The minibus had 3 rows of seats The back seat had 4 people. The next seat had a small seat that folded out into the walk space and 4 people had to sit here too. John was given a thin vinyl covered cushion and he sat on the edge of the bench seat and over the gap with the fold out seat. In the next row there was the same arrangement but there were also small cushions on which 4 people had to sit behind the driver and passenger seat facing those in the front row. There was a large lady who took more than her allocation and 2 women with babies tied to them. There were also 4 people in the cab who had to jam up so the driver could change gear. Once everyone was seated the conductor stood in the doorway leaning over those in the second row. He had even perfected the art of falling asleep standing up without falling on the mothers with babies. After 3 hours, 21 of us all bailed out. Luckily there was a trailer for all the sacks of maize and baggage.
As we neared the island we passed several salt ponds. there were queues of women with woven baskets on their heads collecting the dried salt crystals and dumping them in piles. They had to manoeuvre past each other on the little mud dam walls around the rectangular ponds and they were practically running.
A 3.5 km bridge joins the island to the mainland and it is still under construction in parts and has passing bays as it is only one laned. There are water pipes under the bridge carrying water from the mainland as well.
We checked out the only backpacker hostel on the island but it was full so stayed around the corner in a guesthouse. It was a pretty big Portuguese style place with high ceilings, fans, mosquito nets, and antique furniture. The receptionist didn't speak English so we had to communicate in Spanish. He could understand me better than I could him.
All the rooms had a toilet, handbasin and shower and they were hidden behind movable wooden screens in the corner of the room.
There was a huge well in the back yard that was being renovated because the iron support beams had rusted. It was 10 metres deep and all the rain water from the roof ran into it during the rainy season.
We were looking forward to swimming in the sea but it was pretty rough the first day so we didn't go out. Later we walked about and discovered the locals using the best place to swim as a toilet and sewerage was running into the sea. So we didn't get to swim.
The island is a UNESCO World Heritage site because of the historic stone buildings built by the Portuguese. The island is only 3 km by half a kilometre with 18,000 inhabitants. After the years of fighting finished with independence, many people from rural areas settled in Makuti Town as the island had an established hospital and schools. The island is divided into the historic Stone Town and Makuti Town where the local fishing families live. The Makuti house walls are constructed of a skeleton of thin branches. A second grid of branches is tied to the first and then the space between the two grids is filled with small stones and rocks. Later this is covered with mud and if there is enough money it is painted. The roof is thatched with coconut palm leaves woven flat onto split bamboo. The whole village is situated below the road as it was thequarry site where the granite to build the stone houses came from.
In Stone Town there are many run down empty buildings with families living in them with no electricity or running water. Some mornings we saw people sleeping on the streets in the front of houses.
We only found a couple of other guesthouses and 3 places to eat. UNESCO has given a lot of money to upgrade the historic building ready for tourism but there are not many of the old buildings finished yet.
In Makuti Town the women queued up for water at the pumps. It seems that the basic facilities will not be able to handle floods of tourists on the island.
The young men approached us to sell jewelery or to take us on their boats to visit a light house or go snorkeling. When the sea was rough they would be stitching more plastic sheets to the sails for their dhows or mending their nets.
We visited the Maritime Museum and the local history museum. in the Governor's Palace. The Governor's Palace was interesting with its mix of Goan, Portuguese, Chinese (from Macao), and French furniture. Included in the ticket price was a guide who also came with us to the Portuguese fort. The fort is being renovated and has two churches, a slave market where the people were bought and loaded onto the ships, a gaol and barracks.
The roof of the fort buildings had many channels where the rain was caught and sent off to the underground cistern. From above it looked like a large pin ball track.
Vasco da Gama came to the island in 1498 and in 1507 a Portuguese settlement was started, being an ideal place for a naval base and trading post. It was the capital of Portuguese East Africa until the end of the 19th century. It was one of the Spice Islands. Over the years there have been immigrants from East Africa, Goa, and Macao and now there are places owned by Italians, Portuguese, Swiss, Zimbabweans and South Africans.
The Mozambicans in 1960 protested peacefully about the taxes they were paying the Portuguese and so started the warring for independence. In 1974 the Portuguese pulled out, sinking ships, filling wells with cement, and leaving the country in chaos with no infrastructure or skilled professionals. A period of unrealistic socialist programmes followed until the country was almost bankrupt in 1983. The Frelimo and Renamo parties warred for 17 years and the Renamo's objective was to paralyse the country which it did by destroying the remaining roads, bridges, railways, schools and clinics. Villagers were rounded up and any with skills were shot. There are still some areas where mines have not been cleared. Since 1995 Mozambique has been part of the Commonwealth of Nations although it was never ruled by Britain like its neighbours.
