Ilha de Mocambique

Enduring the travel across Mozambique really paid off with my time on Ilha de Mocambique (Mozambique Island).
The island had been at the crossroads of trade routes for many years before becoming Portugal's colonial capital, giving it a rich history and diverse population. In fact, it was for the island's ruling sheikh, Moussa ben Mbiki, at the time of the arrival of the Vasco da Gama in 1499 that the country is named. It's a small island, only about 1.5 miles long, and less than 1/2 mile wide. The northern part, known as Stone Town, has more of the old Portuguese buildings while the southern part comprises Makuti village, where the native population has lived through the centuries.
The island has been through its fair share of battles and burnings, and by the early 20th century, Portugal had moved its capital to Maputo, the present capital of Mozambique, and since then the buildings have mostly been allowed to decay. However, there has been some restoration, and beautifully restored buildings stand next to decaying ones.
I was staying in one of the restored ones, with this cool roof lounge.
The northern tip of the island contains the main fort (which I did not enter) and the Church of Nossa Senhora Baluarte, built in 1522, the oldest European building in the southern hemisphere.
Of course, as with everywhere else, the kids were always excited to have their pictures taken.
This girl was dressed up for Eid al-Fitr, the celebration marking the end of Ramadan which occurred while I was here. Most of my time here has been spent just walking around the streets, taking in the atmosphere.
Between my speaking Spanish (admittedly I am probably the only person on the island speaking it) and the look of the buildings here, it's hard to believe I'm still in Africa.
Finally reversing the trend of food quality going downhill, which started probably in Lusaka, but really took off when I got to Mozambique, the food here has been excellent. All the fresh seafood is combined with spicier recipes from years of Arabic and Indian influence. I've been feasting on fish, shrimp, octopus, squid and lobster.
On Sunday, my last day on the island, I took a trip on a dhow sailboat
to the mainland across, where better beaches can be found. The tide was low, and from where we dropped anchor, it was a long walk across the tidal flats, where lots of local fishermen were working, to the mainland. The mainland at this point was a narrow peninsula separating the tidal flats where we had landed from a bay, also of tidal flats and marshes. We walked along the beach on the inside of the peninsula for a while - it was an interesting place, with one side of the beach ending in the marsh, and on the other side cacti and baobab trees. All along were rocks formed from old coral. Eventually we went into the marsh. It is used by the locals as a shortcut rather than going all the way around the peninsula, and crossed by a number of trails through the shallow (at least when we were there) water.
We finally reached our destination, a place called Carrusca, right on the ocean about an hour after we had left the boat. the beach here was beautiful, a wide white sand beach with palm trees growing along it. Here also were a lot of fishermen digging around in the beds of seaweed for I'm not sure what. The water was a perfect temperature. After lunch at the restaurant in Carrusca, we more or less retraced our steps back to the boat for a return sail to Ilha.
After a few relaxing days, I was dreading the prospect of my last Mozambican public transportation experience to go to Pemba, where I would fly home from. But, it turned out not so bad. I had the obligatory 3:30am wakeup to get on the mini-bus, but despite being cramped, it wasn't as uncomfortable as others had been. I had a smooth transfer to a real bus going to Pemba, which was also not too bad, as I was one of the last people to get a seat. I reached Pemba and checked into a hotel on the beach. The beach was ok - pretty, but there were more touts than tourists, and there was constant hassle. I wasn't there for beach time, just to get ready to leave although I did, of course, enjoy my last African sunsets. I traded away some travel supplies I wouldn't need anymore for some local crafts and got ready to leave. A 3 hr or so flight found me in Johannesburg airport, where I am now, waiting to connect to London. So, the African adventure comes to a close...