I found Nemo.
I promise this will be a long at times dull entry. It's mostly so I can look back and reminisce. And so my mom can see what I did (hi mom). Enjoy.
19 Nov (Sun) - Kris and I fly from Maputo to Nampula City. We get to see the Shoprite, the Sunday market and eat Indian food. Chelsea joins us that evening. All very good things.
20 Nov (Mon) - The Nampula museum (see dildos from previous entry) is visited, TV is watched, more Indian food is eaten.
21 Nov (Tues) - A 3 hr bus ride from Nampula City to Ilha de Moçambique. The small child breast feeding next to me on the bus had amazing spitting range, and I did end up with some breast milk on my face. After we got settled in our hostel we went to the beach. It was World Fishers Day so there was a huge celebration going on. There were way more children there than was desirable. Which, after the breast milk incident, was in the zero range. Had a delicious sandwich for dinner at Ancora d'Ouro.
22 Nov (Wed) - Visited the Palace (last used when Samora Machel took office and after one of his guards broke a chair decided that it was no longer where the ruling people would live) and went to the central market. Bought a lot of clothes. After, beach.
23 Nov (Thur) - Thanksgiving. We spent the day at the beach and then went to the fancy restaurant at the fancy hotel, Escondidinho, for dinner. It was over rated so we went back to Ancora for dessert (i had a pumpkin whip and kris n chelsea had waffles).
24 Nov (Fri) - Wake up at the butt crack of dawn to get the chapa that takes you back to the main land so we could get a chapa to Pemba, provincial capital of Cabo Delgado. We managed to get a ride in a semi and so instead of 7 hours it only took 5. Rock. Settle into the backpackers. Beach for the rest of the day. Pemba is beautiful.
25 Nov (Sat) - Went to town, went to the market, bought a shawl. Beach. Wooden jewelry. Ate matapa for dinner back at the backpackers. After was invited to the local disco by a Spaniard and a Portuguese guy that claimed his Spanish and Brazilian background negated the fact that he grew up in Portugal. It was a "fucking" interesting night, as George would say. You know it's a good disco when there is no cover fee and when you walk in you get a complementary captain and coke. We all left with our own personal types of lembrançcas. Chelsea and I danced most of the night with two girls that we originally thought were prostitutes but actually ended up being a girlfriend of the DJ and a friend of hers. She gave us black bracelets.
26 Nov (Sun) - Snorkeling. We couldn't afford to rent a boat, so we just rented the snorkel and fins and swam out about 300 meters to the sea shelf. "Amazing" is such a paltry unencompassing word, but it's what I'm using. The first time a school of fish swam by my legs i squelled liek a little child. luckily it was underwater and no one heard. The most hilarious incident was when we were swimming along a bit of coral and looked up to see (what we though was) a jellyfish right infront of our faces. All three of us turning around and kicking like crazy to get away was comical. I'm nearly positive it wasn't actually a jellyfish though. We saw puffer fish and zebra fish and lots of fish that I couldn't identify but were gorgeous and starfish that were so vivid and pure that if there was a pH scale for colors, this red would be the 7.0 of reds. The shelf was incredibly vertigo inspiring. And I didn't even go all the way to the edge. The way it was inclining was enough for me to imagine the rest. After we ate seafood and drank caparinhas with fresh pineapple juice. It was a massively touristy day. Culminating in my going on stage during the vodaCOM road show and dancing in front of many many people for a free t-shirt and tote bag.
27 Nov (Mon) - Wake again at butt crack of dawn to get the chapa to the dhow that takes you to Ilha de Ibo. 6 hours to go 117 km. When I'm rich I'm only donating money to road development charities. We then had to wait for the water to "fill in" so we could get the boat to the island. It was worth it though. Ibo is one of my favorite places in Moz. We were greeted by the Ibo welcoming committee, 3 12-year-old boys that followed us around the rest of the time we were on the island. But they were good kids that showed us around and told us about the island. We ate at "the restuarant".
28 Nov (Tues) - Fortileza, official tour of the island. Met a woman's group the made flowers out of dried mango leaves to sell to people that wanted to take pictures of the local women wearing the traditional Northern Moçambican masks. We were rather ceremoniously thrown into the middle of these women and taught how to make the maskes, and then they put them on us. So yes, we walked around the island for the rest of the day wearing white masks and being pointed at. It was marvolous. Then watched the sunset from the porch of our bungalow and had more matapa for dinner.
29 Nov (Wed) - Ibo to Pemba. I'm not allowed to talk about this day in a such a public forum. We arrived. That's all you gotta know.
30 Nov (Thurs) - Beach and food.
1 Dec (Fri) - Last time waking at the butt crack of dawn to go somewhere. 7 hour bus ride back to Nampula City. TV TV TV champagne cheese crackers TV TV.
2 Dec (Sat) - TV TV Chelsea left TV TV TV TV food TV.
3 Dec (Sun) - TV market museum TV TV TV food TV TV. The TV feed was from Dubai, so all of the shows and movies were slightly censored. It was funny in Maverick when they cut out all the kissing. But in American History X, well, honestly, why bother even showing that movie. And why, if you're gonna take out the anal rape scene, leave in the curbing scene that results in anal rape. Still it was glorious. Watched until my eyes dried out and rolled out of my eye sockets like tiny raisons.
4 Dec (Mon) - Fly Nampula City to Pemba, Pemba to Beira, Beira to Maputo. Beautiful Maputo.
And that's my trip.
19 Nov (Sun) - Kris and I fly from Maputo to Nampula City. We get to see the Shoprite, the Sunday market and eat Indian food. Chelsea joins us that evening. All very good things.
20 Nov (Mon) - The Nampula museum (see dildos from previous entry) is visited, TV is watched, more Indian food is eaten.
21 Nov (Tues) - A 3 hr bus ride from Nampula City to Ilha de Moçambique. The small child breast feeding next to me on the bus had amazing spitting range, and I did end up with some breast milk on my face. After we got settled in our hostel we went to the beach. It was World Fishers Day so there was a huge celebration going on. There were way more children there than was desirable. Which, after the breast milk incident, was in the zero range. Had a delicious sandwich for dinner at Ancora d'Ouro.
22 Nov (Wed) - Visited the Palace (last used when Samora Machel took office and after one of his guards broke a chair decided that it was no longer where the ruling people would live) and went to the central market. Bought a lot of clothes. After, beach.
23 Nov (Thur) - Thanksgiving. We spent the day at the beach and then went to the fancy restaurant at the fancy hotel, Escondidinho, for dinner. It was over rated so we went back to Ancora for dessert (i had a pumpkin whip and kris n chelsea had waffles).
24 Nov (Fri) - Wake up at the butt crack of dawn to get the chapa that takes you back to the main land so we could get a chapa to Pemba, provincial capital of Cabo Delgado. We managed to get a ride in a semi and so instead of 7 hours it only took 5. Rock. Settle into the backpackers. Beach for the rest of the day. Pemba is beautiful.
25 Nov (Sat) - Went to town, went to the market, bought a shawl. Beach. Wooden jewelry. Ate matapa for dinner back at the backpackers. After was invited to the local disco by a Spaniard and a Portuguese guy that claimed his Spanish and Brazilian background negated the fact that he grew up in Portugal. It was a "fucking" interesting night, as George would say. You know it's a good disco when there is no cover fee and when you walk in you get a complementary captain and coke. We all left with our own personal types of lembrançcas. Chelsea and I danced most of the night with two girls that we originally thought were prostitutes but actually ended up being a girlfriend of the DJ and a friend of hers. She gave us black bracelets.
26 Nov (Sun) - Snorkeling. We couldn't afford to rent a boat, so we just rented the snorkel and fins and swam out about 300 meters to the sea shelf. "Amazing" is such a paltry unencompassing word, but it's what I'm using. The first time a school of fish swam by my legs i squelled liek a little child. luckily it was underwater and no one heard. The most hilarious incident was when we were swimming along a bit of coral and looked up to see (what we though was) a jellyfish right infront of our faces. All three of us turning around and kicking like crazy to get away was comical. I'm nearly positive it wasn't actually a jellyfish though. We saw puffer fish and zebra fish and lots of fish that I couldn't identify but were gorgeous and starfish that were so vivid and pure that if there was a pH scale for colors, this red would be the 7.0 of reds. The shelf was incredibly vertigo inspiring. And I didn't even go all the way to the edge. The way it was inclining was enough for me to imagine the rest. After we ate seafood and drank caparinhas with fresh pineapple juice. It was a massively touristy day. Culminating in my going on stage during the vodaCOM road show and dancing in front of many many people for a free t-shirt and tote bag.
27 Nov (Mon) - Wake again at butt crack of dawn to get the chapa to the dhow that takes you to Ilha de Ibo. 6 hours to go 117 km. When I'm rich I'm only donating money to road development charities. We then had to wait for the water to "fill in" so we could get the boat to the island. It was worth it though. Ibo is one of my favorite places in Moz. We were greeted by the Ibo welcoming committee, 3 12-year-old boys that followed us around the rest of the time we were on the island. But they were good kids that showed us around and told us about the island. We ate at "the restuarant".
28 Nov (Tues) - Fortileza, official tour of the island. Met a woman's group the made flowers out of dried mango leaves to sell to people that wanted to take pictures of the local women wearing the traditional Northern Moçambican masks. We were rather ceremoniously thrown into the middle of these women and taught how to make the maskes, and then they put them on us. So yes, we walked around the island for the rest of the day wearing white masks and being pointed at. It was marvolous. Then watched the sunset from the porch of our bungalow and had more matapa for dinner.
29 Nov (Wed) - Ibo to Pemba. I'm not allowed to talk about this day in a such a public forum. We arrived. That's all you gotta know.
30 Nov (Thurs) - Beach and food.
1 Dec (Fri) - Last time waking at the butt crack of dawn to go somewhere. 7 hour bus ride back to Nampula City. TV TV TV champagne cheese crackers TV TV.
2 Dec (Sat) - TV TV Chelsea left TV TV TV TV food TV.
3 Dec (Sun) - TV market museum TV TV TV food TV TV. The TV feed was from Dubai, so all of the shows and movies were slightly censored. It was funny in Maverick when they cut out all the kissing. But in American History X, well, honestly, why bother even showing that movie. And why, if you're gonna take out the anal rape scene, leave in the curbing scene that results in anal rape. Still it was glorious. Watched until my eyes dried out and rolled out of my eye sockets like tiny raisons.
4 Dec (Mon) - Fly Nampula City to Pemba, Pemba to Beira, Beira to Maputo. Beautiful Maputo.
And that's my trip.