Life in the tropics – The eternal dream

Life in the tropics. What a dream. Growing up in the sub-tropics (of Durban) I feel like I have come close. So close, yet so far. We never even made it to Mozambique, though a holiday in St Lucia meant we came close.

Perhaps it was the films and television I watched growing up, or the fact that retirees seem to always head to warmer climes for their retirement, or the idea of a consistent routine year in, year out… perhaps one or all of these factors drew me to the idea that the tropics equalled paradise. Both in this life and the next. The cold has always seemed so unwelcoming. And even as you begin to open your mouth to mention glühwein and fires and cabins in the mountains you’ll quickly realise they all require warmth to make them attractive. We’re warm-blooded mammals and the quicker we admit it the better.

Living in Cape Town, and South Africa in general, we have a few tropical escapes at our disposal (if you can use that term?). We have Mauritius, Reunion, the Seychelles, Mozambique, Zanzibar, Cape Verde, and one of my favourites (due to its general anonymity) is the wonderfully kept secret of São Tomé and Príncipe.

[Side note: any word that throws in foreign looking dashes and caps and lines and dots help suggest the beauty, mystery and splendour of a foreign place. My top three: The ø from Nørway, the ç from Moçambique, and the è in mèrmaid – cos yes, mèrmaids have accents, especially the pretty foreign ones.]

Back to the islands escapes… and so with all these to choose from, you’d think we don’t need to venture farther afield to places like Thailand et al, yet we still do! Why is this?!

I’d venture to say that we need the resorts to have better photographs and websites, and attractive deals enticing us Rand-rich South Africans to choose to visit there, but I’d be completely biased, just trying to get extra work out there 🙂

Essentially, this blog post isn’t really of much value over and above just trying to tell you that the tropics are incredible, and that us South Africans should try visit our closer-to-home islands more than we currently do. Warm Benguela current, ooh la la. Sure, Mauritius is likely a little pricey for most, but then go to Mozambique. That’s not really an argument, but it’s hot here, so I’m not writing logically… damn tropics.