We had taken a night-bus from Joburg to Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. We arrived in the morning so we would have time to see the city even though we were only using it as a transport hub.
The city as a whole was rather rundown and poorly kept; garbage covering every available space. Despite this, there still was a certain charm to this Portuguese-speaking country's capital-city.
We eventually ventured to the outskirts of the city and enjoyed some one-dollar frango (chicken) and strolled the shallow waters on the shores of the Indian Ocean as school children shouted bye-bye at us and the dhows returned from their daily fishing routes.
We went to bed early because we had to catch a 5:00am shuttle to Tofo. Upon our arrival at the bus terminal, we immediately understood the reality of Mozambican travel: Take an Asian-made bus, made to fit 4 slender Asians per row, fitting between 16 and 20 people depending on the number of rows. Now take those buses, cram them with 30 or 40 grown adults and then add a few dozen children on their laps.
This concept can be applied to a bus of any size. A chapas, or hell-on-wheels as I would like to believe the translation to be, is the most common and terrible form. Of course I would always be the recipient of the bus' worst seat, to a point where we would just say " you just got Jamesed" if you looked really uncomfortable.
We arrived in Tofo after 10 hours on the road, even though the distance is only around 500km. The roads here make Quebec roads seem like those of Ontario!
Tofo is a beach resort town that usually caters to white South-Africans during their holidays. The principal activities here are surfing, scuba-diving, sun worship and partying. The perfect place to relax and let our guard down.
We had accepted a lift down the road on our way to Fatimas (the most popular hostel in the area). In the SUV, we met a Mozambican named Adolf (never a good start) who invited us to sleep in an available room where he was crashing. We checked out the room and were drawn in by the fact that it was less than half the price as the hostel we had stayed at the night before.
The "owners" of the house were Shayne and Sue, a white South-African couple who had been living in Tofo for quite awhile and had a reputation to prove it. We moved our stuff in, paid the couple, and then went to Tofu Tofu, a cheap local eatery run by Ness, a Serbian expat and his Mozambican wife Sonya.
While talking to some other expats, the lovely Anita and Rachel, we soon discovered Adolf's history of drugs and the white South-African couple's kleptomaniac tendencies. Chris O. immediately felt uncomfortable and wanted to move his things. Chris M. and I assured him that the couple would not even be there (they went camping) and Adolf was passed out on the couch, probably following a bender, so we had nothing to worry about.
Our night was rather lo-key and we went to bed early, returning while Adolf was still passed out on the couch.
I was sleeping quite nicely when Chris O. woke us up and said that his money and cell phone had been stolen. This was quite remarkable considering I had even said how impressed I was by his clever hiding spot the night before.
Here is a point form version of what happened:
- Shayne and Sue returned in the night while we were out (confirmation was unknowingly given by one of their friends).
- They took Chris' money and cell phone and immediately left while Adolf was still passed out on the couch.
- Shayne was seen by Rachel the morning Chris' things went missing, several hours before they claimed to return from camping.
Chris O. was obviously pissed and wanted to press charges but unfortunately we had no proof against the South-Africans. Since Adolf was the only one in the house, he was deemed responsible and Chris could give the word to have him arrested. However, we saw Adolf's innocence and decided it would serve no purpose to arrest an innocent man.
We promptly left their place and got a private room at Fatimas and tried to console Chris. Instead he decided to dig a hole to China (hahaha).
Chris did eventually get over it, although every time Shayne and Sue showed up around town (which happened quite often since Tofo is quite small), his mood would sour, understandably so, and we would change our venue.
We did resume all the normal activities soon after and I got to do my first real scuba dive, which was quite awesome.
We eventually grew tired of Tofo and its clique-ish antics and decided to make our move north.
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