Shark Week

I’m beginning this blog entry from a deck overlooking the beautiful and magnificent Tofo Beach, after a long long journey from Northern Mozambique. It won’t do anybody any good to describe the harrowing journey, but let me just say that if I have to catch another 4 am bus I might shoot myself.

The one shining gem in our north-south odyssey was a side trip to Ilha de Mozambique. The small island houses an enormous amount of history and culture, as it used to be a huge stopover for the Portuguese and Arab traders. I toured the Palacio de Sao Paulo, the digs for the former Portuguese govenor. He spared no expense in decorating his expensive home, complete with tiny elephants carved into the furniture sporting tusks made out of-what else-elephant tusks. What a worthwhile endeavor-poach elephants for their tusks only to fashion them to carved ones.

Another cool site was the Fortaleza de Sao Paulo. a massive 16th century fort complete with cannons in the ramparts. Many Africans were held here before being sold into slavery.

However even just wandering through the white-sand streets lined by old stone buildings was an experience in itself. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to explore everything the island had to offer as some sort of sickness invaded my body and forced me into bed for 2.5 days. Being in a somewhat remote place without hope of even a microscope I have no idea what it was but I took the medication for schisto (a sickness people get from swimming in some African lakes) and slowly recovered. I guess there are worse places to recover than on a woven cot under a thatched roof on a deck overlooking the Indian Ocean.

But now we are camped at Tofo Beach, at a cute little place called Fatima’s Nest and all is right with the world. If I floated outside of my body and looked down on Ryan and I at the beach. I’d have to do a double-take to make sure we aren’t actually five years old. Tiring quickly of our books we toss them into the sand to dig holes, make sand sculptures or splash around in the waves. The look on Ryan’s face as he is trying to ride the crest of the wave is one of unadulterated excitement. That is, until the angry foam washes over his head.

Our last day was spent on a “ocean safari,” which consists of motoring around in a big boat and jumping into the water at the first sign of a big fish. By big fish I mean the biggest fish in the world-
the whale shark. The one I was snorkeling a foot away from was 6 meters long. It’s a beautiful creature with luminescent white spots and dorsal fins that stick out of the water and make you want to hum the opening bars of Jaws. Luckily these plankton eaters are perfectly harmless. In an attempt to duck dive I accidentally banged my wrist on a fin and he didn’t bat an eyelash, or he wouldn’t have, if he had one. Of course in my mind’s eye I saw him turn on me with the wrath of God and swallow me like Jonah. Needless to say being around huge sharks makes me a little jumpy.

But nothing went wrong and actually the stars were aligned in our favor, as we saw every animal there is to see on our $50 safari, making the price per animal sighting drop dramatically. Our guides said it was the best trip in months. We saw gliding manta rays, dolphins mating, and three humpback whales slicing through the waves. And of course plenty of whale sharks.

One downside to the trip was that the density of jelly fish must have been about one per cubic centimeter, and I’m not kidding. They stung my face, arms and legs. At one point when Ryan propelled himself a mile away I put my face in the water to catch up and saw three jelly fish right in front of my face.
“&@$&@,” I thought and tried to swim around them to catch up to Ryan who was probably kissing up to a whale shark at that very moment.

In other news, a cut I acquired on the top of my foot a couple weeks ago has developed into something that looks like a sea anenome and has become infected. My fat foot won’t fit into my running shoes, which is bad news for me and worse news for anyone who has to endure my injury-induced running hiatus, so Ryan is also hoping for a speedy recovery. He does however take any opportunity to make fun of my newly- obese foot. Hopefully it will return to it’s normal svelte state soon.

In this condition we are about to finish up the Africa leg of our journey and head to Thailand. I will update more if I can tear myself away from the $0.50 bowls of pad Thai. No promises.

Miss you all and see you soon!