{"id":1787,"date":"2011-05-09T11:57:28","date_gmt":"2011-05-09T11:57:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.faceofmalawi.com\/?p=1787"},"modified":"2011-05-09T11:57:28","modified_gmt":"2011-05-09T11:57:28","slug":"zoa-on-malawi-wandering-scholar-now-in-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/2011\/05\/09\/zoa-on-malawi-wandering-scholar-now-in-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Zoa on Malawi | Wandering Scholar | Now in Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

\"\"After a week of enjoying the thundering roar of the world\u2019s largest waterfall, I rode four overly-crowded buses across Zambia to Malawi.\u00a0 The 700km journey was fast by African standards \u2014 only three days.\u00a0 Though Zambia has friendly people and lots of things to see and do, I\u2019d heard that Malawi is even better.\u00a0 Yes, Malawi is great!<\/p>\n

My first stop in Malawi was the Zomba Plateau in the south.\u00a0 It\u2019s a range of jungled mountains, with peaks at about 2000 meters, filled with birds and baboons.\u00a0 I rented a rustic cabin by a stream for a few days, climbed some peaks, watched birds, washed myself under waterfalls, and cooked over an open fire.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>View of southern Malawi from the Zomba Plateau<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

From Zomba, I bused north to Monkey Bay at the south end of Lake Malawi.\u00a0 This is a touristy spot, with some nice beaches, and my last internet cafe for a while.\u00a0 The main reason for coming here is to catch the Ilala Ferry, which does a weekly circuit of the lake.\u00a0 Monkey Bay is its southernmost port of call.<\/p>\n

The Ilala is a leisurely boat.\u00a0 It took about 36 hours to travel 200 km up the lake, stopping regularly at fishing villages to pick up and drop off passengers and their goods on both sides of the lake.\u00a0 If you should ever find yourself on the Ilala, be sure to pay the extra few dollars to travel first class.\u00a0 The first class bar is a great place for travelers to meet and swap stories.\u00a0 The view from the top deck of the mountains of Mozambique is well worth it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Ilala Ferry at sunset<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Ilala took me to Likoma, a sunny island with 17 square kilometers of rolling hills, baobab trees, fishing villages, and postcard-perfect beaches.\u00a0 I checked into a backpacker\u2019s lodge called Mango Drift<\/a> where I found paradise for $20 a day \u2014 including meals, cold beer, snorkel gear and kayaks.\u00a0 Lake Malawi is famous for its crystal clear, fresh water and its thousands of colorful fish, found nowhere else on Earth.\u00a0 Likoma Island is so idyllic that I considered it good news when the Ilala Ferry reported a mechanical breakdown \u2026 which would delay anyone\u2019s departure from the island for a few days.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The beach at Mango Drift<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Likoma Island is also famous for its Anglican cathedral.\u00a0 At 100 meters long and 30 meters wide, it\u2019s the largest church in central Africa.\u00a0 The regular Sunday church service, with attendance of 1500-2000 enthusiastic parishioners and seven choirs singing and dancing, is inspiring!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>St.Peter’s Cathedral, Likoma Island, Malawi<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Did I mention the food?\u00a0 On Likoma Island, one lives on fresh lake fish, fruits, corn, and nishima (made from corn), all with Portuguese flavorings \u2014 due to our close proximity to Mozambique.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Fishermen, Likoma Island, Malawi<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I ended up staying on Likoma Island for 9 days, which gave me a chance to get to know some of the island\u2019s residents.\u00a0 I met the high school science teacher at church.\u00a0 A couple of days later, I was volunteering at the local school.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Yofu High School science students, Likuma Island<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Eventually, the Ilala was repaired, so it resumed its service on Lake Malawi.\u00a0 It was with some regret that I reboarded the ferry and left paradise.\u00a0 Tanzania and Kenya are calling.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a week of enjoying the thundering roar of the world\u2019s largest waterfall, I rode four overly-crowded buses across Zambia […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1788,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[251],"tags":[375,258,211],"class_list":["post-1787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tourism","tag-likoma-island","tag-malawi","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}