Xai-Xai Beach Resort

... face. I told him it was a religous braceltte so he wouldn't be anywhere on it. He laughed at me and what I thought seemed to be a joking tone and said...well that's my god. He looked down at my passport, and my visa from the previous border we entered in. "14 days, can't you count?" what? That's never mattered before...I was confused. Betty (our teacher) was behind me and I called her up to try and speak with him. Both of us saying that it was only over by 3 days. I ...

Hello all from Maputo!<br><br>We arrived here in style on Thursday evening after getting a lift in an air conditioned 4x4 with Rob and Nicky, a great couple we´d met snorkeling in Vilanculos. That morning we all went quad biking around the Barra Peninsula then piled into the car for a very long (8 hour) drive down to the capital. <br><br>The weather is crazy here ~ roasting hot in the day then thunder / lightening and torrential downpour of an evening. Delightful! <br>

... there a real vibe to this place. I did not see a single white person there and once in a while people approached me to say hello, just because of the colour of my skin which I thought was really funny. You also need to be ready for all the different types of smells, it is sometimes overwhelming I must say. The meat and fish section is quite peculiar as there is no refrigerated compartment and everything is just stacked on the stalls and there are obviously quite a few flies around. I ...

... way to pick up on of their local friend and then they drop me off at a junction so I could catch one of the Chapas driving by. A chapa is a very cheap way to get around, it is basically like a bus, expect that it is a minivan and you have one every 30 seconds. We so should have that in Europe to get to work, it would reduce traffic considerably.<br><br>I got had to wait a couple of minutes, under a light rain, because most of them were full and I had 3 different bags. The ...

... a degree of waiting around until they are full to the brim. The other problem was that we wanted to go to Graskop on a public holiday. Turns out the locals prefer not to travel much that day but instead to stay put (preferably propping up a bar), so we found ourselves waiting for 3 HOURS at Nelspruit taxi bus station waiting for enough people to make up their mind to travel with us to Sabie, half way to Graskop. Although it was only the two ...

... yes I know a Sheppard is for sheep what do you call a cattle herder!!) After some time of repeating the name of the capital Mapito with various different inflections (trying to make it sound Portuguese) the chaps pointed straight ahead.. so off we went.. after 500mts on a crest of a sand hill the dam road split again.. so I elected to break with tradition and torn onto the right hand track and finally we popped out onto supposedly the correct ...

... transport you within town for about 20 cents. Buses are bigger but in no way really resemble grey hound style transportation. They range I size from the type that transports you from the airport to a hotel and go up to the full size touring bus....just remember this one was probably manufactured about 40 years ago...sans any refurbishments in that time period. These buses travel along the length of the country on the one main road, EN1, and cost ~$12 ...

... in which each province of the country was represented in food, dance, music, theatre and art. A crash course in Mozambican culture right at my finger tips! Chicambane consists of a series of rust colored dirt roads (that red brown...dare I say burnt sienna...color of the Africa that pops into your head when you close your eyes) with palm, coconut, orange, mango and grapefruit trees shading mud and reed ...

... and you can't get into it but twice a day. So anyway, after breakfast, we just went immediately down to the beach and basically lounged all day on the Indian Ocean. It was really great. Swimming in the Indian Ocean and then going back to lay in the sun on the white sand or under the shade in the hammock. We played cribbage or Crazy 8's at our leisure and didn't do hardly anything. We decided against going to the snorkeling because it was ...

... heading into a building behind a huge, rusty metal door. I decided to watch the bags as Ang went to get the tickets. People stared at me, talked to me in Portuguese, and tried to get me to buy all kinds of different things. It wasn't too bad, it was just a little nerve wracking. Especially when Ang came back and said there were no tickets to Vilankulos (which was the beach we wanted to go to). I almost had a nervous breakdown because if we didn't get out of this city, I have ...