Adventures in Swaziland, yeeaaahhh!
on Z for Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe), 18/Dec/2010 16:47, 34 days ago
Swaziland is a pretty awesome place.View from a street in Mbabane, the capital of SwazilandLisa and I left early on Thursday morning. We took a bus, more like a van actually (they are called "chapa" here) from Maputo, Mozambique to Manzini, Swaziland. It was about 1.5 hours to the border and then another 2.5 hours to Manzini. Almost the entire trip was through mountains and hills, making it a very scenic journey. We took another chapa from Manzini to Mbabane (the capital). It was only 30 minutes away but probably the most beautiful part of the trip - mountains all around, with spots of exposed rocks and the typical African red dirt roads visible in the distance. Mbabane is built on hills. It looks amazing with its hilltop houses and winding roads up and down the mountain. Lisa and I hadn't booked a place to stay - we were thinking of just walking in to a guesthouse and checking in :) but it didn't work that way. The place that we were planning on staying in was full! The people at the front desk were so nice though - they helped us find another guesthouse and even drove us there! This was pretty awesome considering the new guesthouse was almost on the other end of town and it was starting to rain. Swazis are so friendly :)When the rain stopped we went into the main part of town to get a drink. We sat at what appeared to be the most happening bar around :) and made a bunch of friends almost right away. People came to meet us and talk to us. They were curious to learn about us but I think more than anything they wanted to make sure that we were enjoying their country. It was a fun time.We woke up early on Friday morning and headed for the bus station. We were able to catch the chapa to Manzini almost right away and once there, we were the last people to get on the one to Maputo - lucky. I should say that the way chapas work is that they don't appear to have a specific time of departure. Instead they leave when they get full :)Our chapa driver shopping on the way to MozambiqueApparently many people from Mozambique go shopping in Swaziland so the chapa back to Maputo was carrying a lot more than just the passengers (and it was going slower, too). An hour away from Manzini the driver stopped on the side of the road where a woman was selling potatoes. He bought himself a couple bags :) and soon after we were on our way again.My awesome new passport stampdated December 17, 2011!At the border I had to get my new visa. Mozambican visas are pretty expensive (especially when bought at the border). It cost nearly 90 USD for a 30-day, single entry visa. Luckily VSO is covering this expense (as well as the travel to and from the border). In addition to the visa I got a new entry stamp - interestingly enough it has the wrong year on it :) it's for 2011-12-17 haha.I am pretty happy with the trip to Swaziland. It was great to experience, although briefly, another African country. I was also excited to finally see a bit of rural Africa. The level of poverty that many Africans live in is most apparent in the rural areas, and it was interesting to see small villages and random huts in the middle of nowhere on both sides of the border.P.S. You can see my pictures from Swaziland here.