Elated with Ilha de Mocambique

We only intended to stay on Ilha de Mozambique for 2 nights, but tonight will be our fifth. Though the island is tiny (about 1.5 miles long by 0.25 miles wide) and has few tourist attractions (the old palace which has now become a museum, a few restaurants and places to stay) we have been charmed by its dilapidated beauty, friendly inhabitants, and constant ocean breezes without which the high temperatures and humidity would likely be unbearably (yes, we know most of our readers are rolling their eyes from the chilly northern hemisphere winter at that last sentence, but it’s true!).

Ilha (as everyone calls it, pronounced ee-lee-a) is just 3km off the coast of Mozambique and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The first Portuguese settlement on the island was established in 1507. By 1522 a tiny chapel had been built at the far northern tip of the island that, according to our guidebook, is the oldest European building in the southern hemisphere (however our guidebook has told us much mis-information, so any of you history buffs out there feel free to correct us on this.) It was the capital of the former Portuguese East Africa until the late 19th century when it was moved to what is now Maputo (the current capital of Mozambique).

Though many of the large, once-magnificent buildings aren’t that old (we’ve been told many were built in the late 1800s), nearly all of them are crumbling. We suspect heat, humidity, salty sea air, a 15 year civil war and poverty are at least some of the culprits. Regardless of their state, many are being used in one way or another. You’re equally likely to see feral cats in the interior of one and a nicely set up kitchen in the front room of another with children poking their little faces out of cracked doorways or the national flag indicating government offices on the next.

There is a stark contrast between the historic Stone Town – full of crumbling once-magnificent government buildings, churches, and a bright pink palace – and Makuti town on the southern end of the island – where most of the population lives in small thatched-roof homes squashed up one against the other with narrow winding streets from where the voices of children, chickens, and music blares most of the day.

View of Makuti town from our pensao rooftop.

Regardless of where we are on the island, we can always count a pleasant greeting and awkward but non-aggressive stare from one particular man. He is middle aged, wearing worn clothes and has a long black beard. Like one of those characters from a movie who makes a brief appearance in every scene (think Lee Travino in Billy Madison), he appears out of no where no matter where we are on the island. Day or night, he greets us in Portuguese as we try to hide our amusement at seeing him again (and again).

The food has been delicious. Lots of fresh fish, grilled squid, curries are some of our favorites with cocont rice accompanying everything. A local dish, matapa de siri-siri, is a wonderful stew of seaweed (we think), cashews, and peanut sauce. A staple of our diet has become mangoes: little ones, big ones, orange ones, green ones, stringy ones, juicy ones, pureed ones spread on breakfast rolls. We purchase ours from a friendly elderly woman who sells hers from in front of what appears to be her home (in one of the many crumbling old buildings) for only 2 meticais each (about $0.07 each) rather than the going rate of 3 meticais each. These prices make it seem even more ridiculous that we once paid $1.99 for a single mango at Willy St Co-op in Madison in the middle of the winter.

As we type this there are dueling live calls to prayer from two of the mosques on the island, one of which is directly across the street from our guesthouse. According to our guide at the [former palace] museum, Abdul, 95% of the island’s inhabitants are Muslim, 4% Christian, and 1% Hindu (apparently we’re the only agnostics on the island). The mosque across the street’s magnificent, faded green minaret is seen in this picture taken from the rooftop deck of our guesthouse. Though we’re used to it now, the 3:15am call to prayer blaring from the speakers caused us both to sit bolt upright our first night on the island.

Rich on our pensao's rooftop terrace with the massive green mosque is in the background.

On Wednesday Dec 16th we went on an all-day dhow (traditional East African sailboat) adventure with two other travelers (and a crew of 2) to 3 locations near Ilha. We visited the tiny, uninhabited Gao and Sansetien (we're not sure how to spell this one) islands as well as a beach on the mainland across from Ilha. The water and sand were awesome, as were our sunburns after spending 8 hours in the scorching sun (turns out SPF 30 has nothing on Mozambican rays).

View of the palace on Ilha as we departed for our dhow adventure.

The water was a gorgeous, clear blue (as seen here with the frayed edge of our dhow's sail).

Rich lounging on the dhow.

Rival dhow.

Rich munching on his bread and mango sandwich on the mainland beach.

Carissa in the park with one of the massive viney (rooty?) tree.

Sunset on the east shore of Ilha.

Sunset on the green mosque from our rooftop terrace.

Tomorrow we will begin our journey north up the Mozambican coast to Pemba at 3am. Yes, 3am – we have no idea why most of the public transit we’ve encountered in southern Africa leaves at such an unbelievably early hour – why not at least wait until sunrise at 5am?). The first portion of our journey: riding on the back of motorcycles while wearing our backpacks and shoulder bags across the 3km one-lane bridge connecting Ilha to the mainland. Should lead to a good story…