Valentines Day in Maputo

Dan offered to plan Valentines Day activities for yesterday, which is helpful because most decision making in this marriage ends with "I don't know". Where should we go for dinner? I don't know. Where do you want to go? Well, what kind of food do you want? I don't know. What kind of food do you want? And this dance goes on and on until one of us caves and makes a decision. Thus, his volunteering to take the lead was perfectly fine by me!

We slept in, got dressed for the day and headed out from the hotel. Now, to be fair, I asked Dan what to wear because I had no idea where we were going. He said a casual dress is fine. I said short or long. He said doesn't matter. So I put on a cotton maxi dress. This is significant because, upon leaving the hotel, he states "going to be a toasty one today. Google says it's going to hit 100". Fantastic, should've gone with short dress.

We walk down to a ferry which takes people across to Catembe. The ferry is massive and cars can drive on it to get across. We arrive around 11:10am and get on the ferry that should leave at 11:30. Ten minutes late (11:40am) we finally head out. Mind you, this ferry is packed with people who are all sweating profusely because it's really hot out and we were waiting there for a half hour with no air circulation... mmmm.

We arrive and Dan had planned for us to have lunch at a cute little boutique hotel in Catembe. The directions provided by the hotel are to take the ferry across and turn left and they are on the beach. What they neglect to say is that it's probably a 5k walk down the beach. Again, in 100 degrees. I am not typically a sweaty person. I can do a hard workout and just have a red face at the end but not really be drenched in sweat. Dan, on the other hand, just thinks about 100 degrees and starts sweating. So the fact that I'm quite sticky by the time we arrive at lunch, makes me realize what he must go through on a daily basis in Africa. We had a lot of water and a little beer and enjoyed the views of Maputo from across the water in Catembe.

After lunch, we got a taxi (quick learners) back to the ferry station and took a water taxi across to Maputo. Water taxis are significantly smaller ferries that only hold maybe 60 people and leave every 5-10 minutes instead of once an hour. This was a much better decision. We were shocked when we got back to Maputo and saw the big ferry that was about to head across. It was absolutely PACKED. Significantly more so than when we left a few hours before.

Upon arriving in Maputo, we took a cab to a place called Club Naval. It seems to be the expat hangout. Lots of families around and they have a pool. So you pay a fee (it was 100MT for both of us so about $3) and you can swim all day and they have a restaurant. We didn't bring swimsuits and it was already about 4pm so we just relaxed at the restaurant and had some sandwiches. The wind started to pick up and Dan mentioned it was supposed to storm later in the evening.

We decided not to tempt fate, paid the bill and took a taxi to the grocery store. Stocked up on some grapes, apples, cheese, crackers, chocolate, water, and a bottle of wine. Then we walked home, and got showers after our sweaty adventures. It started dumping rain outside and gusting "tropical storm-style". We stood on the balcony and watched for awhile as people risked turning in the flooded intersections. Eventually, we settled in for a night of movies by building a blanket fort on the floor of our hotel room (because we're clearly 10 years old).

Hope you all had a wonderful day as well!