Ragnar's World: El cheapo chapa for Tofo

In my dreams I suddenly heard a buzzing sound. I tried to locate it. But didn't get it. It wasn't part of my dream. Suddenly, my brain kicked in the awaken mode, and I realized it was my cell phone telling me it was time to get up. I blinked a few hundred times before My eyes got enough wet to stay open. I got up. Thought about a shower for a second before dropping the idea. Didn't smell too bad anyways. I packed my bag and left the room. The night guard greeted me as I entered the livingroom. I sat down on the sofa and waited for the chapa to arrive. Almost one hour later, a taxi arrived. I had fallen asleep on the couch. I got up and drowsily walked outside. I looked at the taxi. "This?" I asked the nightwatch. He nodded. "Yes! Tofo!". Ok. Whatever. I got in the back seat. I tried to do the math on how this trip would be economical. Four seats at 500 meticais each equals bankcrupcy. So I was wondering if I was paying 700 dollars and not metacais. But before I managed to think everything through, the taxi stopped behind a minibus. "The bus, boos!" That made more sense.
I got out and got on the bus. A bunch of white folks was already on. I said "Good morning!" and got a drowsy grunt in reply. I put my backpack on the stack in front of the bus, and sat down in the seat by the door. It normally has the space to allow me to stretch my feet. Then we ere off. I looked around and notices how much space we had on the bus. First stop was the bus station. To get more people on the bus. And now it felt more like the normal cheap buses. More people got on. With half their belongings with them. At least that's what it looked like. So soon the bus as jampacked with people and goods. We were ready to move. But not before the driver had stuffed our backpacks behind the back seat. And I mean STUFFED. The whole bus rocked as he tried to squeeze as many bags as possible in. I started worrying about my pc and camera, but decided that if they were broken, removing my bag now wouldn't help anyway. So I let it be. Hakuna matata.
And thus our el cheapo chapa thundered across the N1 north to our destination. Only stopping to drop somebody off and picking up others, or at one of the 637 police checkpoints. We also stopped twice for a reststop and stretching out our squeeky joints. Ultimately, after almost 8 hours on the road, the bus came to a stop that looked to me as the end of the road. Literally. It turned and I thought it had taken a wrong turn. Until I saw the smiling face of a guy by the road. "Welcome!". The driver had taken us straight to one of the backpacker lodges in Tofo. I decided to call around to the other places I had on the list. They were unfirtunately far away, and had the same prices. SO I decided to stay. The place was right at the sea. And the view was postcard-like, so I could not complain. And the beach was clean. I got myself a small hut to myself. It was nice. The floor was covered in fine sand. Most likely from the beach. Hard not to drag it in with you when you enter. I liked it.
I was still a bit tired, so I just dropped my bag on the floor and my body on the bed and fell asleep. Woke up again around 4 and headed for the restaurant to have something to drink and write this blog. I had just started when a Dutch girl, Anna, sat down beside me. We started talking, and ended up talking the whole evening. So thus no blog entry yesterday...

Today, I woke up late. Me legs had been a feast for the mosquitos during the night. Despite net and tons of bug repellent. I guess my blood is too tasty... I had a shower and washed my clothes before heading for the reastaurant for som breakfast. A lovely omelet with chorizos. Afterwards I sat down with Anna and chatted with her for a while. She was going diving, so I decided to walk to the bank to change some money. It was a good walk. 1.5 hours each way. The bank was in the same building as a shop and a petrol station. Nothing else around it. Two people behind the counter. One where I filled in a form for the exchange, and the next where I got the money. I had to smile when the guy behind the first counter told me "Go to next counter to exchange!". That is : Move 2 feet to the right. After changing money, I went to the store next door and bought some snacks for the walk back. On the way back, I realized where the market Anna told me about was. So I went there to check it out. It was a very typical "special price for you, sir!"-market. Marked with big friendly letters "Shopping centre". Mozambiquan style. :-) They sold t-shirts, alkohol, fruits, and bom-bom-baby. None of which was in my field of interest at the moment.
I got back to my hut, and changed to swimming shorts. I wanted to try the water. The temperature was ok. About 24 degrees. The waves, though, took me a bit by surprice. They were sometimes HUGE. And tumbled me around. And tore my bathing shorts almost clean off. So I had to pull them up again constantly. Luckily, the beach is mostly deserted. Don't like to moon. After swallowing about a gallon of seawater and having mooned about a ten times, I decided to get out. Went back to my hut and had a shower before sitting down in my deck-chair, listeing to music from the bar, combined with the rushing of the waves on the beach below. A gentle breeze soothing me. Sometimes, life is good. And sometimes, it is worth cramping on a bus for 8 hours to get there...