Since Malawi has so much to offer aside from the places I am
staying it can be nice to travel within the country a little bit. This past
weekend a few friends and I decided to travel to Cape Maclear. If you Google it
you can find out a lot about it. It’s one of the touristiest spots located at
the bottom of Malawi.
Since Monday was a public holiday it was a perfect weekend
to go. I also taught a class at night on Wednesday, to make up for the Friday
that I was going to miss. Since I don’t otherwise have class on Thursday I
didn’t feel bad about going on vacation.
I left on Thursday morning, and first went south to meet
Owen in Blantyre for a night. In Blantyre we stayed at a lodge called Doogles.
It’s the most well know joint in town. It’s a great place to go and have a good
time but not if you want to sleep… It’s a local hang out space with a great
area, so at night it gets pretty busy.
Owen and I hung out there for the night catching up and having a few
drinks. We also managed to get a little sleep.
The next morning we got an early start at around 8. That’s
when I got to experience the joy of third word public transport in all its
glory. In Malawi most of the public transport occurs in mini-buses. They don’t exist
in the US but image a car about the size of a minivan with 4 rows of seat super
close together. Usually you are in a minibus with about 12 other people but
today it seemed like luck was against us. The number of people was constantly
changing. At least it was 12 people but we maxed out at 27 people in the car at
one point. Now ride that for about 6 hours.
Not to mention most Malawians don’t shower that often…Luckily we didn’t
have to switch buses. Sometimes people are forced to switch into another bus,
or ride in the back of a pickup for a little. We managed to get all the way to
the Cape Maclear turn off in relatively good time. From there Owen and I
hitched a ride the last 20 km,with a guy driving a sugar truck, to our lodge.
There we met Rachel, her friend Jill, Josh, Fika, and Mia,
all who knew Owen previously. I ended up becoming good friends with everyone
aside from Jill. I also met a bunch of med students doing research in Malawi.
The rest of that first day we didn’t do much. We swam in the
lake, went to a local club place for a few hours then went to bed. The local
club was fun because it was essentially 100% expats dancing to anexpat DJ. Man,
were there some characters dancing… One man was literally in a rainbow dress,
with Tevas and socks on.
The next day Owen, Josh, Mia, Fika and I rented kayaks and
snorkels for five hours. We kayaked out to an island a km or so off the shore
where you could snorkel. The snorkeling wasn’t amazing but the fish were all
really small and beautifully colored. That is what Lake Malawi is known for;
its biodiversity. After a quick lunch we kayaked over to a peninsula we saw and
went cliff jumping. There were a few great spots where I could show off my
backflips. The water at Lake Malawi is beautiful. It is very clear, and a
perfect temperature year round. It provides perfect relief from the sun and
heat.
After hours of kayaking we were all absolutely exhausted.
After a quick snack and shower we all took a nap. After that we went for
dinner, which was quiet possibly the longest dinner of my life. Customer
service isn’t a priority so it took 90 minutes to get out dinner. Which we ate
in ten. I taught all my new friends the movie game, which they seemed to get a
kick out of.
After a long dinner we went to another lodge where we were
meeting the med students. We were only there a few minutes before a boat
arrived to pick up the med students. It turned out they were invited to a
birthday party down the lake. Not having anything else to do we hopped on the
boat as well. It was a little sketchy because none of us really knew where we
were going, who the guy was or what the party was going to be like. It turned
out to be a regular beach party. We arrived and there was a fire with locals
playing on drums and a bar. The birthday boy (Thomas) was also paying for
everyone’s drinks. There we sat for a few hours talking and enjoying the fire.
I even grabbed a drum and joined the circle of drumming Africans. We went back
and fell into bed around 1am.
The next day (Sunday) we were all not operating at 100%, so
we just relaxed. There was a pontoon raft about 100m off the beach shore which
we swam too and hung out for about 2 hours. I laid in a hammock for maybe an
hour. We had dinner. Not much really happened that day. At night we sat on the
beach with a drink and watching the sun set. It was a refreshingly uneventful
day.
The next day I got up at 7 to find out a different friend
staying at Cape Mac had found me a ride home! She had had a crazier night than
me and met a guy traveling back to Zomba the next day. He offered the take her,
and she smartly put my name in there as well. So Robin took me and Margo home
in his comfortable car in about 2 hours and 45 minutes. Then our good fortune continued
when we got a ride up the hill in the bed of a pickup truck.
It was at the house that our luck ran out. Margo and I had
left the key with Olivia in Cape Mac. It wasn’t the end of the world though. We
called Billiot who forced his way into the house by breaking the lock.
All in all a great week! The only downfall is the fact that
I probably have Schistosomiasis now. The chances of contracting when swimming
in the lake is like 50%. It’s not a big deal though because I take the medicine
in 6 weeks and it kills it if I have it.
Tough life living in Malawi!
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