So this is Africa, vol. 5: The beach
Hello again from the Polana Hotel in Maputo, Mozambique. As I write I’m sitting by the quite nice pool area which also happens to overlook the Indian Ocean (I think, I’m iffy on the geography of Africa). We returned yesterday from our stay at the beach house and are staying in the hotel till 7 am tomorrow morning when we take a flight to some where else, I think Victoria Falls but that may or may not be correct.
Here’s what’s been going on since the last update (I should note that I’m not using Firefox right now and so there is no automatic spell check so you get to see how bad a speller I am in all its glory):
Getting to the beach was a bit of a process. The beach house is a 5 hour drive from Maputo and we left in two cars, one an SUV holding the “adults” and the other a Nissan minibus holding the “kids”. By some outrageous misfortune I was trapped on the latter vehicle. In the minibus were myself, my three sisters, Z (10 year old daughter of Lesley’s best friend), and Tor and Julieana (8 and 11 year old children of Merret). Oh and also the driver, a woman who didnt speak English (everyone here speaks Porteguese) and her teenage son, who got the front seat. This was not a particularly enjoyable situation for anyone.
Things were not helped along by the fact that the entire ride the driver’s son (or maybe the driver, hell if I know) blared rap music. I enjoy 50 Cent, Akon and Young Jeezy as much as the next guy but listening to them at a high volume for 5 hours bumping around in a van through the African country side (oh, did I mention our ride lacked air conditioning? Because it did. Windows people, windows) is not an ideal way to travel. I do not recommend it, even if you are traveling to your African beach house.
I guess now would be a good time to clarify what I mean when I say “the beach house”. My stepmom owns a beach house in Mozambique, this is the house we were traveling to. Now I have since learned that Mozambique is a pretty socialist country, all the land is owned by the government but you can sign 100 year leases for it. Also, if you build a house you own that (but still not that land). I first became aware of this when we were driving around Maputo on roads called “Vladmir Lenin Ave” and “Ho Chi Min Ave” (both real roads). They love their communists here. Anyway, my stepmom owns a beach house and thats where we were going.
Eventually we got to the beach house and settled in. Its a rather nice place and there are other little houses right around it, all built, I believe, by a nice man named Chris. Chris and his family were staying at a house right behindish ours. Chris has two kids. One is Maj (pronounced “my”), age 6, might be the cutest little girl I’ve ever seen. Even better is her accent. It was fantastic listening to her talk. The other is Rio, age 8, who seemed fine and mostly hung out with Tor the whole time we were there. Also along for the ride was Lucy, Maj’s dog, that was a Jack Russell and some other dog mix and quite cute.
As is my wont I spent the first day at the beach getting as badly sunburned as possible. I used my prefered technique which is to apply sun tan lotion to all the areas I can reach and then leave it at that. Hence, the vast majority of my back was burnt to a nice crisp. Mission Accomplished. I didnt spend much time at the beach after that (since I dont generally like the whole beach experience anyway) but at least when the peeling is all over I’ll have a nice tan.
The second night things got interesting. The winds outside picked up and by picked up I mean got to like 100 miles an hour. I’ve never experienced such a thing. I was fairly certain the roof was going to blow off or at the very least the large window right next to the couch I was sleeping was going to explode, showering glass upon my sleeping, helpless body. The whole house was shaking, not a pleasent experience. Lesley even got motion sickeness from the whole thing and ended up in bed all the next day feeling like shit. It was not a good time.
There’s really nothing else of note I can remember about the beach. I watched the Departed on DVD (it was good but not great), we played a ton of Gin (including a convaluted family tournament that we never finished) and read a lot. I did see a wild monkey once but only briefly. The weather wasn’t great (too windy) but everyone who wanted a tan (or a sunburn) got one. Tried to go running on the beach a couple times but it wasn’t very good.
We got back to Maputo yesterday night (we got back the same way we got there, same minibus and everything) and went out to dinner at a nice place that apparently one of Merrit’s friends owns. This was all fine but the real exciting part was after dinner, on the drive home. We got stopped at our very first African police roadblock! This wasn’t quite so random as a couple we ate dinner with had warned us about it (including telling us a story of how the car in front of them hadn’t stopped and the police shot at them. Exciting!) but it was still fun. The officer was very nice and apparently wanted us to bribe him with coffee to let us pass. I’m not making that up either. During the actual conversation I couldn’t quite understand what was happening (my Portugese to Spanish to English skills are sadly lacking) but Merritt, who was driving, explained what he had been saying when it was over. He really did just want us to buy him a coffee in leiu of money. It was very odd. Eventually let us go without any coffee (which we didnt have and I’m not sure how we were supposed to obtain anyway) changing hands.
In other news, the Old Man still doesn’t have his bag (apparently its still in the US and will not be joining us on the vacation) so he’s been wearing the same shirt (or no shirt) and alternating between the same pair of jeans and a pair of shorts/bathing suit. Lord knows what he’s been doing for underwear as I’m the only other male here and he hasn’t asked to borrow any of mine (not that I’d give him any any way). Perhaps this is what they mean by “roughing it”.
As I believe I mentioned, tomorrow we have a 7 AM flight to some where else in Africa. I believe at some point we’ll be going bungey jumping but I dont know when that might be. Also going to a game reserve and something else. No idea what internet availabilty is going to look like but I’ll try to check in when I can.
Travel Scorecard:
Games of Gin Played: 1,000+
Monkeys Seen: 1
Mozambique police seeking bribes: 1
Hippo Attacks: 0
Books Read: 4
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