MOZAMBIQUE

After a couple of days in Kruger National Park we headed east into Mozambique. We didn't have a solid plan, and no guide books to direct us, only suggestions from other travelers on where to go. Maputo is the capital city and it sits on a harbor in the southern tip of Mozambique. We thought we'd drive there and then head north up the coast in search of some beautiful beaches that we'd heard about through word of mouth. Crossing the border into Mozambique reminded me of crossing into Cambodia from Thailand, or even like going into Tijuana from San Diego, the change was drastic and there was a blatant increase in poverty.

The drive to Maputo was nice and easy, but once we reached the city things started to get a little hectic, and being a group of foreigners in a rental car from South Africa didn't help. On a crowded and slow moving road just outside of the city we got pulled over by the police for no apparent reason. Once we stopped the van an officer came over to the passenger seat window where I was sitting, and before we knew it the vehicle was surrounded by six or seven men armed with AK-47s. The officer started asking us what we were doing and where we were going, and after poking his head in the window he noticed that a few of the guys in the back weren't wearing seat belts. He demanded that we pay him 300 rand each - that's a lot of money in Mozambique - while meanwhile a truck passed by with about fifteen people crammed into the bed. If there is a seatbelt law in Mozambique it's obviously not enforced. The officer threatened to take us into the station if we didn't pay, and he seemed nervous as we scrambled to collect our money. We ended up talked him down from three hundred rand each to 1,000 rand altogether, paid up, and took off down the road. That wasn't the last time we were bribed by the police.
We had heard about this beach town a little north of Maputo, but after being stopped by the police and getting lost for a bit, we didn't arrive until after dark. The roads turned into sand as we drove towards the coast, and the roadside lighting was sparse and dim. After almost getting stuck a few times and realizing that we would need a four wheel drive vehicle to go any further, we decided to head back to Maputo for the night.

Once we got back to the city we found a place to eat and then went out to look for a hostel that we had heard about. On the way we got stopped by the police for the second time, another six or seven guys armed with AK-47s. This time we were all wearing seat belts and there was nothing they could pin on us, but they still wanted our money. They tried to tell us that Carlos was drunk, which he wasn't, and after explaining to them that their buddies took most of our money earlier that day, we quickly ended the conversation and took off for the hostel. We were all drained when we finally got to the hostel and very put off by our first day in Mozambique. That night we got drunk.

The next day we took a stroll around town and then drove along the coast outside of Maputo for a little ways. We stopped at a beach for a while, that's where I took the pictures above, and then jumped back into the van to head back to South Africa. It was a short visit, but we had had enough. And anyways, the World Cup was only a few days away...