Catembe, Mozambique

The first trip of 2013 is underway! After spending 5 weeks at home my travel bug was really starting to itch! This trip is to Mozambique, to a small town called Catembe which is across the bay from Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. The purpose of the trip: to analyse fisheries research survey data which were collected for the South West Indian Ocean Fisheries Project.

The trip started well. I could not get a direct flight from Durban to Maputo so I had to take the long way round going via Johannesburg. I had thought the flights would be quite turbulent due to all the heavy rain clouds over South Africa and Mozambique but it really wasn't too bad.

On arrival in Maputo, I managed to get through immigration very quickly. There is a huge advantage to sitting near the front of the plane! I waited for quite a while for my suitcase and was even beginning to suspect it might have gone on a little side trip of its own when it arrived on the carousel. Maputo is one of those unusual airports where the luggage has to go through an x-ray machine on the way out and the customs people seemed to be really scrutinizing everyone. There was no reason for me to be stopped though and I got out without a bag search.

The meet and greet guy, Ugu,  from the hotel was very friendly and we had a good chat while we waited for the two Mauritians who were on the same flight as me. They took forever to come through but I knew they had been on the flight since I had seen one of them when we boarded the plane but they seemed to have gone missing. Ugu eventually went into the arrival hall and found them. One of their suitcases had not made the connection in Johannesburg and they were reporting it and sorting out the paperwork. We then proceeded to wait for an hour and a half while the more senior Mauritian unnecessarily fussed about the missing suitcase. I say unnecessarily because long after he had all the paperwork and the instructions on getting the lost luggage, he was still carrying on about it to us and to anyone else who would listen - people who had nothing to do with the situation. Finally we got away from the airport and headed to town.

On the road into Maputo from the airport

Then I discovered that the Mauritians had convinced our driver to stop at the shopping mall to buy cellphone airtime. We parked and the driver and two Mauritians disappeared into the mall while I stayed in the bus. I was soon wondering if that had been a good decision when a man with a distinctly insane look on is face came and peered in at me. Fortunately he lost interest after a while and wondered off to do the same to someone else. Next I saw a man come walking past with blood pouring from his hand. The other pedestrians were doing their best to avoid him and the blood he was leaving on the pavement. My final moment of interest was two "car guards" having a shouting match over who was looking after the car  parked next to our bus. After a little bit of pushing and shoving the dispute was settled and the loser slunk away. I was very happy to see our driver and the two Mauritians return.

Even the chickens were sheltering from the rain

By this time the rain had started in earnest! We made our way to the ferry dock. We were told that we would not be taking the ferry but would be crossing to the other side on a small boat. Our luggage was loaded, we got on and the crossing began. Between the waves splashing over the side of the boat and the pouring rain, we arrived at the Catembe Gallery Hotel jetty soaking wet! At least it wasn't cold and it is certainly the most novel way I have arrived at a hotel.

 The walkway to the ferry berth

 Our little launch for our crossing

Leaving Maputo

The Catembe Gallery Hotel

I was shown to my room which really looked amazing. It has this huge bath tub basically between the bedroom area and the bathroom. I thought this was quite novel and I considered that it would be great to have a soak after the long day of travelling. Alas, the bath seems to just be an enormous ornament! It leaks water onto the floor and there is no hot water for it. At least the shower is really nice. The bed is really great too, very comfortable.

My large ornamental bath

The very comfortable bed

My complaints about my room: I have been provided with a kettle, cups, etc but no tea or coffee but luckily I packed my own, the light in the bathroom doesn't work which makes taking out and inserting contact lenses rather interesting, and my biggest complaint .... the internet connection is REALLY bad! It comes and goes continually so writing this blog is challenging. Other than that I am fine with the place.

The view from my hotel room - Maputo can be seen in the top left corner of the photo

Our main facilitator at this meeting was livid this morning though because breakfast was supposed to be served from 7am but nothing was ready by 8am, the tables had not been dressed and the cutlery put out was filthy. The final straw for him was that the staff did not care about his complaints at all! It will be interesting to see if anything improves.

So today we should have started work at 9am but we had to wait for our Mozambique hosts to arrive. They finally graced us with their presence at 10:30 - in time for tea. So now it is almost midday and we have finally started.

On the plus side the rain seems to have stopped and I am really looking forward to a long walk on the beach when the work day has ended.