Chimoio, Vilanculos, and Partying with Peace Corps Moz

From Gorongosa we made a little detour to Chimoio to meet up with the dynamic duo from Dedza: Rob and Jason. We knew we wouldn't catch them on the coast because they were passing through Mozambique faster then us...obviously we're on bikes! But it was real nice spending a few days kicking around Chimoio's streets with old friends from Malawi. Chimoio was a really charming little city with Portuguese style cafes and theatres mixed with your usual crazy African Markets. We had a lot of wandering around the street markets and playing against the locals on the curb side Foosball tables.

The following day we knocked about 400km out of our trip, by loading our bikes on a bus to Inhassoro where we got our first glimpse of the Indian ocean. From there we rode to Vilanculos, but I had my first major bike problem along the way. The weight of my saddle bags started causing spokes to start breaking on my rear tire. I was cursing my head off because it was getting late, we were in the middle of nowhere, and I didn't have any spare spokes or a spoke wrench, but I was saved by the kindness of complete strangers. A trucker picked me up and brought me to the next town where I found a bike parts stand, when a guy saw me offload my bike, he asked me what was wrong? When I showed him my broken spokes he ran off and came back five minutes later with his friend a bike mechanic who had a spoke wrench. In no time he had new spokes in and the tire trued. Since the sun had already set, the owner of the bike shop offered us a room in his house. His family took good care of us feeding us and giving us a warm bucket bath. Unfortunately the problem of breaking spokes persisted, but with repetition I got better at replacing them and truing my tire. It seemed like all of our breakdowns were chances to see Mozambicans at there most generous...I was amazed how much everybody wanted to help us when we were at our most vulnerable. I certainly won't soon forget the kindness of the people of Pambarra.

Vilankulos was the tropical beach paradise that we were waiting for with it's long white beaches lined with beched dhows and palm trees. The beaches are a short dhow ride away from the Archipelago of Bazaruto; a string of islands and reefs that make up the WWF protected Bazaruto National Park. We went out to the Islands with a French dive master named Denis to dive on Two Mile reef. It was full day excursion; we did two long dives and rode around in the afternoon checking out dolphins and dugongs (a rare sea mammal, like a manatee). The Islands themselves were amazing, We climbed the biggest sand dune to see the whole island. The half of the island that we landed on was nothing but fine white sand stretching into the bluest clearest water I have ever seen. On the other side of the dune was dense green tropical forests beaming with life. It was the type of Island that I thought only existed on TV or in pictures.

The diving was also amazing. The visibility was crystal clear and the reef was beautiful. Diving is still very new to me so the sensation of just floating through the alien world under the sea with the sound of my own slow breathes in my ears is still a very cool and meditative feeling for me. So when you mix that with the bizarre and beautiful wildlife of the reef it seemed like a very lucid fantastic dream to me. Swimming trough schools of bight colored butterfly and angelfish, the moray eels creeping out of their holes in the reef to give us a silent hiss, realizing that the rock i am swimming over is actually a giant camouflaged potato grouper longer and much thicker than my leg as the big fish lifted up from the ocean floor startled by my bubbles, watching two big devil rays glide out into the deep blue, poking around the reef to spot lionfish and scorpionfish with their dangerous but decorative quills. My favorite was the two massive sea turtles that glided passed us with grace and ease. They were like the wise old Buddhas of the reef. They slowly paddled through the water with no particular panic or rush wearing their collection of barnacles to show their seniorty.

We stuck around Vilanculos for the weekend because we knew all of Peace Corps Mozambique would be descending on Baobabs for the annual beer olympics. It was a battle between the Southern Saboteurs, and the North/Central 24 hour warriors. The 24 hour crew adopted us because we are in Malawi, and that's practically central Mozambique. The events included dizzy bat, flip cup, slosh ball kick ball and shotgun beer duel. By the time the games got finished everybody lost track of the points, and the southerners managed to steal the trophy, so they were declared the winners. It was nice seeing that Mozambique volunteers get together occasionally, to blow off steam the same way we do in Malawi. We had a lot of fun hanging out with them, and ended up dancing through the night at Baobab's bar. Many of us went back down to the water late night to cool off and were in awe when we realized that there was photosynthetic plankton that made little glowing tracers with every movement in the water. It was asureal ending to a great night spent with good people.

One of the great consequences of sticking around for the party is that we met a whole lot of people that lived all around the country, and we could stay with throughout the rest of our trip. In fact our next two stops were with volunteers. First we stayed with Rachel and Amy two teachers at a mission in Mappinani. They stuffed us with chicken soup, and avocado salad. The next day we stayed with Patrick who is teaching English and art at a World bank school in Masinga. He made us a killer chicken curry. Every peace corps volunteer looked at our visit as an excuse to cook a special meal. We generally provided a bit of wine or chocolate as a thank you for the great hospitality. An awful small price to pay for such wonderful accomodation and company.