Inhaca 4/27

we just arrived back from our trip to the nearby island of Inhaca. Getting there was a feat in and of itself. There are 2 ferries that will take you there, a cheaper government run ferry and a fancier one called Vodacom that is double the cost but is a nicer boat and supposedly gets you there 1 hr faster. We had planned on using the Vodacom ferry and made reservations but got no confirmation # and had walked all the way to the harbor to pre-buy our tickets on Friday to find out the ticket kiosk was closed even though their website clearly says open on Fridays.... Based on this, we decided to just try the government ferry instead.

On Saturday morning, we took a taxi to the ferry terminal and was shocked to see a long line waiting for the government ferry. We got in line and hoped there would be enough seats available. Although we were supposed to depart at 7:30, the ticket stand didn't even open until 7:20.... this is Mozambique after all. The boat itself was quite old looking but seaworthy I guess. Eric and I made sure to sit on the upper level next to a door and with life-vests closely available. We finally set sail almost 45min- 1 hr after the stated departure time.

The trip was actually ok, not much rocking. Essentially took close to 3 hours. We started seeing Inhaca approaching and realized that it was low-tide meaning our boat had to stop quite some distance from shore. To transfer pts to the shore, we would be taking small speedboats. The crazy thing was there was no ladder or ramp available. You had to climb over the main boat's railing and lower/drop down onto the speedboat! I'll include a picture of the reverse process. The best part was after we jumped on, as our boat started to push off, we realized there was a ladder for snorkeling at the back of the boat that could easily have been used to get people on/off. But Eric already knew we were in for trouble because he took one look at the motor and started laughing. It was so old that there was no protective plastic cover and it was thoroughly rusted. As soon as the speedboat person tried to use it, the fuel line popped off. Suffice to say, another crew member had to row us into shore.

It was cool to be able to pop off into the shallows and walk our way to the lodge. Our first course of action was to find some food. Fortunately there are only 3 restaurants total  on this island. We chose Lucas where I had a nice grilled fish lunch. Poor Eric had no vegetarian options and resorted to eating bread, my salad, and my fries.

My yummy grilled fish lunch. Marinated in some garlic and butter, smothered with a local piri-piri (vinegar + chili) concoction.

After lunch we looked at our options. There were some snorkeling sites but they weren't cheap. Something along the lines of $40 per person. Coming from Hawaii, Eric was hesitant to spend the money and I agreed. Instead we just walked down the beach for several kilometers. We finally found a nice shade spot and the went into the water to swim around. Decent visibility though without contacts+goggles I was essentially blind. Water was pretty warm and very comfortable.

A view from outside our lodge. The tide shifts here are fairly extreme and lots of sand is exposed when it's low-tide. All of the fishing boats just end up sitting on the mud during this time. Lots of little crabs about.

A picture of Eric and me during sunset. So romantic! Too bad we missed most of it since we were watching TV...

We spent the rest of the evening watching some TV, grabbing dinner at another restaurant (had another grilled fish dish, Eric starved and ate some fries, some salad, and papaya juice....)

Probably some of the best photos from this trip were of the pool, palm tree, and sunset. A great way to essentially wrap up our rotation and foray to Africa.