Mozambique

So. I made it to and from Mozambique safely. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for one of my fellow travelers. You see, getting to Mozambique is a long and tedious process. First a two hour plane ride takes you from Cape Town to Johannesburg and then a quick (haha) 23 hour bus ride took us to our destination in Mozambique at a backpacker called Bamboozi at Tofo.



The problem didn’t really start until our bus driver decided to go continue going full speed on the poorly paved Mozambiquean roads. Huge potholes leads to huge bumps and when people aren’t sitting properly in their seats this can lead to major problems. One pothole we hit woke me up and sent my ipod flying (sorry Steve) and also threw one of my fellow travelers into a metal handle bar located on the back of the seat in front of him. He immediately knew something was wrong and (although a few of us thought he merely had broken ribs) we went on a hunt for the nearest hospital, which ended up being in Xai Xai.

Language barriers aside, it was a rough experience. First, they started treating him for Malaria because the assumption is that if a person is white and in a hospital in Mozambique then Malaria must be the problem. Once it was effectively conveyed that there was an injury, they then started running various tests to pinpoint the source. After a few hours of poking and prodding it was determined that he had a ruptured spleen and needed it to be removed immediately, despite the fact that the hospital wasn’t quite prepared for such an operation. The surgery went okay, despite the lack of morphine (they only had anesthesia) and the power outage, and he was flown back to Joburg, South Africa. Meanwhile the rest of us spent a night on the bus and for a full day all we ate were rolls of bread and hard-boiled eggs sold to us by the locals. Late that night we found a local bar/restaurant that was open and cleared them out of all of their food.



The place where we were staying was gorgeous and warm. (The closest large city on the map is Inhambane). The sea water was extremely warm and once again I was able to experience swimming and riding waves in the surf. It was a true vacation (or holiday as they say in Africa) and there was a lot to love about Tofo. I actually took a liking to beach volleyball and loved sun bathing with the local dogs.



Paradise does not come without its downfalls, however. Tofo was inhabited by a large mosquito population that are nearly invisible. Every night I soaked myself in both lotion and spray mosquito repellent only to wake up the next morning with two new bites. This seemed to be a daily occurrence, despite my precautions and use of the mosquito net around my bed. Also, there are actual bed bugs that find you at night through your bedding and bite you in large clusters. They hardly itch, but look more like a red rash, which didn’t bother me as much as the mosquitoes. During the last couple of nights I decided to forgo sleep in fear of receiving more bites and continued pain. I was dying to go back home despite the long and uncomfortable bus ride.

Anyway, next time I will have some pictures to post, which will help chop up the large amounts of text.
I miss you all!