Mozambique Numero Uno

On Friday Mumsy left to go back home (a lot of flying involved) and I left for Mozambique. However, on Thursday night I left my purse with my waller, phone, and keys in the back of my friend Diana's car and I didn't realize it until I was standing in front of my door. Well luckily I had left a spare key with my friend Alexis, so I was able to get into my room. Once in I pulled my closet key out of it's hiding place and was able to access that stuff. Then, I completely panicked. I had no way to reach Diana and she had all my stuff. How could I go to Mozambique without my wallet? I barely slept and I just fussed and worried myself into a heap. By morning I remembered that Diana had once written down her phone number in my notebook, so I borrowed my friend Brooke's phone and called her. Diana dropped off my purse, and life continued. We had agreed to meet in the courtyard at 10 am, which was also the time the combi we hired was supposed to arrive. Because this is Africa, he arrived at 11.30 and had no directions or clear idea of our trip. He also had his girlfriend. Lesh and Tulu were their names, and despite a rocky start, they turned out to be pretty cool. It was a vacation for them too, and they were clearly in vacation mode. With the help of GPS we got under way and withint a half hour had arrived at the Botswana/South Africa border. Crossing was a pain in the neck, but we all got more stamps in our passports at least. Driving through South Africa was stunning- rolling hills and mountains, little towns nestled here and there, big cities, flat expanse of bush, and nice paved roads. It took us all day to drive through SA and we began to get worried that the border between SA and Mozambique would be closed before we got there. Because we started late we were more than a little irked with Lesh. As it turns out the Mozambique border is open 24/7 for the month of September only, so even though we arrrived around 11.30 we got through. As we were driving through the big gates there were security guards doing vehicle checks. We saw some guy open up the back of a van filled to bursting with supplies (there were a lot of vehicles like this) and hop in. The guard didn't notice him. TIA. We drove some more and finally arrived in Maputo around 2 am. The place we stayed at was called Base Backpackers and was a cozy little hostel. It had a small TV room, four dormitories, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a balcony, and a basement. We all trudged into the dormitory we were sharing and fell into bed immediately. Because there was no bedding provided other than sheets and a gross pillow, I was very glad of the sleeping bag mumsy had kindly bought for me before I left.
In the morning we discoverd a frenchman and bedbugs.

The whole next day we explored the city of Maputo. It is the capital of Moz, and located in the south of the coastal country. It is an exciting mixture of artsy, poor, high end, tropics, and Africa. Quite a change from dusty little Gabs! The people speak Portuguese and it is a lot more European than Gabs. However, no one in Mozambique knew what or where Botswana was...eventually Lesh ended up telling them it was in the States and people would nod and go along with it. Now the thing you need to know about Maputo (and Mozambique in general) is that the cops are very corrupt and will charge you for anything just so they can get a bribe. Lesh had to bribe his way out of a ticket for not wearing his seatbelt; he had been wearing it, and only took it off when the cops pulled us over and told him to. We were warned to always carry our passports with us, or run the risk of being thrown in jail.
Aside from all this, Maputo was gorgeous! We wandered around town, marveled at the site of a body of water, and explore the weekend craft market. Craft markets in Moz are much different than Bots (of course) and so all the items for sale were new and exciting. The merchants were pretty crazy though. We couldn't stand still without being surrounded by people insisting we buy things from them. Two or three of the merchants were so persitant that they followed us out of the market and down the street. We managed to shake off one who was selling a ugly wooden mobile, but another, with batique cloth, followed us all around the city! It was so rediculous! He only stopped when the cops pulled him over. We really hope they didn't end up beating him...
We ate lunch at cool little cafe overlooking some tennis courts in the park. We found it by following a colorful mosaic on a cement retaining wall. It was a good find. After lunch some of us had money problems to sort out. Only two of the six of us had remembered to call our banks and tell them we were travelling. No one would exchange pula for medicaish (the local currency) and so were stuck. Luckily one of us, Matt, had some US dollars to change, so he bought us time at an internet cafe where we used my unlimited skype calling to reach our banks and our families. It was a hassle, and took hours, but eventually it all got sorted out. With money in hand we got ready for dinner at the famous fish market. That, however, you will have to read about in my next post because I am running out of quota time for my blog. Until next time!