Saturday, October 23, 2010

Vilankulo and diving in paradise

After two days of travel through the-middle-of-nowhere Northern Mozambique, we arrived in Vilankulo. We were pretty excited to spend a few days NOT sitting on buses, and would have settled for any dusty little African town, but were pleasantly surprised by Vilankulo, a cute little beach town situated on the central coast of Mozambique. The farther south we traveled in Mozambique the more we entered into South African vacation territory. Vilankulo was far enough north not to be packed with sunburned vacationers, but popular enough to have some basic tourist amenities (like pizza and bacon!!!!!). I know I’ve mentioned this before, but the food in Zambia and Malawi was pretty mediocre, so Chris and I were really excited to get some decent grub.

In Vilankulo, we stayed in a cute little hut at a lodge managed by a local Mozambican couple. We enjoyed lounging around, cooking over the woodfire stove in the outdoor kitchen and wandering around checking out the town. The real highlight, however, was diving in the Bazaruto Archipelago.

The Archipelago has been a marine reserve for years, so its reefs have been protected from fishing. We did two fantastic dives at 2-mile reef, and enjoyed an afternoon exploring the sand dunes of Bazaruto Island. We also did a day-trip to Santa Carolina Island which was AMAZING and by far my favorite of the two excursions. We heard about this island from two Dutch girls that we met while traveling. It’s a looooong boat ride from Vilankulo and off the radar of most travelers, but definitely worth the extra effort to get there. The water was too shallow for diving, but it was perfect for snorkeling. This was probably the most beautiful snorkel spot I’ve seen since Sipadan in Borneo and Apo Island in the Philippines (which are both world class marine reserves). The water was crystal clear, and there were so many beautiful corals and schools of fish. We got to swim with turtles too, which was very, very cool. Santa Carolina itself was like a deserted island paradise. A luxury resort was built there in the 1950’s, but was abandoned during Mozambique’s long civil war. The hotel has yet to be rebuilt, so for now, it’s an isolated island with a slightly eerie ghost-town feel. After lunch on the island and a little time exploring the abandoned hotel, we headed back to Vilankulo, with the sun at our back, watching dolphins swim and play alongside the boat.

Yup, this is paradise, and I couldn’t be happier.

-Julia




From 08-18-10 Vilankulo and N. Moz Web

Vilankulo Beach



From 08-18-10 Vilankulo and N. Moz Web

Fishermen returning with their catch






From 08-18-10 Vilankulo and N. Moz Web

Bazaruto Archipelago



From 08-18-10 Vilankulo and N. Moz Web

High-tech dive briefing



From 08-18-10 Vilankulo and N. Moz Web

Soaking up some sun before the dive



From 08-18-10 Vilankulo and N. Moz Web

Shells on the dunes



From 08-18-10 Vilankulo and N. Moz Web

Warming up between dives



From 08-18-10 Vilankulo and N. Moz Web

This side of the dune was much steeper



From 08-18-10 Vilankulo and N. Moz Web

Boat trip to Santa Carolina





From 08-18-10 Vilankulo and N. Moz Web

Santa Carolina Island


Northern Mozambique and slightly less chaotic border crossings

From Zomba, Chris and I continued our journey South towards Mozambique. The Malawi-Mozambique border crossing was pretty hectic. It wasn’t as bad as the Tanzania-Malawi border, but still a little slice of chaos, as I’ve now come to expect from African land borders.

This time around, we had issues changing money. Technically, you’re not supposed to change money with the black market moneychangers on the street, and my strong preference is not to change money in sketchy situations (like at a border with a random tout), but when we tried to change money at the Bank of Malawi kiosk at the immigration office, we were informed that they were out of dollars (what the heck?!?!?!?!) and that we should just change with the black market guys. On the minibus ride toward the border, Chris and I befriended a Mozambican guy who was also headed to the border. When he saw us struggling with the moneychangers, he offered to help us negotiate with the touts (in hopes that they wouldn’t try to blatantly rip off a local). Adding another person to the fray only caused more chaos, and brought our situation to the attention of a police officer (not optimal since we weren’t supposed to be changing money with the touts). The cop swooped in ushered our Mozambican friend off into some back room. So Chris and I waited, somewhat clueless and helpless, for our Mozambican friend to reappear. When he did resurface (30 minutes later), he’d been hassled by the cop, but that was it. Chris and I decided to abandon our money changing efforts and just focus on getting into Mozambique before we ran out of daylight.

Another immigration office and several hours of hectic minibus/taxi rides later, we arrived safely in Tete, Northeastern Mozambique. When we crossed into Mozambique, we immediately noticed some major differences from Malawi and Zambia. Mozambique felt more developed, and even though it’s still a very poor country, you could see more affluence and economic activity (in a very basic sense, of course). The food in Mozambique was also a welcome change of pace. Since Mozambique was once a Portuguese colony, its food has a strong latin influence. The spicy sauces and presence of real cheese were like manna from heaven after a month of chicken and nsima (bland polenta).

We spent a day in Tete organizing our onward transportation, and then another night in Biera on our way down the cost. We didn’t spend enough time in either city to really get to know the towns, but both places provided us with a good opportunity to see some of the non-touristy parts of Mozambique.

One of the highlights of travel in Northern Mozambique was traveling in the comfort of “luxury” long-distance buses. Chris and I have suffered through a lot of painful chicken bus rides, and I can’t even fully express how thrilled I was when I discovered that Mozambique has multiple classes of bus travel (hallelujah leg room!!!). It took me a while to track down information about the nice buses, but it was worth the extra research. Overland travel from Northern to Southern Mozambique requires two days of travel, and I’m not sure that Chris and I were mentally prepared for 2 days of slow, overcrowded bus rides.

Mozambique was also interesting from a language standpoint. Most people in the big cities speak Portuguese and, if you are lucky, a little English as well. Unlike French, which was impossible for me to understand when we were in Madagascar, Portuguese is a little easier. I speak Spanish and Italian, so between those two languages, I can almost read Portuguese and can sort of get by with a handful of simple phases (the numbers are really similar to Spanish which helps a lot). The accent is totally different for me, but when in doubt I’d just use the Spanish word and ad a “shouwww” to the end. This was surprisingly effective, and while we had our fill of miscommunications and confusing/awkward moments, we were able to get by much easier than in Madagascar.

-Julia


From 08-18-10 Vilankulo and N. Moz Web

Crossing the Zambezi River into Tete, Mozambique



From 08-18-10 Vilankulo and N. Moz Web

Happy camper on the "luxury" bus




From 08-18-10 Vilankulo and N. Moz Web

Mozambicans take A/C very seriously. 12 degrees C was a little too cold for us

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Zomba…

From Cape Maclear, we continued south to the city of Zomba. Zomba wasn’t originally on our itinerary, but Chris and I have heard so many travelers rave about the hiking in Malawi, that we figured a few days of fresh air might be pretty nice.

During colonial times, Zomba was the capital of Malawi, so even though it isn’t a major city now, it has lots of beautiful old buildings. Zomba was also one of the greenest places we visited in Malawi. Since winter is the dry season, much of the countryside we’ve seen has been bone-dry and a little barren-looking (especially when you get away from the lake). Zomba was lush, green and cool…an excellent change of pace.

We were only in Zomba for a couple of days, but we had a great time hiking up and around the Zomba plateau. I, for one, haven’t been able to exercise regularly during this trip, and it was definitely a wake-up call for my body when we decided to hike 7 km uphill one afternoon. Fortunately, we got a ride back down the plateau and saved our knees from the downhill walk. :-P

Zomba doesn’t seem to be on the main backpacker circuit in Southern Africa, so we didn’t meet any other travelers there. We did, however, bump into a group of super-friendly resident expats during our hike up the plateau, and they invited us over for dinner. Most of them are in Malawi working for NGOs, and it was interesting to hear their perspective on life in Malawi. As a traveler, it’s relatively to cope with some of the challenges of living in the developing world (e.g. evening power outages that you can set your watch by), because you know that you only have to deal with the inconveniences for a short time and will eventually be returning to the world of orderliness and comfort. When you are living in rural Malawi for several years trying to manage an organization, these challenges become a much larger part your life. On the flip side, living in a place like Zomba for an extended period of time gives you the opportunity to integrate yourself into the community and learn about the local culture in a way that you just can’t do as a visitor. In any event, it was a wonderful and unexpected evening of dinner and conversation with some awesome people.

-Julia


From 08-13-10 Zomba Web


Zomba town



From 08-13-10 Zomba Web


Lots of old colonial buildings



From 08-13-10 Zomba Web


Zomba plateau



From 08-13-10 Zomba Web


Little kids carrying HUGE logs down the plateau



From 08-13-10 Zomba Web


Feeling a bit wimpy for needing a breather while the little kids ran past me carrying giant logs on their heads



From 08-13-10 Zomba Web


Wildflowers



From 08-13-10 Zomba Web


Lake atthe top of the plateau



From 08-13-10 Zomba Web


Mountain berries

Cape Maclear

From Zambia, we returned to Malawi and headed south to Cape Maclear (Southern Malawi). We had such a fantastic time in Nkhata Bay, so we wanted to check out Lake Malawi’s other lakeside backpacker hangout spot.

First off, I have to note how we got to Cape Maclear. Chris and I have tried really hard to seek out safe transportation in Africa, and where possible, we try to avoid minibuses and back-of-the-pick-up-truck style rides. Sometimes it’s just not an option, and we have to say our prayers, hop in the back of the pick-up and hope for the best. From Lilongwe, we were able to take a big 40-seater bus, but from Monkey Bay to Cape Maclear, it was pick-ups or walk 20km, so we took the pick-up. Everything was going well until I turned around and realized that the guy sitting directly behind me was holding a full gasoline can (without a proper cap, mind you) in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Chris gave me a look that told me he was just waiting for me to put two and two together before freaking out. I’ve learned to become really flexible about my personal space on African public transportation; you can put a bag of rice under my seat, a baby in my lap, but I draw the line at pyrotechnics. I would like to live to see my 30th birthday, thank you very much. Given the fact that there was almost zero extra space on the back of the truck, it was tricky to get away from death-wish man, but I managed to slowly inch myself away and put some luggage between me and the gas can so that if we went over a big bump, at least I wouldn’t be the first thing to go up in flames. 30 minutes later, we safely arrived in Cape Maclear swearing off African pick-up trucks for good.

Cape Maclear was great. It’s different than Nkhata Bay in that it’s a much smaller town and the coastline is sandy rather than rocky. Cape Maclear has been on the backpacker radar for 30+ years (supposedly one of the original hippie backpacker spots from the 1970s), so it has all of the traveler amenities, but has managed to maintain the laid-back vibe.

At Cape Maclear, we stayed at another great hostel/lodge, Malambe Camp. Most tourist facilities in Southern/Eastern Africa are owned by foreigners (largely former traveler expats), but Malambe Camp is owned by an enthusiastic local Malawian guy, “Cheezy”, who is looking to create a chilled-out backpacker hostel/budget lodge. The camp is definitely still a work in progress, but has a ton of potential, and it was great to see a local breaking into the backpacker scene.

One of my favorite things about Malambe Camp was the kitchen! I’ll be honest, the cuisine in mainland Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia has left much to be desired. In general, my outlook on food is that if you add enough hot sauce, you can made almost anything delicious, but there is only so much chicken and nsima (think bland polenta) that one person can eat, and at a certain point the hot sauce stops working its magic. When Chris and I found out that we had access to a kitchen at Malambe Camp, we went hog wild at the local (tiny) grocery store. We had a great time cooking some of our favorite dishes from home.

One of Cheezy’s ideas is to add a restaurant to the camp. Taking a break from cooking for one evening, we decided to sample menu. I ordered a BLT (because really, how can you go wrong with bacon?), and Chris decided to get adventurous and order the “happy-pants” sandwich. It turns out that the “happy-pants” sandwich is essentially a can of warmed up baked beans smashed between two slices of bread. This Malawian delicacy definitely lived up to its name. Knowing that Cheezy is trying to attract more backpackers with his new restaurant, we offered to help him spruce up the menu (the club sandwich was my personal addition). :-)

When we weren’t cooking or enjoying “happy-pants” sandwiches, Chris and I also found time to explore the lake. Unfortunately, bilharzia (nasty virus carried by lake snails) is a problem in the waters right off the coast from the village, but it’s safe to go swimming farther offshore. We made friends with a couple of other travelers staying at the lodge and decided to organize a boat trip with some of the local fishermen. Our idea was to start with some fishing (ideally catching our lunch), then head to a peaceful little cove to snorkel and make lunch. It turns out that my calling in life is NOT as a fisherwoman, so we ended up buying lunch straight from the nets of some local fishermen who DID know what they were doing. :-) Even though we didn’t catch our own lunch, it was still great to get out on the water and see more of the lake.

After a couple of days at Cape Maclear, we decided to move on. Our mildly terrifying experience getting to Cape Maclear in the back of a pick-up still fresh in our minds, we were stuck once again without any other options and had to go for the open-air transportation. As it turns out, the gas cans get refilled in Monkey Bay, so we were much safer on our ride out of town (Chris would like to note that even empty gas cans leak a little and his bag was wedged beneath a couple of cans, so now he smells a bit like a Texaco station).

-Julia


From 08-09-10 Cape Maclear Web


En route to CApe Maclear. I'm smiling because I haven't realized I'm sitting next to the guy with the cigarette and an open gas can.



From 08-09-10 Cape Maclear Web


Cape Maclear at dusk



From 08-09-10 Cape Maclear Web


The village



From 08-09-10 Cape Maclear Web


Home sweet home



From 08-09-10 Cape Maclear Web


Super friendly staff at Malambe Camp



From 08-09-10 Cape Maclear Web


High tech fishing gear



From 08-09-10 Cape Maclear Web


Actual fishermen



From 08-09-10 Cape Maclear Web


Snorkel stop



From 08-09-10 Cape Maclear Web


Sunset



From 08-09-10 Cape Maclear Web


Crammed into the back of the pick-up truck again

Friday, August 20, 2010

Zambian Safari

Zambian multiple entry visas in hand, Chris and I headed from Lilongwe, Malawi to South Luangwa National park in Zambia. Several people have recommended South Luangwa as one of the premier wildlife parks in Africa. It has amazing wildlife density and one of the highest leopard populations of any park in Africa. South Luangwa also offers cheaper accommodation options than the Serengeti, so Chris and I opted to splurge on a private safari chalet at one of the lodges.

The park was fantastic. We saw giraffes, zebras, bushbucks, buffalos, fish eagles, hippos, crocodiles, baboons, monkeys, a leopard and TONS (and I do mean TONS) of lions. One of the highlights was watching a group of lions play around with a canoe on the side of the Luangwa River. They were clearly perplexed by the canoe, and it was hilarious watching them all try to stand in the canoe.

We also did several night drives, which were really interesting. The big predators are less active during the daytime, so it’s cool to see how the animal behavior completely changes after dark. All of the small grazing animals stand at attention looking for predators, hippos come out of the water to eat, hyenas start howling to one another, lions go on the prowl, etc. We even saw two lions try, unsuccessfully, to take down a grazing hippo.

South Luangwa is the birthplace of the “walking safari”. It’s one of the few parks where you can go out with a guide and an armed guard to walk through the park. While we were in the park, we decided to do a walking safari, and it was a fantastic experience. Most of the animals are afraid of humans, so we didn’t have any close encounters with big game during the walking safari, but it was a great opportunity to take in the sights, smells and sounds of the park that you miss from inside the safari truck. I really enjoyed searching the ground for animal tracks. On safari, you don’t always see the small/nocturnal/reclusive animals, but the quantity and diversity of animal tracks are a testament to how the park is truly teeming with life.

Our South Luangwa safari was a really different experience than our Serengeti budget camping safari. I can’t say that I liked one over the other, but each had its unique benefits. One of the best aspects of South Luangwa was our accommodation. We were staying in a raised safari chalet that overlooked a grassy field and watering hole. In the morning and evening, baboons, bushbucks, guinea fowl, and occasionally elephants, would come graze in front of our chalet. At night, we could hear the hippos grunting and foraging for food just outside our door. It was like having Animal Planet right on our doorstep! I would have been a little scared, but we had a guard who would walk with us at night between the lodge restaurant and our chalet to make sure that we didn’t accidentally stumble upon a grazing hippo or an elephant with her calf (both of which would be BAD situations).

Our Zambian safari was a great success. The more time I spend in the African bush, the more I fall in love with its beautiful, rustic, untamed character.

-Julia



From 08-04-10 Zambia and South Luangwa Web

Entrance to the park






From 08-04-10 Zambia and South Luangwa Web

Trying very hard not to look scared




From 08-04-10 Zambia and South Luangwa Web

Hippos and a big croc



From 08-04-10 Zambia and South Luangwa Web

Safari truck gets stuck, everyone pushes, I document the moment. :-)







From 08-04-10 Zambia and South Luangwa Web

Elephant in our front yard



From 08-04-10 Zambia and South Luangwa Web

Baboon piggyback ride




From 08-04-10 Zambia and South Luangwa Web

Elephant shrew tracks





From 08-04-10 Zambia and South Luangwa Web

Sunbathing while watching the hippos and crocs