This past weekend Jose, Kevin, Nick and I went to Tofo. It is in the province of Innanbane about 7 hours away from Maputo. We didn’t get off to a great start. I went over to Fatima’s – a backpacker’s hostel – on Thursday night to register for the bus that leaves Friday morning, 5:30am in fact. The attendant at Fatima’s insisted that I pay on Friday when I actually boarded the bus. Something gave me the feeling that wasn’t the wisest choice.
“Wake up!” I was barked at Friday morning. “It’s 8:30…get up!” Yep, you guessed it. We missed the bus. So the adventure begins. We decided to initiate Plan B. We took a taxi to the local bus station about 20 minutes away. We heard there was a bus leaving at 10am. After exiting the taxi cab a crowd of local merchants and bus drivers quickly grew around us until an all out frenzy erupted. The three of us (Kevin, Jose, myself) were being summoned from every angle to buy compras (food), mcel (cell phone) credit, frescas (soft drinks), chappa (bus)…and the list goes on and on. I tried to diffuse the situation but the crowd was drawn to my Portuguese speaking friend Jose. The shouts and beckons escalated until…..”Documents please!” was whispered in my ear from a police officer that entered the crowd from Stage Left. Here we go again I thought….8th encounter with the police in 6 weeks.
I willingly obliged and provided my notarized copy of my passport. “Onde esta a original?” (Where is the original passport? The police officer responded) I tend not to carry around my original passport because of fear of it being lost or stolen. “This is an official notarized copy of the original passport” I replied. After exchanging a few more words we were gladly escorted out of the frenzy at the bus station and we walked to the police station where we were questioned by the head police chief. It wasn’t so bad. The original police officer who asked me for my documents invited me to come back anytime so that we could go out and get some frescas (soft drinks). The police chief was very nice to us and eventually released us and advised us it would be wise to carry our original passports at all times. Point taken – I am carrying my original passport from now on.
http://www.tofotravel.com/About%20Tofo.htm
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2 comments:
yo matt...i read some of your other blogs too...i have noted two themes..
-ur reading quite a lot! (which is good)
-and the police are obsessed with pop..wtf?
alright bro, be safe
sal
Hey Sal!!!! What's up man. Thanks for reading them man. I don't want to say too much about the police, but there are some good honest police out there. Can't wait to tell all the stories when I get back. link up!
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