Mozambique - Day Two

Get me the heck out of Chimoio!! YUCK! Mozambique is so much more poor than Zambia and it shows. Classic Africa - coconut groves, roadside stands selling used clothing (your salvation army donations end up here in Africa, effectively putting an end to the local fabric and clothing industry and resulting in some hilarious images of kids in University of Illinois T-shirts etc), thatch houses, kids in crappy clothes.

Mozambique is a little more colorful than some other places though! We drove through miles of coconut groves, mango trees and cashew farms - yum! 2kg bags of roasted cashews for $2! ok, there might be a few bugs and fingerprints but as long as there's no condom wrappers we're ok!!

No pre-election violence visable in the streets - its Monday and its pretty much business as usual. We drove as far as the oceanfront today and  had a lovely lunch at Casa Luna in a tiny town called Inharoso. Kinda wish we had stayed there the night - but it was pretty high end accomodations and not nearly far enough along our route to stay there.  We ended up staying in a place called Vilankulo - a fishing village and backpackers stop. According to the staff of the Zombie Cucumber, its a good place to go diving - but we're on a schedule and no time to stay for diving! 

The Zombie Cucumber was much cleaner than the Pink Papaya - little chalets with shared "ablutions house" as they call the shower and toilet here. Monkeys in the parking lot, ocean sounds nearby. 

Watching the village fish was cool - they cast a net offshore and it takes a team of guys to hold the net for several hours while it fills with fish (although it isn't wide enough to hang all the way to the ocean floor, so alot of fish get away!)

When they decide that its time to pull the net in, it takes quite a few helpers and then all the fish mongers crowd around and negotiate loudly about price and take. They brought in a large variety of fish - from things that were flat and flounder-like to large pink and yellow parrot-type fish - a couple of small barracuda, and lots of crabs. 

 
Sad to say - there was quite a bit of litter on this beach (as is typical in Africa) but at least there were no "love fish" (used condoms) or "brown trout" (poops) on this one! The beaches of Ghana were absolutely foul with these items! The sign below is only useful if you can read!! Still - it wasn't the worst we've ever seen. Its a good reminder to use as few packaged items as possible, as discarded plastic bottles end up floating in the ocean as garbage slicks that wash up all over the world.