Casa Barry

I've finally arrived in Praia do Tofo, where my marine megafauna conservation volunteer work will start. There's just one flight to the nearest airport in Inhambane, and this little propeller plane makes the trip in fits and starts a few times a week.

A comfortable 25 minute cab ride later, I was in Casa Barry, where the NGO Underwater Africa is based.


It was built by the eponymous South African who, after being diagnosed with terminal cancer and given 6 months to live, decided to come to Mozambique to live out his last. According to the staff here, on good days, he fished, and on bad days, he built.

Maybe it was the diet, the exercise, or just something in the air, but instead of 6 months he lasted 10 years. What started out as just one straw hut became a complex of many cabanas, including a restaurant (specializing in fresh-caught seafood, of course).


It's late now, and tomorrow I'll be doing a diving refresher course and getting my deep water certification so I can help with the research out on the reefs. It's a double dive at 7am, so regardless of who made it, I am thankful for this cabana and its mosquito netted bed.


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