Today we were awakened at 615 to knocking at the window near our bed at Jozef & Tina’s. Realizing that someone was working on the window I figured if I banged around some of our stuff loud enough they would realize someone was inside and stop. No luck. Decide to roll over and try to go back to sleep, but later on we’re awoken to fumes of paint wafting over us from the window. Someone has decided that our windows need a paint job at 630, while we’re there. The part that makes it worse is that we are the only people in the entire complex, save some backpackers in the dorm. The painting continued off and on till 10.

This strengthened our resolve to leave in the morning and return to Zombie. There were still no chalets available but Alisa was in no mood to go anywhere else so we dropped our stuff off, asked Sabrina (one of the owners) how to get tickets for the TCO bus and we were off to town for the day to buy our return (1030 mets, like the ticket to Vilanculos) and walked down to NY Pizza for lunch. We stopped back at Sailaway to confirm our booking for the next day, which by this time the sun was setting and it was time to return to Zombie.

The shortness of the days here has taken some adjusting to as the sun sets just before 5pm and as it becomes less safe after dark to walk around alone, it restricts our movements. However the sun is up way before 6 which means an early start is required for each day to make the most of the light. However, why daylight savings time could not be implemented to make more light for the evening is a tad perplexing. The fact that all of Southern Africa (save Angola and Namibia) all have the same time zone means that Maputo has the same time as Cape Town even though they are separated laterally by 1800 kms.

On return to Zombie we started to type up our day on the iPad when an Afrikaner walked by and inquired; he turned out to be the friend of Andre who was the friend of the South African who was so amazed by it on our first arrival. In fact when a Venezuelan girl asked him to charge her iPod touch through his computer, he bargained to let her do that in return for seeing her iPad too (as he had heard one was at Zombie). As she was already borrowing my dock connector to charge, I was also asked to show off the iPad to Andre, which got nearly all the guests to come over and watch the ‘demonstration’.

Alisa joked afterwards that I sounded and spoke exactly as I did in the store, but I think that just shows that speaking passionately about Apple products is simply part of me, and nothing that was trained. Apple definitely got some new admirers tonight, as one woman said the golden phrase “I didn’t see the need for it before, but now I really see how I could use it.” As the night progressed Andre asked me about the next iPhone and told me he had learned about it on Gizmodo, and we joked with the Germans that it was their fault because it was due to their beer the phone was left in the first place. Then one of the South Africans asked if Mozambican beer would produce the same results in regard to the iPad 🙂

The interest of every South African we have encountered in regards to the iPad continues to speak to the demand for Apple products in this area of the world. Andre himself pays nearly 200 Euros per month for his iPhone contract, which doesn’t include data (and he says he had an unlimited data plan, which I thought was solely formerly only in the US)! Granted he got the phone for free as part of the contract, and buying a phone without a contract is around 700 Euros he said, but then you still have to foot the bill for talk and data, so you might as well get the phone for free. Apparently Blackberrys here have a 10 USD unlimited data plan and are doing quite well in ZA. Hopefully Apple gives South Africans their iPad fix soon, or else I’m sure I’ll be continually offered amounts for mine.

Tomorrow we’re off to the islands for snorkeling!