Our stay in Chimoio has been an unintentionally extended one. Due to the distances involved in Mozambique and the restrictions of a 30 day visa, we had decided to take a bus down to the coast. On the face of it, this seemed like a relatively easy option. Generally in the developing world anything is possible provided you are prepared to pay. Unfortunately, this isn't the case if the bus that turns up is too small to put the bikes on! The day that we arrived there was a large bus bound for Maputo, but that was leaving 3am the next day, which didn't fit in with our plans to have a rest. Since then the buses heading in the right direction have all been too small. Consequently we have ended up here for rather longer than planned.
Finally this morning a large bus arrived and with the help of Anya, the Pink Papaya's proprietor we managed to get our bikes on board. All we have to do now is get ourselves and our bags to the bus station at 2:30am tomorrow. The bikes are already locked on the bus, as the crew wanted the bikes loaded before the morning. Obviously we aren't completely happy about the bikes being loaded without us on board. They have however been secured in one of the front lockers, so fingers crossed they will be fine.
The best bit about getting stuck here has been the Pink Papaya and its staff. Had we been staying somewhere less comfortable it could have been quite boring. Chimoio is not the most exciting of places to spend any time and two days of national holidays has meant that the city has been largely closed. As it is, we have been able to cook, rest up and relax in a very friendly environment. Anya has gone out of her way to help and make sure that we are ok, so the time has passed quite quickly. It has just been a little frustrating that our good start to travelling through Mozambique had hit a bit of a wall.
Outside of reading and relaxing, we went to briefly watch some of the Independence day celebrations (we missed most of them and it all seemed over by 10am) and I spent a large amount of time queuing at an ATM. Because of the holidays people have been rushing to the ATMs to get money before they run out. This has obviously led to some heated behaviour as people have been pushing in, fighting (I managed to get involved in this) and getting frustrated at the machines constantly breaking down. With luck I managed to get money out, as the situation is unlikely to improve before the banks open again on Tuesday.
Other than a couple of trips to the supermarket there isn't much else to report. We have met some great people at the hostel and have received some fantastic accommodation offers for when we get to South Africa. We will however be very relieved to be moving on, it would just be nice if it wasn't at 3am tomorrow!
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