I watched the land closely from the air.
Perfectly round lagoons appeared, their barren circumference suggesting brackish water.
That hint of salinity was a prelude to the sea, but no preparation for what came next.
From left; A Sussurro staff member prepares to take guests on a sunset cruise; late afternoon sunlight hits the lounge area at Sussurro.Michael Turek
The sprawling expanse of a sandbar had pushed through the shallows.
The sea seemed almost to act like shadow, highlighting and deepening the lines of that piercing countenance.
I was alone, by the sea.
From left: Scuba diving at Kisawa, which has its own center for marine research; on the Bazaruto Archipelago, sandbars emerge from the Indian Ocean at low tide.Michael Turek
This was not luxury I had to think myself into.
It emanated from the place itself, and I felt it in every fiber of my being.
A feeling of fragility had come to me during the pandemic.
From left: The view through a porthole window in the restaurant at Kisawa; Francisco Americo Zivane, one of Kisawa’s three scuba instructors.Michael Turek
I was emerging from months of isolation.
The trip had to be canceled, but naturally I got sick anyway, sitting in upstate New York.
It had been a long, bitter winter that had made me almost fearful of travel.
From left: A villa pool at andBeyond Benguerra Island; the entrance to andBeyond—the first luxury resort to open in the Bazaruto Archipelago.Michael Turek
The enthralling spectacle of the archipelago was edged with a degree of sadness.
I was reminded of the fear that almost kept me from leaving home.
De Figueiredo grew up in the final years of Portuguese rule in Mozambique.
A roof made with traditional madjeka, or thatch, at Kisawa.Michael Turek
There were fewer than a thousand Black high school graduates in all of Mozambique.
Scarcely two years of peace ensued before the newly independent nation was plunged into a 15-year civil war.
It is hard to exaggerate how utterly wretched that conflict was.
From left: At Kisawa, each suite has more than 1,600 square feet of space; a villa pool at Kisawa, where structures are designed to echo the surrounding dunes.Michael Turek
A million died, and 4.5 million were internally displaced.
That night at andBeyond Benguerra Island, the stars were upside down.
Having been driven out of the country of his birth as a teenager, he had longed to return.
From left: Guests arriving at andBeyond Benguerra Island by helicopter; a staffer delivers room service at andBeyond.Michael Turek
When I asked De Figueiredo about it, he said, Its about money.
In Mozambique, I rediscovered my love of the sea.
Leathery sea anemones, with their many tendrils, fanned beneath me, revealing their brilliant purple interiors.
From left: Lunch at Kisawa includes a dish of sausage with fenugreek, bulgur, and seven spices; the design of Kisawa’s spa was inspired by local grass-roofed architecture.Michael Turek
The sea creatures are icy in their disdain.
Hempson confirmed that it was true.
What is that called?
From left: At Sussurro, a boutique hotel on the Mozambique mainland, most furnishings were created on site; an egret flies over the Indian Ocean at sundown.Michael Turek
A tonic state, she said easily, like gin and tonic.
Once she has the sharks purring away happily under her, she installs telemetric devices in their bellies.
For Hempson, a lodge like andBeyond plays a critical role.
On a human level, she explained, the resort has been a pioneer on the island.
It helped build the school, the clinic, the church, and the community center.
Its Hippo Water Rollers plastic containers with handles have made clean water easy to get and transport.
The company provides skills training and engages the community in conservation work and education.
To change behavior, she told me, you have to reach people on an emotional level.
Thats unbelievable, she said.
Its hard to explain to people how precious that is.
Before coming to Bazaruto, Hempson said, she had only ever seen three dugongs.
They were considered practically extinct until some 50 of the creatures showed up in the archipelago.
At andBeyonds Dhow Bar, the name had been uttered with an awe-inflected hush.
A Bulgarian lawyer spoke reverently of its vast 1,600-square-foot villas, swiftly dismissing the need for digs so grand.
We passed trees heavy withmacuacuaandmassala(monkey orange),from which the islanders make a kind of beer.
Q made me taste the fruit.
It was like an Asian mangosteen, pitted and wonderfully tart.
A blessing, Q said.
Ormuhammarainfused withtinziva,a native fruit, a cousin of tamarind, with a tangy juice?
Wait: Did he just use monkey orange in the ceviche to give it that wrenching back-of-the-mouth sourness?)
Torchlit pathways led to restaurants blazing with light, where Moubayed was cooking up fishpastelsand curried lamb shank.
There were certain moments at Kisawa that I already look back on as among the happiest of my life.
Loggerhead turtles, with piebald faces, swam up into raking shafts of plankton-filled light.
Beyond were dunes draped in purple beach morning glory.
I was alone, by the sea.
This was not luxury I had to think myself into.
It emanated from the place itself, and I felt it in every fiber of my being.
Mozambique is the only country to have a modern weapon on its flag.
You stand up, you stand up, you follow us, they said.
He remembers them giving him documents to sign.
They made a stop at his house to tell his parents that he was joining up.
That I was not going back, he said.
Nhamirre, now 37, went on to serve in Burundi.
This week in Mozambique, too, had in literal and metaphorical ways been a kind of surfacing.
It had restored to me my sense of curiosity and wonder.
I realized that it was what I had felt all this while.
We had thought the momentum of our modern lives was unstoppable.
But it had proved more fragile than we could ever have imagined.
The tide had retreated.
We were soon racing over the wet sand in a blue Mazda pickup truck.
The sea reminds us of our mammalian need to breathe.
This week in Mozambique, too, had in literal and metaphorical ways been a kind of surfacing.
It had restored to me my sense of curiosity and wonder.
Sloughing off the fears the pandemic had engendered, it had taught me what it was to breathe again.
Each bungalow sits on its own private acre, has its own pool, and comes with a butler.
