Am I in Latin America?
Trip Start
May 18, 2011
1
116
152
Trip End
Aug 08, 2012
What I did
Arrived, rested and travelled on
Chimoio, Manica, Mozambique
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Unfortunately I did not account for the money making schemes of the bus company. There was no space in the hold for the backpacks which meant it had to go inside and therefore this meant they wanted more money. I didn’t pay. The real problem however were the jerry cans and the people sat on them. These jerry cans were placed in aisle and used as seats for additional passengers. The bus capacity should have been around thirty but at times it was more like forty five!
Unfortunately I had someone sat next to me for the whole journey. Now seats on African buses are not designed for anyone over thirty centimetres wide (or comfort at all), therefore at best with four people sat in a row and an aisle they are uncomfortable but bearable. This journey was not, but I managed, however it goes down at the worst I have made in my life, to date, I suspect I will have more challenges to this title over the next year. Travelling by bus across the whole of Africa I certainly made me look at the National Express in a different light!
Unfortunately this journey was compounded by the unfriendliness of the locals. This is the first time I have not felt the warmth of local people. My efforts to speak Spanish, which is so close to Portuguese that even I can understand what people say, was not welcomed and people simply stared at me with exceptionally stern faces and unwelcoming expressions. It could not but more contrasting to my travels in Africa so far. Hopefully I can put this down to being in Northern Mozambique, which is not popular with tourists away from the beaches.
On arrival in Chimoio, the stopover town for this evening, I was very pleased to see the accommodation and hostel staff at Pink Papaya were very helpful, cheap (not the staff) and off the highest quality. I think it helped that the place is run by a German couple, which pleased Matthias.
After seeking onward travel advice it was decided that Matthias and I would attempt to hitch a ride of the lorries for the remaining 600km of our journey, with our next destination being Vilankulo.
Walking around the Chimoio you really couldn’t help but think you were in Latin America, everything looked like what I expect South America to look like, clearly the Portuguese influence is still strong. This was highlighted by the western clothes the locals were wearing the dramatic Portuguese soap operas on TV in the bars.
Dinner was taken at the local sports hall, where kids played handball as I enjoyed a wonderful Chicken curry, quite unusual really.
Ten points if you can name a famous Portuguese person, excluding a footballer or the Canadian Nelly Furtardo?
