We’ve been here in Pemba, Mozambique for a little over a
week now…it was an incredibly long bus ride that has a ridiculous story that
includes:
-thinking it was only an 18 hour bus ride…
-starting our journey at 5 am…at 5:30 explicit rap music
started to blare through the speakers with only small interruptions of silence
because of a disc skipping.
-people trying to take advantage of the Americans by trying
to charge us an extra $100 because we had luggage (don’t worry…we’re not stupid
enough to pay)
-not very comfortable seats…with no leg room.
-frequent stops for soda and chips and fruits sold through
the windows.
-an hour and a half stop at the very beginning of the ride
to get air in the tires…? (can they not do this ahead of time?)
-an overnight stop in the middle of nowhere…if we knew
people in the area we could find a place to stay…but of course, we didn’t, so
we slept on the bus.
-another journey starting at 5 am with the rap music so loud
that you can’t even hear your own headphones…or sleep.
the speeding bus hitting bumps in the road…shards of glass flying everywhere
(Daniel – I had glass all over my back as I slept across some seats. Thanks for teammates the brushed it off of me.) No, they never cleaned it up.
-another overnight stop at a sketch bus station…we did get
to have dinner…but we went out for water later and quickly got back on the bus
after seeing men with guns sitting on a porch step.
-another long travel day ending in Pemba…by this time phones
were on their last leg.
-we got our luggage out of the back, and red paint had been
spilt all over them, it was still wet.
-total number of hours on the bus? 53…only 35 more hours
than expected.
(Blog by Teammate Rachael Allen @ RachaelAllen.Theworldrace.org Photos by me.)
