18/10: Matemwe

Today we went to Matemwe. On the way we stopped at the Kiwengwe-Pongwe forest. When I had asked Anna, a shareholder from Belgium, about it last night she had never heard about it before and thought I meant something else, even though she has been here two months a year for twelve years. But it does exist; it seems to be one of the less touristic places you can go here, we saw the caves in the forest. There were stalagmites and stalactites, though I always forget which is which, and thousands of bats. It was a bit too much for some, but I thought it was really interesting to see. After that we went looking for a supermarket or something because some were running low on sun scream. We thought it would be as good as impossible for our taxi driver to find one. But he did. Then we went to Matemwe. In Matemwe we were going to stay at Mohammed’s restaurant and bungalows. Getting there the taxi driver did have a bit of trouble, but we got there after asking I didn’t know how many different people about it. Mohammed should just put up the sign like all the other hotels. The guide book said that Matemwe is good for its white sands and village life. The village didn’t impress us a whole lot. When we got close we drove past a boy of about twelve standing with a butcher knife, when he say us he made a motion like he was going to cut his throat, but he was staring straight at us. A little while later Sofie was taking a picture out the window of a house or something, but a little away a group was sitting. It is never a good idea to take a picture of a person without asking, especially if they are Muslim.  One of the women in the group started yelling all kinds of weird things about a camera and it was the very angry kind of yelling. Mohammed is very nice and charming and so is the rest of his family after you get over the first stares. His bungalows are just back from the beach, so a very short walk away and there is a lot of seafood on the menu. After we ate lunch we just relaxed for the rest of the day. I slept a little, read and watched an episode of breaking Bad with Sofie. After dinner we had to go to bed early as we are going snorkeling tomorrow around the Mnemba atoll which is supposed to be really breathtaking, so let’s see how it goes.