adventure in mozambique

mozambique is a very pretty place filled with fish, oranges, palm trees,
cripples (from land mines), and danger. upon arrival in the capital
city, maputo, we decided to take a walk from town down to the indian
ocean. we were later told, to our horror, that in fact we had just
walked along maputo's most dangerous street, where rape and murder are
a favorite pasttime. the walk was lovely, and our evening at the plush
apartment of a swiss development official and her argentinian chef
husband was most enjoyable.
We left the next morning headed for the beach. The drive was filled with potholes.
then daniel got us stuck on a sand dune. the beach, however, exceeded
all expectations. the next few days we occupied our time with diving,
sailing, horseback riding on the shore, visiting the small town of
inhambame, and enjoying sundowners on our bungalow's veranda. before
we knew it, it was time to leave. clare's land rover did not agree
with this plan.
filling the tank on our way out of town, we attracted the attention of several
south african tourists wildily gesticulating at our petrol tank. fuel
was gushing out. we called the lodge and a mechanic was dispatched to
our rescue. we were told it would take 10 minutes to fix. four hours,
a dozen local would-be mechanics, one cup of yogurt, two ipod playlists,
and one leather glove later, a new o-ring sealing the fuel line to the
tank had been jerry-rigged.
we set off late for maputo with some trepidation having been informed
by our swiss friend that "it is not advised to drive into maputo after
dark." (read: you will get hijacked and die.) meanwhile, it seemed
that clare had contracted malaria. we made it into town, and after a
long night by the toilet, we decided that rather than suffering from
malaria, clare had unwittingly consumed an offensive cider. it
probably expired in the 1980's.
despite run-ins with testy roadblock police, disease, sunburn, harrowing
automotive travel, even jellyfish!--despite it all, mozambique was
a gem.