Mozambique

Tertius decided we should take a beach break from the rigors of safari life before moving on, so we spent several days at a swank resort on Benguerra Island in the Bazaruto Archipelago off the coast of Mozambique.  The most entertaining part of this interlude was actually the helicopter ride to the island…..

We hiked around the island, climbed up and down the big dune, rode on a boat and did a bit of snorkeling….. the usual beach-y stuff.

Evidence of marine life was easy to find on the mostly pristine beaches….

The lizards help keep down the bug population…

The local people are very pleased with the job opportunities that the two resorts on the island bring to them.  They live fairly simple lives… generally without electricity or indoor plumbing…. and are otherwise dependent on fishing and the fruits of the sea.

Here are some of the people we came across…..

Lovely people who mostly seem to be content to stay on their little island and have lots of babies.  Some of them yearn for better education and opportunity, and we hope they get both.

On a different subject, a cautionary note for the traveler:  If you stay in a hotel with mosquito netting, there is probably a reason.  You should use it.  We didn’t one night and I have a dozen bites.  Sure hope the malaria prophylactics work!

And so we bid farewell to this little bit of paradise…..

The flurry of blog postings recently means that we have had good internet service for a couple of days, so now we are completely caught up!  Tomorrow we leave for Madagascar and will hope to post again from there.