From Durban to Dar es Salaam

Yesterday we caught a taxi at 7:30 am to the bus station in hopes of taking the greyhound to St. Lucia - no such luck. We crossed the street and caught a combit to Mtubatuba, then another one there to St. Lucia. This place is a beautiful, tropical estuary. Hippos and crocs everywhere. I think we've decided to just camp here until after New Years.

The last couple of days here have been wonderful. Time split between the beach and traipsing through town. We have decided to leave tomorrow though and try to make it to Swaziland for New Year's. It's a combination of feeling like we shouldn't stay in any one place too long and our excitement for Mozambique.

I have to admit though, as much as this trip has been amazing - and will continue to be so - I am feeling the pull for home. The Africa part of our trip is of course the most difficult, but on days where I am either stressed out from travel or bored with the same scenery, I think 'I could be home with friends and family right now'. I will probably continue to feel this way over the next 4 months.

12/31-1/4

Sitting here at Fatima's in Maputo, after a wonderful and cheap Indian meal, I realize I've neglected my updates, so here goes.

New Years Eve we hung out at BIBs in St. Lucia and then vetoed going to the big bash on the beach. We ended up watching some British Christmas special on tv, wished each other well, and crashed. The next day I went to make breakfast and found Carl - one 1/2 of a SA gay couple I had met there - passed out on the couch. I decided to play a joke on him and whipped out his penis. Not quite as humiliating as shaving someone's eyebrows, but I figured it would do the trick. It ended up that the only person to actually see him was Jerome, his partner, who, I guess, didn't find it as funny as me, lol. He started yelling at me and going off and I couldn't help but smile and laugh. He continued to rant and rave for the next few hours as we were packing to leave. As he got angrier I found it funnier...I'm sick, I guess, lol. At one point he said that Carl was so angry with me that he had started coming at me with a knife and that I needed to apologize to him. The best part of all of this gay drama was that Carl had come back from the beach earlier that morning, drunk, trying to get me to have sex with him. All this drama was stemming from his guilt and need to cover up his own actions. With an 'asshole' in a french accent, Jerome wished us well and we were off to catch a combi.

25 minutes later we arrived in Mtubatuba again where we sat in another combi for 3.5 hours before it filled and headed north. Travel days are exhausting - mainly because of the waiting around. At the next stop, there were no combis so we hiked at the side of the road until catching a lift to the Swazi border with a truck driver.

After going through immigration, we caught a ride to Manzini. But wait! After saying they were going there, they stopped at a different town and we switched to yet another car. Like I said, the travelling is exhausting!

Once in Manzini, we caught a 3rd ride to the Ezulwini Valley and finally arrived at the Lidwalla Lodge, 9 hours after starting. We checked in, made some dinner, and crashed. The next day we planned on walking to the 'natural hot springs' which was the main and only reason we chose to go that far INTO Swaziland. Wrong again! and a big 'fuck you' to Lonely Planet, lol. The hot springs turned out to be nothing more than hot ground water that is poured into a swimming pool. Nothing natural about that! We nixed the idea and went to the craft market and casino instead.

While at Lidwalla, we met 2 Irish chicks who were working there - Emir and Kiara. They were fantastic and over the next few days we enjoyed getting to know them. We had planned on leaving Sunday for Moz but found out there was a huge ceremony taking place at the King's Residence just down the road. We decided to stay and walk down. On the way, we asked a cop for directions to a batik cooperative and he ended up giving us a life and telling us all about the ceremony and some local Swazi history. He was fantastic. His name was OJ - Oscar Jamabalya (or something like that).

Ultimately he dropped us off across from the royal residence where we had our packed lunches and walked onto the palace grounds. We were stopped several times to check for cameras - we had ours but promised we wouldn't take photos of the actual ritual. We were then stopped by a beautiful young Swazi lady who spent the next 30 minutes explaining i great detail, all about the ceremony, rights of passage, etc. of the Swazi boys and today's 'fruits of the harvest' rituals. For boys to become men, the participate in a 6 day ceremony. The first day (and yes, this happens in 1 day), they walk on foot 50k to cut down trees from a sacred forest, then carry the trees on their shoulders BACK the 50k to the King's residence. There they rest. The next day, the day we were there, they have the Ncwala.

We purchased some traditional cloth and sticks to dress the part and then headed to the kraal to actually participate in the dance ourselves. Most of the Swazi men were wearing leaopart skin loin cloths with cow tail and chicken feather headresses. It was beautiful and amazing. The many wives of the king were dressed one way while all the princesses wore only skirts with their breasts exposed. Nick was very happy! We walked through the metal detecter (where my PA actually set it off, lol) and went inside.

In the kraal (corral), we took part in the dance. Chanting and swaing and shaking our sticks. It was such a perfect afternoon. We returned to the lodge, exhausted and hung out with the girls and some of guests. This morning, we woke early, paid our bill (with a discount complements of the Irish) and began our 8 hour day - in the pouring rain no less - to make it 265k to Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. I seriously LOVE travelling with Nick. We have found out niche and can deal with each other's mood swings, not take things personally and always end each day laughing our asses off.

1/5-1/14

Ya know, whenever I think I should get better at journaling along this trip I stop and remind myself WHY I am on it in the first place...for the EXPERIENCE!!! (not just to write about it)

We spent a day in Maputo, exploring, though we were not very impressed. The entire city seemed to be in a state of decay - the facades of anceitn buildings seeping into rot. Starving and running out of options, we had lunch at a chinese hotel - the food was good and the atmosphere entertaining. I had enough food for leftovers later.

The next day we took a taxi to the combi rink to get to XAI-XAI. This in itself wasn't too bad, tough we are frowing weary of local transportation. Along the way, we made the decision to skip XAI and head directlyfor Inhambane. Mistake #1, lol. We have GOT to make firmer plans! We made it about 6k outside of XAI where we were dropped off at the side of teh road. We tried to hike from there...to no avail. So we ended up returning to XAI. Instead of trying to make it to the picturesque beach we had heard about, we got a room at a cheap hotel - very cheap. I kept waiting for Norman Bates to knock on our door or appear in the shower. We entertained outselves by singing opera and playing cards.

The next morning we rose early for a headstart. Once on the road it became a long haul due to construction and road conditions. We had NO idea how much to pay so just gave the guy 400 mets each. He tried to charge us for our bags, but I told him NO. We drove about 2k before it pulled into a garage for repair. We sat there for an our while they worked on it. You'l think I'd be used to this sort of shit after 2 years in Nam but it's still aggravating.

After yet another 4 hours, we switched buses in Quissico. there we saw the most beautiful sea foam green lagoon imagineable and were hitting ourselves for not staying at least one night there. Once at Inhambane, we made our way to the backpackers and explored the town. We had pizze for lunch and swam a bit. The next morning we explored some more and then caught a lift to Tofo with some Aussies.

They dropped us at Bamboozi lodge, we checked in and headed to the beach and town. This place is spectacular with the most beautiful azure and turquoise waters I've ever seen. We treated ourselves to lunch at Fatima's Nest, bought what would be the first of many pineapple and headed to bed - after some wine and a naked swim! The next morning we checked into Fatima's which was cheaper and closer to town - though it's reputed to be a party place, we found it rather chill with a low-key atmosphere. The next few days were spent swimming, playing cards, exploring the beach and town and trying our hands at cooking prawns - FRESH prawns. They were amazing and delicious.

We ran into some Moz PCVs who happened to be going snorkeling with whale sharks, so we decided to tag along. I forgot exactly how sea sick I get and didn't take my Dramamine. So basically, we spent the first hour looking for them as I got progressively more nauseous. I kept hoping I would not be the first one to hurl! A shark was eventually spotted and in the water we went. I have never snorkeled so wasn't exactly sure what I was doing. So between trying not to puke in my gear and swallow sea water, I managed to see the big fish for about 30 seconds before we were hauled back into the boat - where once again, nausea took over.

We continued to search formore sharks on our way back to the beach. Alice, a Moz PCV, was looking rather green and finally leaned over the edge and relinquished her breakfast - I followed suit. I instantly felt better...for a few minutes anyways.

Back in Tofo, we had 'bunny chow' at a local dive and then Alicia and Matt headed back to their sites. Man I don't miss PC right now. Alice and AJ hung out for another dayand that evening we made an amazing dinner and played cards. The next day was spent relaxing from the day before. The following day I left Tofo for Vilankulu, cause I was offered a free place to stay. I will always choose free. The last few days I've been chillin on the beach, collecting sand dollars, hanging with PCVs and waiting on Nick and Eric to catch up. I am ready to move on and head farther north. Europe is calling my name but we are still about a month away.

1/15-1/20 (early)

Chilling in Vilankulu was good but I was itching to get moving. I spent time playing cards with Megan, doing yoga - I even got to go to a class - and swimming. Eric and Nick arrived on Saturday. Sunday, I showed them around and we went swimming. We all got a bit dehydrated so didn't feel well the rest of the day. We went to buy tickets for the early bus the next day only to discover it was already booked. That meant another day here. God, I just wanna go!!!!

The next morning we awoke to discover that one of Megan's dogs had torn up Eric's backpack. We mended it as best we could (it's now called Frankenbag). We got up at 3am the following morning to catch the bus. It was the usual chaos. 9 hours later we arrived in Inchope, immediately caught a lift to Chimoio, bought food at Shoprite and caught a free ride to the Pink Papaya. I went right to sleep while the guys went to buy bus tickets for the following day and get Nick a new camera. His died a few days earlier and I fear mine is on a similar path.

I awoke around 5:30 and groggily went for a walk to town. The market was a scary, dark place where various things were sold in the dim light of wooden stalls with corrogated metal roofs. Back at the Papaya, I cooked dinner and we had wine while we talked about the next few days of our trip.

Once again, 3 am, we awoke and trekked to the chapa rink with our stuff. This was even more chaotic than the day before but I had promised myself to relax and not complain. I had found myself doing it way too much and I didn't want this whole 5 months to turn into me griping about the culture everywhere I went. Besides, I should be used to it...yeah yeah yeah.

Once loaded, the ride to Tete wasn't all that bad and there we caught a 2nd chapa to Ulongwe. This one was a bit cramped, with us having to pay for an extra seat for our stuffs and then cramming in alongside it. We arrived around 4, met up with Adrienne, the PCV we were crashing with. I love having free places to stay!

Today we will head to Senga Bay, crossing the border into Malawi. I am excited that we are 1. hitting another country and 2. finally farther north than Namibia. I feel like NOW we are getting 'away'.

1/20-1/26

The morning we left Ulongwe we did s in tyrpical African fashion - waiting on a ride, getting all packed in, only to have him drive around the town trying to squeeze more people in and finally ended back where we started, waiting yet again. Eventually we made it to the border, exchanged some money, crossed easily and walked a bit before stopping to eat.

After several attempts - and I do mean several - at ordering off the menu, only to have the waiter continually return to inform us they were out of this or that, we settled on fried egg sandwiches before returning to the road to hike. It wasn't long before we were whisked into a combi, bags crammed behind the backseat with the door tied closed behind. Adrienne had warned us about the 'touts' - guys who are supposed to be offering their services as guides or porters but are actually working in groups to distract and rob. We had taken extra precautions that morning to keep all our valuables deep in our bags and I even used twine to tie my external zippers shut.

However...nothing prepared us for the reality. Upon arrival in Lilongwe, the driver of the combi stopped in the middle of nowhere - NOT actually at the combi rink. The bus was immediately bombarded with young men - touts. Eric and I got out immediately to guard our bags that were explosed in the back. The touts were undeterable and would push us around and even though we would push them back and yell for them to back off, the crowding in would continue. When everyone had left the combi the drive instructed us to get back in - he was going to drop us elsewhere. I found this strange - why hadn't he dropped us 'elsewhere' first? It was then that I noticed his 'helper' in the back near Eric's bag with the horde of guys. Later, he would tell us he was trying to help keep people from cutting into it, but we would agree he was in on the scam. Eric jumped out once again and unfortunately took his small camel pack with him. It was then, somehow, decided that we should put our bags into the combi. This didn't make sense to any of us but by then the driver had opened the back, exposing our stuff, with only Eric to shove the things into Nick. I admit, I was sort of frozen at the moment, not knowing exactly what I should do. The side door opened with many guys crowded around deeming daunting to push my way through and at the same time, I worried about people grabbing things from there.

As Eric was pushing his larger bag through the back, one of the guys unzipped his smaller pack and the contents spilled out on the ground. Some of the touts started grabbing for things and trying to kick other stuff farther under the combi. He was able to grab most things, but we discovered soon enough they had snagged his camera. We wanted the combie to stop immediately and let Eric out to go back, but they didn't or wouldn't. That was really where we figured they were in on it.

At the rink, he bolted, in vain, to return and retrieve his cam. I waited with our stuff, mace in hand, while Nick followed suit. That's when I noticed my tent was also missing. I was more concerned about Eric's camera - tents are replaceable, memories are not.

This is the point in the story where I have to bitch a little. I realized there is theft, all over the world, it's a given - especially if you are travelling. But when I hear repeatedly, about volunteers being robbed, by this method or that, I am infuriated. The mindset that 'white' = 'money' is a common thread running all the way through this unraveling continent. Whether being burgled or hounded for money - it just gets fucking old! If you are begging for food cause you are starving, thats one thing. But the majority of theft is just seen as a rectifier between the haves and have nots.

On the other side of the proverbial coin, theres the Buddhist principal of possession vs. suffering. That appointing owenership or saying 'that's mine' and attributing value to something material, only leads to problems. Any item can be broken, stolen, will age over time... My question to the universe is this - are we all meant to be monks? If I purchase something, say, a toaster. With that purchase comes certain expectations. I am going to get the best merchandise for my money. the product will last me a certain length of time. The item will remain in my service until I see fit to be finished with it. Small expectations yes, but to me, NOT overly exaggerated.

So, when one of those are NOT met, yes, there is suffereing. Does that mean we have to let go of all those and go through life spending our money with no guarantees and the assumption that everything is temporary? Maybe in doing so, we would end up a less material society. Hmmm. As I write this, clarity is setting in a bit. Acceptance...still have to work on that one a bit.

Back at the combi rink, we very quickly caught a bus to Salima. Eric REALLY wanted to get out of Lilongwe, though we had initially planned on staying there one night. At Salima, I ran to the ATM for all 3 of us, bought some waters and peanut butter, and we snagged a ride to Senga Bay. Arriving there at dark, we discovered the marina we were staying at was 5k down the road. After stupidly turning down 3 bike taxis and then a car - we were still trying to figure out the Kwacha conversion - we trekked the unknown road on foot. 50 minutes later we arrived at Wheelhouse, settled in and slept. The next few days we spent chiling by the beautiful lake - with all of us a afraid to go in it. Between yoga, cards and exploring the area, we wiled away the time - happy to be prone for a few days.

After a failed attempt to arrange transport to lizard island - which is supposed to have a very large population of monitor lizards - we bid farewell to the Wheel and made our way back to Salima and then to Nkhata Bay. We arrived - after many hours on the bus - once again, at dark. We immediately fell in love with this place. This little village, surrounding a gorgeous bay, is everything we thought Africa was supposed to be. Fisherman crowding the streets with the day's catch. Streetfood sold by colorful women with suckling babes. Caribbean style music blasting from around every corner. It's amazing!

The last few days have been spent exploring this beautiful place, enjoying the amazing food and music and finally, a fearless swim in the lake - Shisto be damned!! We've met up with some Malawan PCVs and hung out while picking their brains for things to see and places to stay as we continue to head north. We have been here for 2 nights and plan on making tonight our last. We'll see what happens.

1/27-1/28

Okay, so the last 24 hours, for me, has to go down in the record books as 'not the greatest'.

We awoke in Nkhata to a thunderstorm. It hasn't rained this year at all in Malawi but chooses the day we need to travel to do so. We wait it out an hour or so and when it finally lets up a bit, pack up and catch a ride to Mzuzu. Here, our plans were to get our US dollars and catch a combi to Livingstonia or Chitimba. It didn't happen.

Upon arrival, we started hitting the bacnks. Either they didn't have dollars OR they wouldn't give it to us because we did not have an account. In addition, Malawi has recently closed all of it's foreign exchange offices because of corruption. After getting a bit stressed out, we decided to break for lunch. During so, Nick checks with the hotel owner and I go to talk to the police. Neither one turned out to be very productive but the police at least referred us to the immigration office. We headed there after lunch.

The office was of very little help and actually laughted at me which made me want to hit someone. I try very hard to not enter 'victim status' but I just felt as though our hands were tied. It was then that the universe sent us our 3 boats...

David, a Swedish Jehovah's Witness (yes) was in the office and overheard our dilemna. He knew where we could illegally exchange money at a decent rate. He drove us to 2 different Indian shops to speak to their owners. 1 guy was out and the other was in prayer. We thanked David and waited for Mr. Tutla to finish with Allah.

Mr. Tutla informed us that no, he had no US dollars. We walked back to the first place to wait for the other guy. When he returned, he said he didn't have any but it was ZERO problem getting it at the border. By then, we had decided to stay the night in Mzuzu and get an early start the next day. Ash, the Indian guy, offered us a lift to the backpackers - boat #2.

We dropped out stuff and walked back into town to get food for dinner. We returned and enjoyed peanut butter sandwiches with beer and wine. We also met Gabriel (#3), a beautiful Malawin guy who offered to take our money, deposit into his account and then get the US money at his back for us. Wow. (in hindsight I'm not sure why we didn't do this). It was also funny that Eric and Nick were playing 'wingmen' and trying to get me laid, lol. I was seriously attracted to this guy and picked up on some gaydar but it's very difficult working through differences in culture to really know where another one stands. I ended up sleeping alone...yet again (kicking myself).

We awoke to rain once more but instead of waiting it out, packed up and left. We got to the combi rink, faced the usual yelling and pulling from the drivers and sat in a bus to Karonga, waiting for it to fill up. 2 hours later were on the road. The very slow road. It took us about 5 hours to go 200k. The silver lining was that the countryside was beautiful, some of the best I've seen in Africa. Malawi is amazingly fertile.

At Karonga, people were asking if we needed US dollars. Yes please. Everyone we spoke to wanted to charge us 18,000 Kwacha for 100.00. That's like paying 25 dollars for one hundred! We refused and got in a taxi to the border. There, we explained our dilemna to the Malawi customs and they said they would help us...YEAH! Only to discover they were just calling in one of the guys off the street who was asking an even higher price.

At this point, we ere concerned we would have to travel all the way back to Karonga, because there was not ATM at the border and we were going to have to suck it up and pay the extra money. Nick then headed over to the Tanzanian border to see if they could help us. He returned to tell us he found a guy who would exchange for 16,000. Now, remember, it's illegal to do this in either country but most police turn a blind eye.

So, we meet the guy and I very stupidly hand him 16,000 kwacha before seeing the US dollars. All of a sudden...chaos. Other men approached and started yelling and saying we owe more, that the exchange rate is higher. Somehow, in the process of us saying no and trying to get our money back...slight of hand...my guy stole 7,000 kwacha from me - which I didn't realize until we were in the immigration office for Tanzania. I've been lucky this trip - seein ghtat Eric has lost a camera and a tent - but I was still pissed off. It's 42 US dollars and with the tight budget I am on, it's a substantial portion.

At the office, we explain everything - minus the theft - and hope they can help us out. After an hour, an arrangement is made - with Nick even having to save Eric and I's butts with rand and wala! we were in yet another country. Dark was fast approaching as we walked to the combi rink. We squeezed (and I mean, seriously squeezed) onto a bus (standing) for the 3 hour ride to Mbeya. We got here at 10:30 pm, starving and exhausted, we checked into the only room available (1 full size bed for the 3 of us) and then walked to the ATM, in hopes of finding some food along the way. Both ventures were a success.

The night ended with beers, chicken and chips at Sugar Ray's where we laughed about the day, lamented about not seeing Gabriel naked, lol, and the boys discussed in detail the beauty of African women's asses. Life? what's next?

1/29 - 2/2

We spent 2 full days in Mbeya, enjoying really cheap street food and purchasing train tickets for the long haul to Dar. We had to switch hotels and the second one was a bit gross. The water coming out of the pipes went from cloudly to brown to black and then back to those assortment of colors. None of us wanted to bath in it, let alone brush our teeth. On Saturday, we got a taxi ride to the station, in order to be there an hour before departure. Who are they kidding? We arrived at 2, was supposed to leave at 3 and finally boarded and started heading to Dar at 8.

We had some dinner and then slept. Surprisingly I didn't get motion sickness. The next day...the longest day, we ate, played cards, drank beer. When the train was going through the National Park, we saw giraffe, elephants, zebra, wildebeast, antelope, warthogs....it was by far the best 'non' safari I had been on. We arrived in Dar around 8 pm with no bookings and a tad fearful of being robbed. We sucked it up and paid for a taxi...that we had to end up pushing to get started...and arrived at Jambo Lodge. We were sort of in a race with some other whities to get a room, because everything was booked. WE managed to get the very last room!

The last couple of days we've explored the city, I went to the museum, we've had some amazing local food and today got our tickets for the boat ride to Zanzibar tomorrow. We also made the decision to skip Rwanda and Uganda. Eric is a bit sad about that, but Nick and I are really ready to leave Africa behind us. I am way stoked for Egypt, Israel/Jordan and of course Europe.