Moz Pics

Our itineraty in Mozambique has been from north to south:

Pemba
Quirimbas Archipeligo (Ibo Island)
Beira
Vilanculo/Bazaruto Archipeligo
Tofo Beach, Inhambane

These pics from top to bottom:

1) Leopard shark that my Dive Instructor (his pic) and I saw this morning at the "Amazon" dive site about 15km off of Barra Point near Tofo

2&3) 2 shots from my second dive at "Giant's Castle" in Tofo (a drift dive at about 30 meters near a manta "cleaning station") where we saw MANY huge manta rays (about 5m from wingtip to wingtip) on both dives

4) One of my first underwater photographs! Using my instructors camera for the photography section fomy Advanced PADI course. I think this is a Stoen Fish, but whatever it is, it looks cool.

5) a humpback whale calf jumping just a few yards off of my dive boat earlier this week in Tofo. My Instructor, Ed took this shoot and I didn't have my camera, but this calf and its mother hung by our boat forever. An amazing site, but I've gotten used to whales here - they are everywhere.

6) me standing on to of a crazy ~600 foot high dune at the southern tip of Bazaruto Island in between dives on Two Mile Reef.

Mozambique rules

Sorry for the lack of posting recently. Internet has been pretty tough since we landed in Mozambique on August 19th. The one time I had a good connection, we had shitloads of power outages that prevented me from doing more than just taking care of business. but I'm here in Tofo Beach, Inhambane, Mozambique and I just finished my PADI Advanced Scuba Diving Course.

Mozambique has been unbelievable. The vibe here is much more laid back than in Tanzania. The things we did in TZ were fun (Kili, safari, diving in Zanzibar), but the country itself and its cities we visited really lacked something and the people we ran into had a sharpness too them that I have to say was a little unpleasant - especially compared to what we've been experiencing here over the last 2 weeks. Most of the places we've been in Moz are not that heavily touristed yet - I hope the laid back vibe of the people doesn't get corrupted too much when tourism floods in a bit more, which it undoubtedly will at some point.

We ended up taking a much easier route of travel than I had originally planned to get here. I think the realites of days and days on cramped buses really hit me once I got to Moshi and I was more than happy to sign up for flights vs. buses - especially in Moz where there aren't really any "tourist" buses yet - you are riding with the locals and all that goes with that.

We ended up skippign Malawi entirely and going from Dar right to Pemba, Mozamabique, which made for an easier entry visa experience - we heard some crazy stories of the Tanzania/Moz border and the "ferry" (3 small wooden dhow boats tied together with planks for one car at a tiem on top "piloted" by drunk people) they use to get cars across the river - nuts! Iwouldn't pu my car on that thing, but I wouldl love ot have my truck right now.

I did want to experience the local "chapas" (buses) at least once and we were forced to when we left Beira (the second largest city oin Moz) for Vilankulo and the Bazaruto Archipeligo. Chapas all leave form a central spot at around 4am. We went the evening before to line things up with the driver and found what was the shittiest looking bus in the area with the "Vilankulo" sign on it. I won't get into too much detail, but what was suppossed to be a 9 hour ride, turned into 14 hours on seats with almost no padding and crammed into with too many people and everything they all owned. Add in a flat tire at one of teh amusing stops along the way and it spelled for a painful ride, but a worthwhiel experience. We had no realistic flight option for that leg and the fact that we even got on the bus and got the seats we asked for the day before made it seem not THAT bad (but it was). We found out later that a new "luxury" tourist-focused line runs the same route in less than have the tiem ti took us, but the word isn't rerally otu on that yet. Oh well.

Now I'll post some pics from Moz.

Last Day in Tanzania

We took the ferry from Zanzibar to Dar Es Salaam this morning, then we fly out to Mozambique tomorrow morning. I really enjoyed Stone Town and I think I could stay here one more day (despite the lack of bars and the fact that we get woken up by Islamic prayer calls at 5am). Everyone keeps reminding me that its better to leave a place before you want to then what we did in Kendwa (get bored out of our minds and ready to bolt).

So the ferry today was interesting. We took a "fast" ferry that was about 2 hours and the boat itself was decent and we had plenty of legroom, etc. And it did go pretty fast, but the seas were not flat and the boat had a fair amount of sway. It was something like that scene in Stand By Me where the room full of people start puking on after the other until everyone is puking. It started with a couple of women in birkas across the aisle from me. I put on my headphones and turned it up load so I couldn't hear. It gradually spread around the cabin and Wortman was even unlucky enough to get bit by it. Somehow I managed to avoid the smell, or else who knows what would have happened to me. I was def ready to get the hell off the Puke-O-Rama Ferry!

One funny Zanzibar story I was reminded of as we talked last night: the crazy Italians and their sunset photo shoots. Apparently Zanzibar is a HUGE Italian vacation spot. There are plenty of Europeans here in general (and very few Americans), but the beaches seem very geared towards Italians. Apparently some of the towns on the east coast are literally built for and run by and for them.

Anyway, like I said in my other post, Kendwa has the best sunsets of all the beaches and our silent relative solitude was broken up one day by (literally) 200 or so Italians who came to the beach at 4pm to camp out and watch the sunset. The whole men in speedos in public thing (even fat ones) has got to be the most offensive cultural difference I've seen - ha! These people proceeded to pose in various hilarious ways (although it in no way seemed funny to them) in front of the setting sun for 2 hours. It was one of the most ridiculous things I've seen and I pretty much sat there and laughed my ass off the entire time (granted some of these women were ridiculously hot, which excuses it somewhat, but fat-guy-speedo posing is WAY over the line).

Anyway, That's it from Tanzania. All in all is was a great month here, but the towns near Kili and the safari launch leave alot to be desired. The whole attitude towards tourists is pretty fucked up as well. They don't seem to realize how much they screw themselves over with the constant nagging and leeching. Maybe we'd actually buy something if they backed off for a split second. We did meet some good people though, so its tough to let the bad apples totally ruin the bunch.

One more thing - for anyone in SF who complains about lack of taxis. I have a good solution for you: come to Dar Es Salaam. They have some new condos going up and you can basically walk the entire city on the roofs of parked cabs. It feels like we are the only 4 potential customers for 5000 empty taxis. I guess it'll be easy to get a ride to the airport tomorrow.

Mozambique here we come.

Photo Update

I grabbed a couple photos from Rob's camera and I thought I'd load them to show a coupel shots of teh 4 of us. The first is a shot of us on our way up Kili the day before the summit day (l to r Rob, John, Tim, me). The next is from a sunset cruise we did on a local dhow boat in Zanzibar with our friend Tsvia from our safari trip and her Swiss friend (l to r Tim, John, me, Rob). Slightly different...

Photos are proving a bit challenging still, but I'm managing to get a few up there. Not necessarily the best ones I have, but some relatively good examples that are coming from my point and shoot (not the DSLR).

The first pic is a sunset from Kendwa Beach with one of us (I think Rob) swimming in the Indian Ocean. We saw some spectacular ones over the course of our week there. Kendwa is basically the only inhabited beach on Zanzibar on the West Coast so its the only one to get such great sunsets. Its also the only one that doesn't have tidal issues that prevent you from swimming either during high or low tide, so we enojyed swimming all day long every day. At some of the beaches the beach dissapears at high tide and at some it goes out as far as 2 miles during low tide making it impractical to walk to the water.

The next couple shots I took during our boat ride on one of the dive trips. We took a local dhow boat that was really cool. In the first shot you can see another smaller dhow cruising under motor power and in the second you can see the front of our boat as well pull into one of the dive shops to let some folks off.

We are in Stone Town for a few nights before heading back to the mainland by ferry and flying from Dar Es Salaam down to Northern Mozambique. So far Stone Town is pretty cool. Either the touts are getting easier to avoid or I'm getting better at pushing them away - I think its a combination of both. Zanzibar is strict Muslim so the nightlife is bascially non-existent, but it will be good to explore the cultural mixtures (African, Arabic, Inidan) here for a few days before heading out.

Kendwa Beach, Zanzibar

Just a quick update as these computers won't read my USB drive so no pics still.

The beach here in Zanzibar is BEAUTIFUL and still seems relativley undiscovered here at Kendwa. Its been fun because we've managed to meet up wit a few of the people from our safari trip who are also here.

A few days of beach relaxing was good but I'm getting ichy to leave now. I just finished my 3rd and 4th warm water scubas dives and they were great. Of the 4 dives I've done its been a good mix of loads of tropical fish (Tuesday at Mnemba Atoll) and then some awesome coral and a sea turtle today at some other dive sites nearby (Misoli Reef and Handu's Wall).

The food in Kendwa is okay, but they have a long way to go to figure out how to run service businesses here. Not that surprising I guess. Last night we took a taxi into Nungwi, the bigger more touristy village for dinner. We had them take us somewhere where we could order fresh fish right off the boats and then have them grill it while we sit at tables that are literally on the beach. I had an amazing whole red snapper for 10,000Tsh (about $7US). They had no electricy in Nungwi last night so we ate by candle light, which made picking the bones out of the whole fish particulary fun.

My African culture shock continues whenever I drive around and see the living conditions of the locals here. Rob and John have been in "poor" places in SE Asia and even they say its not quite the same thing. Not sure how to explain it, but its odd - especially when we sit around ordering beers like water that cost as much as a meal for entire family (at least).

That's it for now. Hopefully I'll get some pics up in Stone Town or Dar Es Salaam on Sun/Mon. We leave for Pemba in Northern Mozambique on Wednesday. We ended up getting a good deal on a very nice place, so we'll be living in luxury for a few days at least. We also found out that by flying into Mozambique (instead of busing across a border as originally planned), we save ourselves some visa hassels, which should be nice.

Serengeti NP, Ngorongoro Crater, and Lake Manyara Safaris

Back in Arusha Tanzania after a 5 day safari in Lake Manyara, Seregenti National Park, and the Ngorongoro Crater. I have a RIDICULOUS number of pictures, but this connection is too slow to upload most of them since I used my DSLR. We saw lions, a leopard, elephants, buffalo (4 of the "big five" missing the elusive rhino, which has been decimated by poaching and is very difficult to spot), cheetahs, zebras, impalas, Grant and Thompson gazelles, ostriches, wildebeests, hippos, hyenas, jackals a bunch of cool birds and many other things I'm sure I'm forgetting at the moment.

It was a camping sarari so we spent 4 nights in dome tents at various camp sites aroud the 3 parks. Wildlife was very close to us in most cases - including buffalo, zebra and elephants and one unsubstantiated report of a lion sleeping outside someone's tent. There were 14 people on the trip - mostly Canadians and Brits and we were the only Americans. The group was splt into 2 and we traveled in two 9 person Land Rovers that had roofs that popped up so we could stand and check out the wildlife. It was a great group and I had a great time on the trip. Unfortunately the trip was a litle too short...by the time we really started to get to know each other, it was over. We were all ready to get out of teh dust and dirt and back to a shower and a bed at the end though. I need to do some serious landry when we get to Zanzibar tonight.

We hit 3 parks to space out the driving a bit- the Serengeti is quite a long way from Arusha (or anywhere for that matter), so Lake Manyara makes a good first stop and then the Crater breaks up the trip some more. We spent an enormous amount fo time in the Land Rovers. Quite a bit of it was doing game drives in the park with the top open for game viewing, but we covered a ton of miles (or kilometers I guess) on very bad roads to get to and from everywhere. Sometimes our driver would pull off of the road and cruise along thru the open dirt becuase that was better than the actual road. If anyone is thinking of doing a Serengeti trip, be prepared for lots of bumpy car travel. They do have flying options, but they require private charters so they are expensive.

Anyway, I need to go pack for our afternoon flight from Kilimanjaro International to Zanzibar, a tropical island off the coast of Tanzania. We're going to spend a week there and then head into Dar Es Salaam to take care of some business for our trip into Mozambique. The original plan was to travel over land into Malawi and then over into Mozambique. We knew that was ambitious but, the more we looked at it, the more we decided that we didn't want to spend a minimum of 2 days of bus travel in and 2 days of bus travel out to get into Malawi. So now it looks like the plan is to fly from Dar Es ESalaam to Pemba on the coast in northern Mozambique. We'll explore the islands off shore there for 5 days and then fly down to Beira in central Mozambique and pick up the overland travel down there where the stops are closer together. Kili->safari->Zanzibar is a pretty well traveled tourist route so we will be excited to bust out of that into Mozambique next week. Hopefully LAM (Mozambique Air) will cooperate. Booking and paying for flights is not that easy and the flights are only once a week in many cases, so we'll see how it goes.

Off to pack for Zanzibar!

Kili pics

Better late than never here are some Kili pics.

The first one is me with our 3 guides back at the hotel after the climb. From left to right, Moses (who made the summit with Wortman), Dixon (the lead guide who summited with Rob, John and me), and Prosper (the #2 guide who summited with Aileen and was usually good for some funny conversation along the trail over the course of the trip - he taught us "poa coma ndizi" - cool like banana - which we have still been getting good milage out of in our travels.).

The secodn pic is me with our entire support crew at teh last camp on the way down.

The final pic is Rob, me, and John on the summit of Kili pre-sunrise. "Kilimanjaro" is actually made up of 3 volcanos, the biggest of which is called Kibo and the official summit is calledUruru Peak of Kibo.

Many of th pics I took with my DLSR are in a very large format that I'm afraid to try and upload with this slow connection - these are some I happen to have on my point and shoot camera.