20091213 – Return to Maputo

Okay, it’s been almost 5 days since I last had a real opportunity to blog, so this may lack the detail that previous posts have had. On the 13^th, Jeremy and I woke up at around 3:30 am in order to catch a 4 am “bus” to Maputo. We were the second stop on the route that began at Fatima’s Nest, a hostel located closer to the beach. By the time we boarded the bus, it was full. I suspect that my hopes had been high that we would have a more comfortable ride this time, but I began to doubt those wishes. Happily, they were not entirely dashed, but only doused. I had a seat to myself, even though it was a wheel-well seat. I wouldn’t have a wonderful amount of leg room, but I would have some.

Things were going pretty swell, until about 40 minutes into the ride, when the brakes gave out on the bus. As a passenger, I didn’t really know that anything was wrong, but the bus stopped, and everyone got out. A new mini-bus arrived. This one was smaller than the last, and passengers quickly found themselves sharing seats with other people. For example, my row had 4 seats in it, but 5 people! I was seated next to 2 children, and I will admit that I used my age and size to slightly push them over to get more of the seat to myself. This was going to be, at best, an 8 hour ride, and I was not going to ride 2 seats the entire time. And don’t forget, these are not nice and comfortable mini-van seats that we are all used to at home. These seats are uncomfortable seats with zero padding to protect your bum from the metal bars that run between and through them.

If the seating wasn’t enough, it proved to be quite a spectacular journey with a bus that almost didn’t make it up a number of steep hills. There was one hill in particular where we were almost to the point of having to get out and push the stupid thing up the hill. Anyhow, 10 hours later, we arrived at Fatima’s in Maputo. We unpacked, claimed our beds, and took a walk through town with the hopes of eating at Sagres for dinner. Sagres, happily, does not disappoint. We ordered mussels and garlic bread for starters. I ordered the fresh line fish for dinner and Jeremy ordered crab and a side plate of chips. Jeremy’s meal turned out to be of fantastic proportions, and as he feasted, I ultimately ordered Biscotti Cake and Ice Cream for desert.

After dinner, we hailed a cab and went back to the hostel for the night.