Lovely Lagoa Eco-Lodge in Quissico, Mozambique

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Michelle down by the Lagoon at Lagoa Eco-Lodge

Mozambique has 2700km of coastline and our travels over the last three weeks had covered just a small fraction of it. One spot that we had been recommended to go was a little town further south before Maputo called Quissico. Actually, not so much the town, rather a place - LaGoa  Eco Lodge, 7km down a dirt road from Quissico. Unfortunately, Niels  the owner, wasn't in town so we couldn't get a ride from him. Luckily, a white south african named Teegan we met on the bus, had family staying there and were picking him up. Could we have a ride I said? I'm glad we did, because getting there with all our stuff along the dirt roads would have been challenging to say the least.

We had met Niels the owner at our second home - Sundowner's Lodge in Swaziland a few weeks before. Over the last four years Niels has been working endlessly to build his dream - an Eco -friendly lodge made from local traditional materials to promote responsible sustainable tourism - something local people could run and benefit from.

Kids at the school in Quissico

Well we fell in love with the place. Set in a beautiful location on the edge of one of several large saltwater lagoons around Quissico, La Goa was well thought-out with  tastefully decorated and landscaped accommodation. There were a couple of chill-out grass roofed structures at the water's edge and even over the aqua-blue water.
Several guests came and went while it seemed the weather got worse - more high winds and consistent heavy down pours. We chilled out, played Carcassonne, read books. We took a couple of trips to explore the area walking to local villages / compounds that were well kept and tidy.  There was no electricity at the lodge, so we had to go back to basics for everything.

Martin saying goodbye to the school kids

With two other guests, Hugh and Paula, we stopped at the primary school on the way in to town. The kids were beside themselves with excitement at foreigners stopping at their school. The head teacher and other staff came out to greet us and called all the pupils from their classroom huts. One kid was being goofy and started doing funky dancing so I copied him and suddenly I was surrounded by about 200 kids watching the dance -off. It was pretty cool to be surrounded by them all these little black beautiful faces especially as they burst in to song and clapping along while I was still in their midst. They were super-obedient kids and the teacher summoned them into rows to sing their national anthem and other songs with lots of clapping and an occasional child would be singled out one at a time to do a funky traditional dance style.  In response to to all their entertainment, Hugh, decided that we should sing a song back to them and he came up with, of all things, 'We all live in a Yellow Submarine;!

Michelle with Sedonia at the Quissico Market

Oh dear. Also much to the children's bewilderment, Hugh did a handkerchief magic trick. The kids were dead silent and I think they didn't know quite what to make of it! After we'd caused enough disruption it was time to go but not before we had pretty much shaken or high-fived every kids' hand in the school. In farewell as we got in the car they started to sing again. It was one of our most special memories of Mozambique yet.

Hugh and Paula dropped us off to explore 'town'. There is not a lot to Qussisco - mostly shops and market stalls along the main road to Maputo. It had a nice vibe though - the sun was shining, loud music was booming out of somewhere and the people were friendly and in good spirits. Being a little off the beaten track we needed to replenish our food supplies and had fun bargaining with the market stall ladies. All in all, a very good day.

The Bakkie we caught a lift on - in the rain

On the 7km walk back to the lodge, we managed to stop a bakkie heading in the right direction.  A bakkie is a small pick-up truck, that loads as many as possible in the back.  We were standing along the bumpy roads, basically holding on to the person in front who was holding on the person in front, and so on.  It was a tough ride, and since we were at the back, were the most wobbly. We had a good laugh with the people on the bakkie, and were happy for the ride, as the rains soon returned, and it would have been a miserable walk in the downpour.  *Mush