Yesterday was our first weekend day and that meant that we finally get some free time. To spend the free time, we booked a guided trip to the Maputo Elephant Reserve, which isn't too far away from the city and is a small wildlife sanctuary where they are reintroducing animals to the region. Many of the animals were killed during the civil war for meet and there are virtually none left in the area, so this reintroduction program brings some herbivores back to the area.
The day started at 5 am when we met with our guide to make it to the ferry for the first ferry ride across the bay towards the reserve. It was a pretty chaotic scene at 5:30 in the morning. While talking with the guide, we saw a crazy driver speeding down the road (probably drunk) in a Lexus. He ran straight into this barricade that was protected the department of defense, which was probably not the best place to run into. The Lexus hopped up the curb and somehow managed mount a 3 foot tall cement post before coming to a stop. Lots of people rushed to the scene and amazingly nobody was hurt. The army guards on duty were there and eventually the driver had a friend pick him up and they went screeching away in a new vehicle, where they peeled out for 5 seconds prior to the departure. They left the Lexus as is. Perhaps there was a lower class employee of the driver that came to the scene as a stand in for the driver to take the rap. During this time, the police arrived on the scene in 5 minutes, but they were only interested in giving a parking ticket to some taxi driver that had parked nearby illegally, and they commenced their corrupt extortion practices.
So, that was a morning started with a bang. The ferry ride over the bay was fun, and on the drive to the reserve, we saw the sunrise, which was very pretty.
Most of the day was spent driving through the park on tiny dirt roads, through bushes and over grass, to try to spot some animals. We saw a group of giraffe, some zebra, a couple of hippos, a family of bush pigs, and even 4 elephants off in the distance in tall tall grass such that we could only see the tops of their heads. It was a lot of effort to see the animals in this park compared to my other experience in Tanzania and Kenya. I hope that Krueger Park is a lot better.
On the way back, we had a really hard and long time finding lunch, which was included in the tour but not easy away from the city of Maputo. It became 3 pm before we had our first meal of the day. Things move so slowly around here and workers seem so unmotivated to get anything done with any sense of urgency that it is rather disappointing.
On the way back, we had to wait for the ferry boat which has the capacity of about 22 cars to go across the river. This process took about 2-3 hours, but it comes while surrounded by a bustling market of fish, shrimp, drinks, pool tables, alcohol, and random electronics shops. People coming back from Maputo are ready to buy dinner for their families and there are eager merchants trying to make a buck or two. I think that we got home at about 7 pm and were so tired that we crashed until now, where I am at breakfast enjoying the buffet at 8 am.
No comments:
Post a Comment