The hiatus on this blog represents a trip to Maputo. I planned to return on Sunday, but on Saturday morning I discovered that the bank account from which my health insurance will be paid had been unaccountably blocked, and decided to sort out the problem first thing Monday morning. That errand went smoothly enough, by Mozambican banking standards - which is to say that the bank's air conditioning had broken down over the fiercely hot weekend, and conditions inside the branch were such that normal operations had to be suspended - but three account managers bravely escorted me inside, frowned together at the computer for the few minutes before it overheated, and quickly decided it had all been a mistake. By 9.00 I was at the chapa station looking for a ride back to Swaziland, and by 10.15 we were off (a reasonable enough wait, by cross-border bus standards). By 11.00 or so we'd been caught in the middle of a three-vehicle nose-to-tail (two chapas and a battered old truck), and maybe a half-hour later we blew out a tyre, at enough speed that the chapa wove all over the (fortunately empty) road and set the kids on board to screaming. I have to allow that the driver maintained a more moderate speed after that.
Nonetheless, no more Mozambican buses for me. My next trip to Maputo shall take place by private car.
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