The scale they used to weigh our luggage in Mozambique.
The dunes we boarded down.
Paradise Island--where we snorkeled.
The Bonita that Jensen and Bill caught. How happy does she look??!!
Dustin and Jensen getting ready to snorkel.
Jensen and Dustin playing in the Indian Ocean.
The King Mackerel that Dustin and Bill caught. Now that's happy!
Dustin standing in the pool, though it looks as if he is standing in the ocean.
Bill and Dustin getting ready to go down the dunes.Hello everyone,
We are back from our vacation to Mozambique. We had a great time! Read on to hear about our adventures!
We are back from our vacation to Mozambique. We had a great time! Read on to hear about our adventures!
Monday, March 30, we took a small charter flight (held 21 people) from Lubumbashi to Zambia, where we had a scheduled stop for fuel. We were there for about 30 minutes, during which time, we were able to get off the plane and go into the Zambian airport to use the bathrooms (the plane did not have one). It is so different at these airports than what we are used to in the States—absolutely no security at all. Before we boarded, our bags were not checked and neither were we. And when we got to the Zambian airport, we just walked right in, and then walked out again—no passport checks or anything. About 3 hours later, we landed in South Africa. What was funny was that they put our bags through x-ray machines after we landed, but not before boarding!
We stayed in South Africa for a couple of days to do some shopping for the basic things we can’t find in Lubumbashi (I know—this is a reoccurring theme). We don’t realize how much we miss shopping until we get to a big mall, and then we want to buy everything because we know once we get back to the Congo, we won’t be able to get anything. In addition to shopping, Bill and Dustin got haircuts (neither had had one since December), and we went to the American Embassy to get pages added to our passports, as we did not have many empty pages left!
Wednesday, April 1, we took off on a small plane bound for Mozambique. This one held 19 passengers, though there were only 13 people onboard. There were no flight attendants and no bathrooms on the plane.
We landed in Mozambique, at a tiny, one-room airport, where we were met by a representative from our hotel. We went through passport control and got our visas. They weighed our luggage on this old fashioned scale—I took a picture of it because it just cracked me up. We then proceeded to get onto an even smaller plane than the previous one! This one only held 12 passengers, but we were the only ones on it, in addition to the pilot and the hotel representative. The flight took 15 minutes, and was absolutely gorgeous over the turquoise blue, crystal clear Indian Ocean. We flew out to the Bazaruto Archipelago, which is comprised of 5 different islands. We stayed on Bazaruto Island, the largest of the five, for the week.
Once we checked in, we spent the afternoon in the pool and down at the beach. Bill and the kids built sand castles while I “supervised” from a nearby hammock.
Thursday, April 2, we took a boat out to an island called Paradise Island. The first boat we started off in had engine trouble, so we turned back and got another boat. Once we reached Paradise Island, we spent the day playing on the beach and snorkeling. Jensen and I were really scared, and Jensen never ended up going. I did though, and once I got over my initial fright, I really enjoyed it. We saw tons of cool fish, lots of coral, sea cucumbers, sponges, jellyfish, and even a squid! The water was so clear, it seemed like we were in a swimming pool. I felt like I was watching the Discovery Channel! We were hoping to see some sea turtles, but I think you need to scuba dive for that.
While playing on the beach, Jensen was digging in the sand and got scared out of her mind when a huge crab crawled out of the hole she was digging in. Jensen ran down the beach screaming her head off.
On the boat ride back to our island, we had a crazy ride. The driver of the boat was going super fast and slamming us into all the waves. Each time he hit a wave it felt like someone was punching me in the stomach. It wasn’t a great experience on the way back. Everyone was tired, headachy, crabby, and sunburned. But all in all, it was a fun day.
Friday, April 3, we took a boat out at 5:30 AM for deep sea fishing. Bill was hoping to catch a Marlin or a Sailfish. The first fish he caught was called a Bonita. We thought it was pretty big (about 11 pounds), but they said it was so small that they weren’t going to bother throwing it back—they would just use it for bait. When they cut it open, they found a smaller fish in its belly, and another in its mouth, so we got 3 for the price of one! The next fish we caught was a King Mackerel. This one Bill and Dustin reeled in together. It only weighed about 9 pounds. The last one they caught was another Bonita, and this one was even smaller than the first—only weighed about 4 pounds. Jensen and Bill reeled this one in together, and Jensen was not too thrilled about it. This was definitely not Jensen’s thing. In addition to not really liking the fish, she also got seasick. She felt sick for most of the trip, and then finally lost it shortly after catching her fish. At that time, we decided to head back to our island, despite not having caught a Sailfish or Marlin. Bill was disappointed that he was not able to catch one of the big fish, but felt that it was best to head back, given Jensen’s state. We saw a bunch of dolphins while we were out, and that was really exciting, so at least the day was not a total loss.
Once we returned, we had lunch, and then Jensen and I had pedicures at the spa. Then the kids went swimming. There are two pools, and both are really cool. Neither has a defined edge, so it looks as if the pool runs right into the ocean. In reality though, there is about 50 feet of beach between the pool and the ocean. I have a picture of Dustin standing at the edge of the pool, and it looks like he is standing in the ocean. It’s an interesting illusion. One of the pools has a bunch of caves to swim through, and there were even some stalactites growing in the caves! We ended the day looking for crabs on the beach. We didn’t find any though.
Saturday, April 4, we slept in and then hung out at the pool and on the beach for most of the day. We needed to recover from our early morning yesterday. In the early evening, we went for a sunset drive and then went dune boarding. They have these incredible sand dunes here! It was really cool. We had to hike up the dunes, and then we had these boards (sort of looked like a snow board) that we came down on. We just sat on the boards and went down, but if you were daring, you could try to stand up on the board and go down. None of us did that though. We put wax on the boards to make them go faster. It was scary, but fun. The wind was blowing really hard, and it was hard getting up the hill, but worth it for the ride down! Unfortunately, our camera dropped in the sand, and now it doesn’t work anymore. I was still able to download the pictures I had already taken onto my computer, so we didn’t lose any pictures. Now we need a new camera! We’re going to try to take it apart and get the sand out, so we’ll see if that works.
We stayed in South Africa for a couple of days to do some shopping for the basic things we can’t find in Lubumbashi (I know—this is a reoccurring theme). We don’t realize how much we miss shopping until we get to a big mall, and then we want to buy everything because we know once we get back to the Congo, we won’t be able to get anything. In addition to shopping, Bill and Dustin got haircuts (neither had had one since December), and we went to the American Embassy to get pages added to our passports, as we did not have many empty pages left!
Wednesday, April 1, we took off on a small plane bound for Mozambique. This one held 19 passengers, though there were only 13 people onboard. There were no flight attendants and no bathrooms on the plane.
We landed in Mozambique, at a tiny, one-room airport, where we were met by a representative from our hotel. We went through passport control and got our visas. They weighed our luggage on this old fashioned scale—I took a picture of it because it just cracked me up. We then proceeded to get onto an even smaller plane than the previous one! This one only held 12 passengers, but we were the only ones on it, in addition to the pilot and the hotel representative. The flight took 15 minutes, and was absolutely gorgeous over the turquoise blue, crystal clear Indian Ocean. We flew out to the Bazaruto Archipelago, which is comprised of 5 different islands. We stayed on Bazaruto Island, the largest of the five, for the week.
Once we checked in, we spent the afternoon in the pool and down at the beach. Bill and the kids built sand castles while I “supervised” from a nearby hammock.
Thursday, April 2, we took a boat out to an island called Paradise Island. The first boat we started off in had engine trouble, so we turned back and got another boat. Once we reached Paradise Island, we spent the day playing on the beach and snorkeling. Jensen and I were really scared, and Jensen never ended up going. I did though, and once I got over my initial fright, I really enjoyed it. We saw tons of cool fish, lots of coral, sea cucumbers, sponges, jellyfish, and even a squid! The water was so clear, it seemed like we were in a swimming pool. I felt like I was watching the Discovery Channel! We were hoping to see some sea turtles, but I think you need to scuba dive for that.
While playing on the beach, Jensen was digging in the sand and got scared out of her mind when a huge crab crawled out of the hole she was digging in. Jensen ran down the beach screaming her head off.
On the boat ride back to our island, we had a crazy ride. The driver of the boat was going super fast and slamming us into all the waves. Each time he hit a wave it felt like someone was punching me in the stomach. It wasn’t a great experience on the way back. Everyone was tired, headachy, crabby, and sunburned. But all in all, it was a fun day.
Friday, April 3, we took a boat out at 5:30 AM for deep sea fishing. Bill was hoping to catch a Marlin or a Sailfish. The first fish he caught was called a Bonita. We thought it was pretty big (about 11 pounds), but they said it was so small that they weren’t going to bother throwing it back—they would just use it for bait. When they cut it open, they found a smaller fish in its belly, and another in its mouth, so we got 3 for the price of one! The next fish we caught was a King Mackerel. This one Bill and Dustin reeled in together. It only weighed about 9 pounds. The last one they caught was another Bonita, and this one was even smaller than the first—only weighed about 4 pounds. Jensen and Bill reeled this one in together, and Jensen was not too thrilled about it. This was definitely not Jensen’s thing. In addition to not really liking the fish, she also got seasick. She felt sick for most of the trip, and then finally lost it shortly after catching her fish. At that time, we decided to head back to our island, despite not having caught a Sailfish or Marlin. Bill was disappointed that he was not able to catch one of the big fish, but felt that it was best to head back, given Jensen’s state. We saw a bunch of dolphins while we were out, and that was really exciting, so at least the day was not a total loss.
Once we returned, we had lunch, and then Jensen and I had pedicures at the spa. Then the kids went swimming. There are two pools, and both are really cool. Neither has a defined edge, so it looks as if the pool runs right into the ocean. In reality though, there is about 50 feet of beach between the pool and the ocean. I have a picture of Dustin standing at the edge of the pool, and it looks like he is standing in the ocean. It’s an interesting illusion. One of the pools has a bunch of caves to swim through, and there were even some stalactites growing in the caves! We ended the day looking for crabs on the beach. We didn’t find any though.
Saturday, April 4, we slept in and then hung out at the pool and on the beach for most of the day. We needed to recover from our early morning yesterday. In the early evening, we went for a sunset drive and then went dune boarding. They have these incredible sand dunes here! It was really cool. We had to hike up the dunes, and then we had these boards (sort of looked like a snow board) that we came down on. We just sat on the boards and went down, but if you were daring, you could try to stand up on the board and go down. None of us did that though. We put wax on the boards to make them go faster. It was scary, but fun. The wind was blowing really hard, and it was hard getting up the hill, but worth it for the ride down! Unfortunately, our camera dropped in the sand, and now it doesn’t work anymore. I was still able to download the pictures I had already taken onto my computer, so we didn’t lose any pictures. Now we need a new camera! We’re going to try to take it apart and get the sand out, so we’ll see if that works.
Sunday, April 5, we again took it easy during the day, and then in the evening went for a sunset horseback ride along the beach. This was an incredible ride for all of us. The sunset was absolutely gorgeous. It was so cool to ride the horses right along the water’s edge. Bazaruto Island is an absolute paradise. You just can’t believe that there is somewhere in the world this beautiful. We were all able to trot and gallop on the horses, something the kids had never done before.
Monday, April, 6, Dustin and Bill went snorkeling again. They went out to an island called Pansy Island where they found tons of cool shells and coral on the beach. Then they snorkeled off the boat in an area called Two Mile Reef. Supposedly you can often see manta rays and sea turtles in this area, but they didn’t see any. They did see lots of cool fish though, in addition to starfish, sponges, coral, and even a giant clam. Bill said this snorkeling area was much better than the others we had already been to (and I thought those were good)! He had wanted to scuba dive in this area, but because his diving certification had expired, it would have taken him too long to get recertified, so he didn’t do it.
Because of Jensen’s susceptibility to seasickness, she and I stayed behind at the hotel. We had a nice morning together, walking along the beach, searching for crabs and seashells. We saw lots of crabs, and enjoyed watching them scurrying away into their sandy holes. We didn’t see any real big ones—the biggest was about the size of my fist. However, we did see a little, tiny one. This one was a hermit crab, and he was no bigger than my pinky fingernail, including his shell! His shell appeared to be too big for him, but he still managed to dig himself into a little hole. He was very cute.
Tuesday, April 7, we took a banana boat ride. It was a lot of fun, until it started raining on us! Later, Bill got a massage at the spa while the kids and I swam at both pools. After dinner, we packed up and reluctantly prepared ourselves for the next day’s departure.
Wednesday, April 8, we took a tiny (6 seater) plane off the island, and back to the mainland (Vilanculos). It was just us and the pilot on this plane. Again, it was an absolutely beautiful flight, though only 15 minutes long. Once on the mainland, we had a “guide” drive us around the city of Vilanculos, just to get a feel for the local culture, and to look for local art. Bill and I both felt like Vilanculos reminded us of a cross between Jamaica and Rocky Point. With the ocean, it definitely had a different feel from the Congo. It also appeared to be a bit more modern than Congo—not much, but a little. We hung out at the Vilanculos airport for a couple of hours, and then boarded our plane headed for Johannesburg, South Africa.
Thursday, April 9, we had an early morning flight (6:00 AM) back to Congo. We had to get picked up at our hotel at 4:30 AM, so it was quite the early morning for us. We made it back to Congo without any problems, and all our luggage made it too (always a challenge). The only problem we had upon returning home was that we had no power to our laundry room or to our water pump, so we couldn’t do laundry or take showers. However, by the end of the day, we had it fixed, and now all is good.
Our trip was an excellent blend of activity and relaxation, and seemed to be the perfect amount of time away. Our next trip will be a visit home to the United States! Hope everyone is well. Can't wait to see you all when we return home!
Cheers!
Laurie
P.S. I have more pictures, but they were taken using an underwater, disposable camera. I have to get them developed, but I can't do it here. I have to send them with someone going back to South Africa, and see if they'll get them developed for us. So hopefully I'll have some more pictures to post soon.
1 comment:
Wow, what a vacation!! I can tell the ocean is a lovely color. We are so glad you had a great time. Happy Easter. Take care.
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