Hi all!

Wauw, it has been a real game changer the past 10 days, in many ways!

After I said See you soon to dear friend Nouki, I had lost my travel spirit for a few days, which was not handy as I moved from comfortable and well developed South Africa to, well, Mozambique. And Mozambique is Africa 1-on-1.
It starts with their national competition in which everyone joins: who can put the most people and stuff in one chappa/minibus? You get bonus points if the minibus is too old to actually still be functioning. And it's serious business. When I wanted to catch a ride for 5 min and they opened the slide door of the minibus, all I could say was: 'wow'. I had never seen that many people in 2 square metres, let alone in a driving 'vehicle' (you can't really call these things vehicles). Ofcourse all the driver said was 'get in', completely unimpressed and bored by my reaction.
What happens in the minibus is another story. Mostly people like to do their groceries once a year and buy bags of 50 kg flour, and carry about 20 more grocerie bags. All these bags are packed within the minibus, preferably on random people's laps, on the roof or under 'benches' (you can't really call what you sit on a bench). I have seen a complete household on top of a minibus, which included a 4 pax couch, 2 armchairs and 2 dining tables.
Also people like to eat during their everyday minibus ride, preferably chicken. All garbage is thrown out of the window whilst driving, including plastic bottles.
But the system itselfs works pretty well. No hassle with bus stops: if you want to get in you just raise your hand on the side of the road when a minibus comes up. If you want to get off, you tell the moneyman who sits with all of us in the back. He than knocks on the roof of the minibus, and the driver pulls over. Pretty simple right?
Also, if the trip is long (8 hrs) there are still no toilet or food breaks. But whenever the minubus pulls over to let someone in/out, a whole village runs to the minibus with people selling drinks and food via the windows. If you take too long to get your coins together (all those damn currencies, sorry..) the person selling has to run along with the minibus cause the driver doesn't give a sh*t (he is usually still drunk from the evening before or from the morning). They run with you for quite some time actually.

So with a similar vehicle I travelled to Tofo beach from Maputo, in which I met a group of 4 Swedish travellers. After the African experience I arrived in Tofo, and after a few hours of getting used to I actually very much enjoyed it! It is a small but touristy town with a long beautiful beach, few cafes and some nice restaurants. A Dutch couple had a super nice cafe called Blend for breakfast and lunch, and being able to taste REAL coffee again felt like heaven.
Many people stay for quite some time because the diving is beautiful, and it was a delight to see all those familiar faces every day. I was in a small dorm with 2 American girls, and together with 2 Swedish guys we spent most of our time tanning, eating and drinking. Not bad at all! I also met a man from Utrecht, NL, which made me feel closest to home since I've been in Africa, and it got me out of my traveldip right away!

On Saturday I went on a 'snorkeling safari' to spot whalesharks. And no, apparently sharks are not really supposed to eat you, so you can actually swim with for example whalesharks without becoming their meal. And whalesharks are HUGE, so really you would only be a pre-breakfast snack.
With your snorkeling gear ready you go out with the boat, and than eagerly start looking around for big shapes in the water, as they swim so close to the surface. Luckily you have professional spotters on the boat, cause we clearly sucked. But when a whaleshark is spotted, the boat speeds up to get as close as possible and than you launch yourself in the water. At first you are scanning the ocean all around you cause you can't seem to see him, until you look right underneath you and you can almost touh a 6 meter (whale)shark with the tip of your toes. It happened to me 3 times and every time it scared the hell out of me. But after you have given it a bit more space, you really admire their beautiness. Such huge creatures, and they just slowly move across the water, barely moving their tail. There is no point trying to keep up with them (ofcourse I DID try), so after a few minutes you get back in the boat and move up closer to get in the water again. Amazing!!

After a few days my PADI Open Water course was due to begin, and included were 6 nights of accomodation with a different lodge, right next to my hostel. I felt sad to 'leave' my US roomies, but was even more shocked by the terrible lodge. There wasn't even a reception or bar, only chalets for accomodation. I was the only one in the dorm, but it was unbelievably disgusting. And I had already spent 9 weeks in Africa, so expectations were low.
I decided to try it out for 1 night. BAD IDEA. I woke up at 3 am, with a coackroach..ON MY FACE! Now you try to fall back asleep after that happened.. So in the morning I packed up my backpack, screamed to the 'reception kid' what a horrible place this was, checked back in to my dorm (they hadn't even bothered changing my bed yet: as said, expectations are low..) with my US roomies, cancelled my dive course with that company and started the same course with another diving company the same day. As one of the Swedish girls I met before was starting her course there as well, we could do it together. Fun times!

The dive course was a lot of fun, with a lot of theory (even some physics and science, fml), but it gets real fun when you go into the pool. The Swedish girl Felicia sank right to the bottom as soon as we got to the deeper part, which made me choke in my regulator cause it was way too funny.
The 4 ocean dives were unfortunately suspended twice, as the weather was too bad. But when we finally got to do our first dives, it was a whole new worl left to discover! Unbelievably beautiful, and if it wasn't for the whole oxygen thing I could stay down there for ages. It apparently is more difficult to 'float' underwater like you see all those divers do with their hands neatly placed on their bellies, as I kept on moving both my arms wildly to keep myself from crashing into the reef. Ah well, I wasn't eaten by sharks like in my dreams, so victory was on me ;-)

And than it was birthday time, more specifically, MY birthday time! The morning was spent in Blend cafe with the US girls, Felicia and the Swedish guys.I got a warm chocolate cake covered in chocolate sauce, so I couldn't be more happier. In the afternoon we had our last 2 ocean dives, so I actually 'graduated' my PADI course on my birthday. The evening was spent with finishing all those drinks that kept appearing in front of me, and to really get the party vibe going there was a serious rugby bar fight at our hostel. Or actually, it was more the biggest man on earth throwing punches at a tiny bit smaller man, and he got at least 6 right on target.. It was awful, and when the punching was over and the guy seemed to still be alive despite all the blood, we quickly left the place and went to the restaurant for my birthday dinner. The fight did put quite a downer on the mood for a moment, but luckily the food was great and the company was good, so we still had a good time. All in all it felt more ok to miss everyone on this day than the constant ache of missing my mum all the time.

I am now in Vilankulo, but more next time as I don't have more space left haha.

I am very much enjoying my travels again, and am amazed at how easy things can change (for the better). I think most of all I am learning to not think too much ahead, as it has worked out great (!) so far every time. And it is only 27 more days before I am back home..

Much love to all, and thanks to everyone for the many birthday wishes in many different ways!
Cheers!