Praia do Tofo, Moçambique

Man, I can't believe how beautiful Tofo is.

The water so blue and aqua in color and the soft sand on my feet make me miss it already.

I spent this past week in Mozambique and fell in love with it. I felt like I was somewhere in South America because the climate was so tropical and everywhere I went I heard the sweet sounds of the Portuguese language. The food was great and the people were so, so friendly. I made sure to eat different types of seafood for every meal and I can't believe how much I missed it, being here in Botswana without those options. I met many friendly and outgoing locals and a couple showed us around town in Inhambane. We went to a museum, saw old churches, went to street markets, sat at a bar drinking the local rum, and walked down alleys filled with loud music and kids singing. Man, I love culture. 

Moçambique has a lot of culture. Portuguese is the national language and you see a lot of the influences throughout the country. There are also a lot of Portuguese and Indian influences in the food and I loved that. Everything was tasty!

I met a lot of great people traveling from the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Finland. I hung out with a few locals who frequented the bar at the backpackers I stayed at and we spent most nights playing card games, learning new ones, and waiting until the sun to rise. I wish I had pictures to show proof of how spectacular the sunrise was. I slept and roused to the sound of waves crashing just 30 steps away from my room and saw the most beautiful sunsets too. Ahh, take me back!

One of my favorite parts of this trip was walking across the Indian Ocean to Isla de Inhambane. We literally walked across the bay through the water to get to an island! How amazing that was! Two of the locals we met were very knowledgable and we took a sailboat at first. We walked the rest of the way and visited a school on the island. These children were so excited to have visitors! We ate some bananas and walked around the island and it was amazing to think there was so much life on the island. Students walked across the ocean each day to get to and from school. People walked from the city to get back to this small island they called home. This was an amazing experience. We waited (40 minutes) until the tides were low enough to walk the entire way back from the island to town. I felt the soft sand on my feet, tiny crabs grazing my ankles, and schools of baby fish swimming past my legs. It was one of the best experiences of my life.

Mozambique has made it up to the top of my list of one of my favorite places I've traveled to. I really, really loved it. The culture is so vibrant - the people, the food, and the land are bursting with color and beauty. I really want to go back one day.

Moçambique, abrigado!