Getting to the island of Ibo on the Quirimba archipelago is no mean feat. It’s either a dollar-hefty flight from Pemba for the well-healed or a long sortie by vehicle on dodgy roads to a launch-off spot on the mainland, chancing your life on a 1 to 3 hour crossing on the overcrowded local ‘chappa’ (taxi) dhow plus, perhaps even more terrifyingly, chancing leaving your vehicle behind under a tree at the extraordinarily named Gringo’s Place.
The launch-off spot Gringo’s Place
The crossing Approaching Ibo
Your destination? A feast for those of us who can’t resist creating alternative-life scenarios whenever they find a crumbling, romantic building. Add a laid-back population, a tropical sea, mangroves, seafood to die for, a thriving silversmithing concern, a historic fort, and it doesn’t take more than a day for you to be scheming and plotting returning to the island for 6 months to “write a book”, “start a business” etc. The usual. (Take away the heat, stultifying in the middle of winter and supposedly fifty times worse in summer. Also, the deafening Saturday night disco that shakes the island to its very coral foundations.)
But this is for you die-hard romantics who dream of fixing up ruins in exotic places:
