Mozambique Part 4 - Ilha de Mocambique

I apologize for the delay in blogging about the rest of our Mozambique journey- so here are stories and photos from our 6 day stay on Ilha de Mocambique:

As I was saying before, Ilha is a very quirky town- one part of the island is a bustling fishing village, while the other is more like a ghost town and funny enough where all the old Portuguese buildings and most of the tourist places are. I think what initially shocked me the most about this place was that even though it was one of the number 1 tourist destinations in Mozambique, it will still pretty run-down and poor. There were some parts in the north of the town that were really nice and rehabilitated, and some buildings with a fresh coat of paint (which makes all the difference) but the majority was still pretty run-down.

The yellow building was the coffee shop we frequented everyday!

On one hand it was really nice that it wasn't 'resort-y' (which unfortunately might occur in the future), but it was also again hard to see all the poverty and people living on the streets. And we were immediately seen as people who had money and constantly asked to buy carvings or beads, or take a trip out to a nearby island "for good price". But it was very interesting to see all these huge buildings, especially that this type of infrastructure even exists here! What a feat it must have been back in the 16th century to get these building materials brought over.. Josh and I often though that no wonder things are so run-down, none of this was made from local building materials, so the locals probably don't have the knowledge or the money to fix it!

Walking back to our hotel

An average street

The most rehabilitated part of the island

I think this might have been a school

Church of the Misericordia

Inside the church grounds

Very environmentally friendly mode of transport- what a great idea!

One of the boardwalks, all cobblestone!

The north west side of the island

Walking towards the southern part of the island where most people live

The southern part of the island- striking contrast to the north

But I always find that there are such strong contrasts here in Africa.. there are the rich, the poor, and not really anything in between.  And I often saw this as we sat daily in the coffee shop sipping our cappuccino's and eating pizza, while out the window there are decaying buildings and children selling goods to make some money so that either they or their family can eat. It was hard to sit there and shut out what was just outside the door- for what was an oasis for us, was a forbidden place to others, as i'm sure most of the locals who live on this island have never set foot inside.

The coffee shop- we were here everyday

Decorating the coffee shop for Christmas

The view outside from the coffee shop

Kids selling these bagel like pastries

But it was on this island that we ate some of the best seafood of our lives. After being here for a couple of days, we started venturing off the tourist track and asking around for the best restaurant. We heard it was at Casa Sara (who used to be the cook for a very touristy restaurant on the island but got so good she won all of these awards and then started her own thing- wonder what conflict that caused?),  so after asking many people for directions to this place, we finally found the bamboo thatched hut and ate some of the freshest, most well prepared grilled fish I've ever had!

Casa Sara-  the thatched hut made of bamboo was amazing!

Most amazing fish ever!
Might look a little scary, but i have become pro at eating fish prepared like this!

So it was also on this island that we spent Christmas- which in our minds wasn't really Christmas.. as how weird was it to be here in Mozambique away from family and friends for that day!  But we did have a very fun and unexpected Christmas Eve dinner at our coffee shop filled with lobster, grilled prawns and swedish singing! Which made us very nostalgic for Sweden!

Christmas Eve menu including Swedish Toast!

Merry Christmas Eve!

Amazing grilled prawns

Even more amazing Lobster

So all in all we enjoyed our time on this island and even though it was ridiculously hot (some days 40 celcius with around 100% humidity) and we both caught colds (probably from going back and forth between aircon and heat) we enjoyed the fusion of cultures of this island and the general simplicity of life.  One of our favorite things to see was children playing outside with their homemade toys. It's just so refreshing to see children playing outside with such a sense of innocence. Who needs playstation when you can make a car out of old bottle caps and push it down the street??

So after our 6 days on this island we decided to abandon our plans to go north to Pemba (which would have meant another 10 hours in a crowded mini-bus or on the back of a pick-up truck) and head to a nearby island and stay at a beach lodge for a couple of days. We bargained and bartered for a good price for a 'Dhow' (a non-motorized sail boat) to take us to a nearby island.. we thought, a boat has to be better than a bus.. but little did we know what adventure we had waiting for us there! TBC...

Local fishing boats- the dhow's are in the distance