Spring Break in Southern Africa: Part Two

I fail at cooking. I attempted to make chicken curry with chicken, curry powder, and rice. BIG MISTAKE. Oh well. At least I eat everything I make.

Anyway, back to my story.

I still have NO idea what we did after Soweto, so I assume we ate or something. I know we got back late and went to bed.
EDIT: We went to Greek and it was good. -Claire

--Day Five--

We got up and packed up our stuff and went to the apartheid museum. We spent about five hours there and it was fascinating. Lots to do with my South African Political Thought and Traditions class. I especially liked the Steven Biko exhibit. I highly recommend the museum for anyone heading that way...
So we were hungry around 3pm when we left the museum, so we wandered toward Gold Reef City which turned out to be a gaudy casino. We got Steers and KFC for lunch and then took a taxi to the airport (OR Tambo) to catch our bus transportation thing. Dawn freaked out when the first driver refused to take all five of us, but the second one did. Still, would have been very bad.
It took a while to find Citybug and we were barely on time--it turned out to be similar to a minibus, only a formal set up, so there were only about three other people on the little bus. We drove to Nelspruit and stopped once and got chocolate and chips. We got there pretty late and Adriaan from Funky Money Backpackers picked us up and explained the safari thing to us. We paid (it was around $250 per person) and then played a game of pool that took FOREVER. I also wound up owing Dawn a bottle of wine because she made a shot I thought she wouldn't. Sad. Adriaan was kinda awkward because he sat there watching us but didn't say much--socially inept or something. Oh well--it's not like we weren't weird Americans.
We went to bed pretty early.

--Day Six--

We got up at 5am or something ridiculous like that and quickly got ready to leave on the one day Safari. Adriaan drove us to Kruger and we got there around 6:30am, in time for our guide, Jafta to pick us up for the morning drive. We joined a single guy named David (Dah-veed) from Israel, who had an awesome camera and only spoke decent English--not perfect. Jafta was cool and saw all sorts of ridiculous things no one else spotted. On the morning drive (it was freezing and I wore my scarf over my head because I couldn't take the cold wind) we saw: Impala, Reed Buck, Duiker, Baboons, Kudu, Fork-tailed Drongo, a White Rhino from far away (it was asleep), and a Water Buck. We headed back to our campsite--Pretoriuskop--for breakfast, which was wonderful, and then went back out for our day drive. It gradually got warmer around mid-day, but the wind got really hard to take.
We saw: a yellow-bill hornbill, that same rhino from earlier, more rhinos, meerkats, warthogs, a giraffe right next to the road, more farther away and also zebras, wildebeest, and an elephant right there in the road--it charged us after a while, ground hornbills, hippos at a watering hole, crocodile (far away), heron, ibis, egyptian geese, steenbok, slender mongoose, bush buck, ververt monkey, marabstock (bird), inyala, leopard in a tree!!!!, black-bellied basset, a controlled fire, lilac-breasted rol, stork, corybastard, and a line of old water buffalo crossing the road.
Jafta saw most of the animals, and bear in mind that this is all from a little notebook that I kept just to know the order of animals we saw for future reference. Spelling and names are likely wrong.
We headed back to Pretoriuskop as it got dark, the whole time hoping we'd see lions. No such luck. We went into the little gift/food shop and looked at stuff. Then we went back for dinner, which was a braai and sat around a fire making up stories. We spent a lot of time on a romantic comedy that turned out better than most that are produced these days. But everyone started going to sleep so we had to go into our tents and be quieter. We had to get up early, so we started getting ready for bed. Dawn and I were in one tent with Claire and Sally in the other. Evan was sharing with David farther down. Dawn and I heard Sally start yelling about a wave or something so we called out to see what was wrong and Claire told us to come into their tent. Sally told us that her parents had called her freaking out because of an email they had received about an CIEE student accident earlier that week. We texted Quinton to see what was up. Claire called her mom and got the detail that a student from Georgetown had been swept into the ocean. Claire started freaking out because she knew most of the kids from Georgetown and started going through them all in her head--the ones who had gone on the Garden Route were most likely, as it was the origin of the accident. Quinton called us back and Sally talked to him and told us the rumor was true. Then we asked her who it had been and she said it was Terrence. Claire broke down--she had said earlier that he had told her he would stay out of the water because he couldn't swim. We were all stunned and I definitely had the thought that this must not be real. Sally handed the phone off to Dawn, and I could hear her voice breaking as Quinton (though shaken) asked us our our trip was going. The call ended and the tent was just silent. We sat for a few minutes, then called Evan into the tent to tell him what had happened. I got up because I couldn't handle it and went to brush my teeth, trying to focus on anything but the news.
I couldn't comb my hair that night because the wind had destroyed it. I went to bed trying not to think about anything. Dawn and I heard Claire telling Sally just how close she had come to going with that group on the Garden Route. It was only because she heard about our trip first that she had come with us. I dreamt about pulling an all nighter when I got back to campus, completely enveloped in a fantasy world. Dawn dreamt about what UCT would be like when we returned.

--Day Seven--

We woke up in bad moods, and the fact that the sun had not yet risen didn't help. It was a quiet morning, and we climbed into the safari-car thingie much less excited than we had been the previous day. We picked up two other guests from some European country. I can't remember where. The very first thing we saw was a male cheetah rolling around on the road. Dawn got SO excited because she loves cheetahs and it was so unlikely that we would see one. Apparently there are only 200 of them in the whole of Kruger while there are 2,000 lions (which we didn't see any of). We missed the wild dogs that the two other guests had seen while driving up to the park. But still, it was an awesome thing to see. My camera battery died, so I have to depend on everyone else for pictures.
Then we kept driving and saw more elephants, giraffes, baboons, white rhinos (by now none of these were exciting anymore).
It was a pretty awesome safari in all, and at breakfast we got ready to go and left a rather pitiful tip for Jafta (we left as much as we could, but I dunno if it was enough--about R300, and David didn't leave anything). Adriaan drove us back to Funky Monkey and we waited around for a while before heading to Intercape for our bus to Maputo. I took the time to shower and tried using lotion (thanks Dawn) to get the tangles out of my hair. It failed big time and Sally spent about twenty minutes convincing me to get dreadlocks or shave my head. I seriously considered it. Adriaan drove us to Intercape and we said goodbye to Sally, who was returning to Jo'burg and then Cape Town to go on a class field trip on Friday.
Intercape was a giant bus with two levels, and we sat on the top. They played Hancock, which is a ridiculous Will Smith movie, but we found it really stupid and it became a running joke for the rest of the trip. I ended up combing my hair out during the four hour ride, then made a braid in the hopes that it wouldn't die again. I showered the minute we got to Fatima's in Maputo while everyone else went to the ATM. Consequently, I could comb my hair (kinda) but didn't have any money for anything else. We got a cab outside Fatima's (they have 24 hour cab service) and it drove down the street where it stopped for these three police officers. The driver got out of the cab and left it idling. We sat there with no idea what to do. We gave the officers our passports (MUST carry it at all times while in Mozambique). The one male officer gave Evan a hard time, commenting on how his passport was obtained in Beverly Hills (though he lives in Arizona), then pointed to his seatbelt (which was unfastened because he had been told in another cab that "we don't do that here") and said 500.000 metical (23.000 equivalent to $1) fine. Evan thought it was best not to argue, but he pulled out his 400.000 note and said that was all he had. Apparently the fine was not legit, because the officer accepted it without question. He walked away from the car and we were like omg holy shit wtf and when the driver got back in the cab we tried to ask him what had happened. Unfortunately, the man spoke only Portuguese.
More annoyed than shaken, we were pissed when we got to the African Cafe the receptionist had recommended and it was closed. We asked the driver to take us to a restaurant, which must mean something else because he dropped us off at a bar--we asked him to pick us up in two hours, which was a fun five minutes of pantomine trying to make him understand what we were asking. For some reason I decided not to use Spanish, which would have totally worked. Anyway, the place was a bar, not a resaurant, so we walked down the street to a little place that had sandwiches and was completely deserted. It was fine and inexpensive (35.000 metical for a sandwich) but we still felt kinda weirded out. Most restaurants we went to on this trip were empty. It's strange.
Anyway, we ended up walking back about an hour early so we went to the original bar and paid the entry fee (we didn't really understand)--about 100.000 metical. The live music (which was the reason for the fee) wasn't there yet, so we paid to get into a place that played Santana and charged us for drinks. Ridiculous. Claire wasn't in a great mood and was very tired, so we waited just until the cab driver returned, then went back to Fatima's.
I guess we went to bed or something.

--Day Eight--

It was Friday, and not much to do in Maputo. We walked to the bakery and got some breakfast, then walked around and bought vegetables from vendors to make sandwiches. Then we went back to Fatima's and made sandwiches while Dawn asked the receptionist about beaches nearby. He told us there was one about two hours away, accessible through public transporation and a ferry across a river. Sounded good to us, so we began the trek down to the bus stop.
We took the bus for about 40 minutes and started to realize just how hot it would be that day. It was about 1pm or so when we got off and got onto the minibus that would take us to the next place (can't recall the name). Rode on that for about 20 or 30 minutes, and it was SO HOT. It dropped us off in the middle of nowhere, so we asked some guys where we could find the ferry. They pointed down a random dirt road, so we started walking. We eventually got to the ferry after walking through a village, and it was literally a concrete block floating on the water. They were repairing it, so we went into this bar and got a giant coke bottle and shared it. We were sweating through our clothes and hoping the trip would be worth it. The ferry was fixed in about 10 minutes and we got on and floated about 100 yards across the river to the other side.
Here, we discovered that the original directions weren't just off, they were WAY off. At least, there weren't taxis or chapas (minibuses) to take us to the beach, which was on the other side of the island.
So we stood and watched as one pick up truck filled up with tons and tons of people, no room for us, and tried to decide what to do. Two white people who were obviously traveling through called us over and offered to take us to the beach they were going to. They said we could hold on to the side of the 4x4. We stepped up onto that little platform below the doors and hung on to the top rail thingie for about a half an hour while they navigated across the ridiculous dirt road. It was quite an adventure. We bought the couple beers when we got to the beach in thanks, then tried to ask a waiter at the resort to help us find transportation back. By now it was 3pm and we had to get back onto a bus at least by nightfall (around 6). He understood us well enough, so we went onto the beach.
Dawn and Evan played in the water while Claire built a castle and I played with Dawn's camera and this random dog that looked like a fox and was SO friendly. Then she and her boy dog friend wouldn't leave Dawn alone when she tried to put on clothes again, so I called them over and then the one wouldn't let me put my shoes on. Kept trying to sit in my lap.
Very weird dogs. We walked back to the little resort thingie and talked to a guest who had agreed to take us back to the ferry. This time it was a pick-up, so Dawn and Evan sat in the flatbed (I was jealous) and Claire and I sat inside the cabin talking to the couple, who were Mozambiquan and spoke wonderful English. We learned that everyone speaks Portuguese there because there are so many little ethnic groups that people rarely overlap. They both knew two other languages but couldn't understand each other except in Portuguese. This time it took about forty minutes to get back because they kept turning around to talk to us and slowing down.
I calculated that we had about an hour of sunlight when we got onto the ferry to go back, but was obviously off a bit when we got to the other side and started powerwalking up the hill back to the road. It was dark in 30 minutes, and Dawn started freaking out because transportation at night is generally dangerous. But we got to the road and there were at least a hundred people standing around waiting for chapas to take them back home. We fought our way into one and headed back, all the time worried that we would miss our stop. The second bus was agonizingly slow and played ridiculous Portuguese rap. We got back about 7pm, and stopped at an Italian restaurant for dinner. I went into the bathroom and realized just how dirty I was. Gross.
We got back onto the road and realized how windy it was. Also gross, as it was windy and sandy and garbage was everywhere (poor infrastructure). We walked back to Fatima's, our feet tired from holding on to the side of that car.
Everyone went up to bed and I ended up talking to a guy from Swaziland who insisted I wouldn't be able to pronounce his name, so he gave me his last name--Dube. I guess he was there on business something something I don't recall all of the conversation, but it lasted about an hour and I distinctly remember he asked me how old I was and if I had a boyfriend (not in a sketchy way, luckily) and seemed surprised that I was twenty. (I figured out why this confused people when I wound up talking to another guy the next night--I guess I look 24? Sad.)
I headed up to bed around 10 or 11pm, situated the mosquito net around me (there weren't many though--not rainy season) and fell asleep.

--Day Nine--

We woke up really early (about 7:30am) and decided to head down to the craft market. It wasn't very far away, and it was awesome. I ended up getting roped into buying some things I didn't really want (never let anyone hand you things because it's hard to give them back unless you drop them and run). The vendors were pushy and stuff, but it wasn't unmanageable. It was much easier to haggle and buy in pairs because your friend could pull you away. I helped Evan get some painting cloth thingies and he helped me get some bowls. Claire got a magnet and pulled me over to get one too because the kid didn't have change. Unfortunately, she walked away too soon and I was confused so I paid the boy as well and he ran off for about ten minutes getting me change. So we paid twice, which was stupid and annoying, but we didn't find out until later that day.
There were lots of awesome crafts that I wanted to get but didn't have money/room for. There was a great carved chest that I really wanted, but it was very impractical. And at least 10 kilos.
Evan ended up getting some ridiculous pirated movies and a guy kept bothering me to buy some jewelry from him and Dawn became very frustrated and turned her back on him. We headed back to Fatima's (and I had a purse for the first time on the trip! yay!) and just kind of hung out for a while. I wasn't in the mood to go anywhere because the soreness had just hit me from yesterday, but everyone else decided we wanted to go down to another ferry and a different beach.
I was exhausted by then, so we pretty much walked back down the street and went to a ferry, went to a beach, got proposed to because we were white on a completely black island (also a very poor one) and ended up leaving and went to dinner at the same Italian restaurant and the same waiter.
Back at Fatima's I talked to a Mozambiquan named Otelo who's a law student at the university down the road, and I remember he had me guess his age, which I did by what year he's in school, and he said I was 10 years off, then said I was only five years off. He was also surprised that I am twenty, which was another wtf for me. Very odd. Also asked me how many boyfriends I had, which I can't help thinking is a weird question, even after talking for an hour about random things.
I went back upstairs and Dawn was freaking out (yes, she's good at freaking out cuz she's always in charge) because our phones were roaming and the alarms likely wouldn't work. She arranged a wake up call for the next morning, when we would be leaving on Intercape at 7:30am.

--Day Ten--

I didn't sleep well because I kept waking up every hour. I was the only one to hear the wake up call (a guy knocking on the dorm door REALLY softly). We got ready pretty fast, then went down to the bakery for morning food. Turns out Otelo had remembered when I was getting up and had gotten up early to exchange email addresses (I guess he's from around there because he was only at Fatima's to visit his friend, the receptionist). We had peanut butter and bread, then took a cab down the street (we didn't realize how close it was) to the Intercape stop.
There I saw the one beggar in Maputo (that I had seen). He was disfigured--his feet were sideways but he could still walk, and from what I could tell, he wasn't speaking English or Portuguese, more like just making noises. I didn't have any change or I would have given him some. But besides him, Maputo was a very dignified city regarding beggars and homeless.
We got on the bus and watched the beginning of Hancock, then it skipped and we watched some of Titanic. It skipped and Claire and Evan were sad. The bus got very hot and they were playing bad rap. SO HOT. We stopped at one place and everyone got off for lunch and the coolness of outside.
The trip was only 8 hours, and went by pretty fast. Dawn wrote in her journal about the trip, I interrupted her by talking about random things, and Evan and Claire slept with their iPods (which were not stolen--yay!).
We then took a cab (so expensive because they're about 30 minutes apart) to OR Tambo for our flight. It was about a four hour wait til the flight, so we sat in the cafeteria bit and played games.
Then we got on the plane and fell asleep/looked out the window/did work/wrote in journal until we got to Cape Town and it was cold when we got off.
It then proceeded to rain and they had moved the Liesbeeck turnstile thingie to the other side of the res. But now it's not outside my window and no longer loud. SUCCESS!!

Thus ended our spring break trip.
Nothing was stolen. No one was mugged.
Evan was extorted and that was it.
All in all, such a cool trip.

Too long: didn't read version to come.