First Post

Hi, so Shara is making me do a blog so I don't have to remember to email people, and don't unintentionally leave people off my emails because i can't find their email at the moment. Thanks, Shara, and I guess my entry into the blog world is dedicated to you, even though I'm kind of against these things in principle.

Anyways, so here's what I've been up to.

I arrived in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique Monday of last week. The 24th or something like that. I spent that rest of that day and the next walking around the city seeing what I could. The city itself is fine, lots of trees, and its located on a huge bay. However, there's nothing to see. No real museums, no natural or historical attractions. So no more to write home about Maputo. At the place I was staying the first night I met someone teaching in the far north of Mozambique in a place called Pemba. She offered to let me teach at this international school too, which I declined, but who knows if all falls apart in Tanzania I might go there.

After two days in capital I went north to get my diving certification in a place called Tofo, pronounced Tofu. Tofo is a great beach with a small little town that's known for world class diving and pretty good surfing. I went surfing one evening, and the waves were not great, but it was still a lot of fun to get on a board again. My arms, shoulders, and neck felt it for the next few days.

As for the diving...It was amazing. I'm completely hooked, and anyone who wants to go with me back home in the Red Sea please let me know. Tofo is known for its big animals. So there are manta rays, whale sharks, other sharks, big kind of stingrays, jenkins rays, etc... I did my open water certification and than got sucked into a few more dives and finished my Advanced Open Water in two days.

I've been meeting some cool people, as you always do when you travel, especially alone. I met a very nice Israeli couple who were at the end of a year and half of travelling. There were also two swedish girls, and two guys from the UK who were diving with me almost every day too. The dive instructors were very cool, and invited me to a party at one of their places my last night in Tofo. It was pretty hard to leave, and maybe I'll get back there, but Tanzania is calling me still.

So yesterday I left Tofo to get further north and I stopped in Vilankulo. Vilankulo is the base for seeing the Bazaruto Archipelago, a national park. Today I went on a Dhow ride to see one of the islands. A Dhow is a type of sailboat, and if I ever find internet fast enough to upload pictures I'll put one up. You can google image it for now if you're curious.

The islands are stunning, the prettiest I've ever seen. Blinding white sand, not exagerrating, and clear waters. On my Dhow ride I met a nice couple from Portugal and Angola. So I had a full day of Portuguese practice which was great.

Mozambique is an overall wonderful place. They speak Portuguese, big plus, although more and more I'm hearing that in teh streets a lot of people speak one of the local languages. The food is great too. It's spicy, lots of cool vegetables (like okra), the chicken is good, and they have a very good local rum. I've learned a few new recipes, so I'll definitly have some African meals when I get back to Tel Aviv. The people are really friendly, and almost without fail say "hello" or "tudo bem" to you in the street. They are more than willing to walk with me a half kilometer to show me where to get a bus or whatever I need. I strongly, strongly, strongly recommend this place to anyone, and I might get back here before my time in Africa is done.

So...tomorrow I'm off on a long bus ride to Chimoio, which allows me the next day to get to Malawi. I think I'll be in Malawi a week as I make my way north to Tanzania. Mbeya, where I plan on being in Tanzania is just over the Malawi border.

I'll probably post again at the end of my time in Malawi. But if this blogging thing is so great as Shara claims it is, maybe I'll do it more and as internet connections in Africa allow.

I hope everyone is doing well wherever you are, and if you write me an email I promise to respond individually at some point.

um beijo e ate logo, Ben