our the town wasn't all ugly. We stayed in the former quarters of the Imperial Overlord (ie. Mine Manager). The Stable:
The House:
Later maybe drinks in the garden:
This was pretty much my swazi experience in a nutshell. But I will leave you with one final terrifying fact I learned in my last day in swaziland....
In swaziland.......
THEY EAT RUSSIANS!!!!
