Holá bon dia! Sorry everybody for the messy post but the internet is giving up, it has taken already 1.5 hours to get the below and above online so the formatting will not happen this time.
A week later and we have arrived in Vilankulos and the Bazaruto Archipelago with its white beaches, turquoise waters and palm trees. We are still healthy and have had no big tragedies. Luisa’s glasses broke but are glued back together with super glue and Cruisi had a minor mechanical issue which caused a rather major heart attack. This was resolved with help of a very competent mechanic who fixed the seal of the carburettor which was the cause of the engine not starting, it costed us about 200 Rand (20 euro) while in a regular garage this might have resulted in changing the whole carburettor.
The south of Mozambique is the most densely populated area of the country. Along the way one drives through millions and millions of coconut palms, they reach as far as the eye can see.
Only slowly they seem to subside and give way to the robust Baobab. In-between the palms wherever one looks there are huts nicely built with three or four of them forming a tidy little compound. Each compound is connected via little paths amongst the palms to each other. The only sign of a different civilisation evident are the many deserted cement blocks which seem to have served as little cabins or shops at some earlier stage. 
Now, they are slowly eaten up by nature and the forest and fall apart. Interestingly the people here set up their barrackas (little stalls) made out of straw, wood and coconut leaves next to those rotting cement blocks, it is easy to think why they would not use the more robust cement construction as their living or working space but that would be ‘our’ way of thinking. They do not seem to relate to those constructions apart from the fact that they do not have the tools and materials to maintain them and so, do as they have been doing since centuries by using what the forest is offering and leaving the westernised huts to rot and decompose.
Police blocks are very frequent, sometimes one each 10 kms. We got a fine for over-speeding, 65 instead of 60, the officers had a highly elaborated speed-measuring and picture-taking tool, which was proving the situation.
The police blocks after that also tried to get their daily income from us by insisting that we had over-speeded, touched (!) the white line or some other excuse. By asking for a picture as a proof, being quite vigorous about not having done anything wrong and throwing all Portuguese words we know into the conversation we did not have to pay another fine/bribe.
Mozambique’s working population seems to be consisting mainly of children and women. There are so many children everywhere. One will see children as little as 10 years old carrying even smaller ones on their backs on the way to who knows where. Mozambique has about 500 000 orphans as a consequence of HIV/AIDS, whether this is a reason for so seeing so many of them we are not fully sure. Women work extremely hard and carry loads on their heads which we would not be able to carry with our hands and they do so with the most unimaginable ease.
The diet here is amazing and consists of fish and rice what a pleasant change from the meat-lovers in South Africa, we eat as the locals and visit the beach in the afternoon to buy fish from the boats coming in.
On the way here we had a stop in the famous Tofo and the local yoga and surf camp. This was a bit of a disappointment as nobody was doing Yoga (which was actually good as Luisa had the big temple all for herself), Fred had a surf but coming from Cape Town it was nice but not too impressive, at least he managed to surf without a wetsuit!
Tofo by itself is overpriced and overloaded with tourists especially South Africans. To our disappointment South African tourists here are a bit like the English in Greece or the Germans on Mallorca, loud, drunk and a bit arrogant. In contrast, Vilankulos is much quieter and prettier. We visited the Archipelago with a dhow, the local fishing boat and spend the day on an island consisting only of white sand and palm trees, snorkelling in the water with all sorts of colourful fish. The water is still a bit chilly but maybe it does not get as warm as in Greece 
anywhere...
We will let the pictures speak for themselves about Vilankulos and its surrounding.
Tomorrow we are heading further North and hope to reach Ihla de Mozambique within the next two to three days.
The south of Mozambique is the most densely populated area of the country. Along the way one drives through millions and millions of coconut palms, they reach as far as the eye can see.
Only slowly they seem to subside and give way to the robust Baobab. In-between the palms wherever one looks there are huts nicely built with three or four of them forming a tidy little compound. Each compound is connected via little paths amongst the palms to each other. The only sign of a different civilisation evident are the many deserted cement blocks which seem to have served as little cabins or shops at some earlier stage. 
Now, they are slowly eaten up by nature and the forest and fall apart. Interestingly the people here set up their barrackas (little stalls) made out of straw, wood and coconut leaves next to those rotting cement blocks, it is easy to think why they would not use the more robust cement construction as their living or working space but that would be ‘our’ way of thinking. They do not seem to relate to those constructions apart from the fact that they do not have the tools and materials to maintain them and so, do as they have been doing since centuries by using what the forest is offering and leaving the westernised huts to rot and decompose.
Police blocks are very frequent, sometimes one each 10 kms. We got a fine for over-speeding, 65 instead of 60, the officers had a highly elaborated speed-measuring and picture-taking tool, which was proving the situation.
The police blocks after that also tried to get their daily income from us by insisting that we had over-speeded, touched (!) the white line or some other excuse. By asking for a picture as a proof, being quite vigorous about not having done anything wrong and throwing all Portuguese words we know into the conversation we did not have to pay another fine/bribe.
Mozambique’s working population seems to be consisting mainly of children and women. There are so many children everywhere. One will see children as little as 10 years old carrying even smaller ones on their backs on the way to who knows where. Mozambique has about 500 000 orphans as a consequence of HIV/AIDS, whether this is a reason for so seeing so many of them we are not fully sure. Women work extremely hard and carry loads on their heads which we would not be able to carry with our hands and they do so with the most unimaginable ease.
The diet here is amazing and consists of fish and rice what a pleasant change from the meat-lovers in South Africa, we eat as the locals and visit the beach in the afternoon to buy fish from the boats coming in.
On the way here we had a stop in the famous Tofo and the local yoga and surf camp. This was a bit of a disappointment as nobody was doing Yoga (which was actually good as Luisa had the big temple all for herself), Fred had a surf but coming from Cape Town it was nice but not too impressive, at least he managed to surf without a wetsuit!
Tofo by itself is overpriced and overloaded with tourists especially South Africans. To our disappointment South African tourists here are a bit like the English in Greece or the Germans on Mallorca, loud, drunk and a bit arrogant. In contrast, Vilankulos is much quieter and prettier. We visited the Archipelago with a dhow, the local fishing boat and spend the day on an island consisting only of white sand and palm trees, snorkelling in the water with all sorts of colourful fish. The water is still a bit chilly but maybe it does not get as warm as in Greece 
anywhere...
We will let the pictures speak for themselves about Vilankulos and its surrounding.
Tomorrow we are heading further North and hope to reach Ihla de Mozambique within the next two to three days.
Beautiful beaches and those crabs look delicious. You two fit right in as we can see ;) I got a missed call from a Tanzanian number this morning at 5 am - I hope it wasn't you... xxjo + tosh
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