Northern Inhambane

Meeting my brother in Vilanculos was a trip. He had gotten so much larger, by something like 20 pounds. He looked like a caricature of a 10 year old him, but he’s looked that way to me since forever. We were finally reunited after 15 months. Mom cried.

And our adventure began.

The car’s air conditioning didn’t work (despite guarantees otherwise). It was also leaking oil.

The hotel’s mosquito nets didn’t cover the beds (defeating their purpose). The microwave didn’t work. The toilet didn’t flush. The shower drooled. The bathroom was in general filthy. Their was an accessible rooftop to our hideous little cottage, but it was covered in gutted, rotting fish, which tempered some of the appeal. The restaurant took over an hour to cook our fish, though they did bring it to our house which was nice.

The icing on the cake for me was returning to our house after a day out, and the hotel did not have our keys. At first I was annoyed, but after half an hour of searching the entire compound I started getting frustrated. It was eventually discovered that the woman responsible for cleaning our house had taken the keys home. Upon hearing this my frustration boiled over to anger, at which time the manager--drunk at 2 pm--tried to pick a fight with me.

The next day the woman left our house unlocked all day (defeating the purpose of having locks on the doors), of course had we wanted to lock the door we couldn’t have because she once again took our keys (and the keys to no other room) home with her.

Throughout these endeavors British Airways gave us no information regarding our baggage which they had lost during the storm at Heathrow. We checked with the Maputo airport every day. We called, emailed and submitted lost baggage claims to British Airways, to no response of any kind. My mom and dad gamely lived out of their carry-on for two weeks.

My dad said that the most important thing was that we were together. Everything else was secondary. And when I remember our vacation I remember sitting in that crummy little cottage eating peanut butter and tuna. I want those moments back. I wish I could keep them and reopen them.

We took a trip to the Bazaruto Islands, we snorkeled in the clear blue water, ate lunch on remote beaches. We went with another couple who had met in the Peace Corps and their lovely family. Pods of dolphins raced around our boat. It was everything an amazing island getaway should be.

Afterwards we stayed at the nicest hotel I’ve ever been in on the cliffs overlooking the ocean at Vilanculos. So it wasn’t all bad.