Mozambican Travel

Traveling in Mozambique is exhausting.

In order to buy a banana, sunscreen, or catch a ride of a boat, you have to haggle. And you know what? Sometimes, I just want to pay a fair price without this dance. Many times I’ve passed up purchasing an orange because I’m just too tired.

It’s also exhausting traveling, period. Haggling the price to get into a chapa, or taxi-van, and then sitting crammed with 25 other people (and live chickens) to get to your destination.

Our last chapa excursion was one for the books.

We haggled our price really well, which felt good, and jumped in. Soon we were joined by a mother and her three children in the back seat. She was kind, and would smile shyly at me when I smiled at her. Her daughter, however, would just stare with her dark brown eyes straight at Tom and me for ten minutes at a time. We’re talking no blinking, no smile: simply staring.

About two hours into the trip, the mother purchased some bananas from the swarm of people who come up to the van every time it makes a stop, to pick someone up or drop someone off. She gave one to each of her kids, and then whispered into her daughter’s ear to offer one to us. Very timidly, the daughter held our her hand, and we enthusiastically accepted the gift. A few minutes later, we opened our bag and took out some almonds that had been gifted to us. We shared with them, and a back seat friendship was born.

About ten minutes later, we pulled over to pick up some more people, and the engine was turned off. What a problem this was, as we couldn’t get it to start up again. We were on the side of the highway, as the highway was currently being constructed and ditches on the side of the road was the current thoroughfare. So we got out, and all the men would push the car for 20 feet while the driver tried to turn over the engine, to no success. This process was tried again about six times, and each time the engine puttered out. They had to push the chapa further over to the side, to allow trucks and other vans pass us by. We were a sad sight indeed.

After twenty minutes of tinkering with the engine, we tried the push method, and luckily the chapa started up. We all packed back in (25 of us, plus one upside down chicken) and kept going.

This engine business wasn’t new to us. Just the day before, we took a dhow, or a sail/motor boat over to some islands outside of Vilankulos for some snorkeling. After we had piled in the boat for the ride home, the engine wouldn’t turn. We waited for about forty minutes as the workers tried tying twine around the engine, and then pull, which resulted in the twine being shredded and the engine still cold. They would cut various cords around the boat to use for this method, and each and every cord failed them. They finally put up the dingy sail, smiled, and commented how lucky we were that we got to experience the motor AND the sail. Lucky indeed.

And so yesterday, after a wet ferry ride and one last chapa journey, we landed last night back at Tofo, the very place we had left three days before. We decided to come back to this beach town to relax and recover for a week. We’re staying at a lodge that has yoga, has hammocks, and has dogs. We’re happy and relaxed, and looking forward to a calm week before heading down to Maputo, the capital, and then flying out of Jo’Burg on August 9th for Bangkok.

Trying the engine…

Can you find the chicken?

Inside the chapas: