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Published: March 2nd 2007
Maputo Fish Market
You go around buying fish, prawns, Lobster, Calamari fresh in the local market and choose a restaurant where they prepare it for you. Its a good bargain as long as you pay attention to the real weight. From left to right: Fernando(Bra), Tina(UK), Mary(UK), I will remember(Austria), Amandine(France) and Claudio(Bra).We finally arrived in a country that speaks Portuguese. Be able to talk Portuguese with people in the streets is a sensation that has long been forgotten. But, the Portuguese in Mozambique is not like in Brasil. For most of the people is a second language. They learn at home their native language and Portuguese in the schools.
Entering Mozambique was great adrenalin! We knew that in English ex-colonies you should drive in the left side
(or wrong side) of the road
(like England), but Mozambique was a Portuguese ex-colony. By logic we should change lanes from left in Swaziland to right in Mozambique. And that was what we did. The road was almost empty, so the first car came and as he wasn't properly in the road, he passed us by the left without any problems. From that, we concluded that we were correct, until a few kilometers down the road when we saw a whole line of car coming in the same lane we were. Giving us light signals and tooting the horn at us. What are these people doing??? What are they doing in my lane???
Shiiiiiiiiit, we are in the wroooooong lane!!! (Sound of breaks) We
Portuguese Memorial
Memorial, of the soldiers, of the great war at Maputo. Similar to the ones back in Brasil. Our first Portuguese colony resemblance. came to the correct side at the last minute. That was close!! So for everyone information, Mozambique you need to drive in the left side of the road! Uff.
The trip until Maputo happened without extra surprises. Maputo, is nothing like the cities of the neighbor countries
(South Africa and Swaziland). Heaps of garbage cover more than half of some streets and potholes are as frequent as the asphalt itself. But, despite the physical aspect, the city has something special, the people who live here is very friendly. They have the same slow pace of the people from north of Brasil
(This comparative comment is intentional, so if you don't understand you have to come to Brasil... hehehe). Stress doesn’t exist in their vocabulary
(Not even in the Portuguese language, it's taken from English... hehehe). We spend three days around the city. Their isn't much to see and the beach is also not nice. But is a worth to visit place
(How contradictory). Supposed to be one of the parting places in Africa, but we couldn't find anything open in the week days we where there.
Next destination from Maputo was Tofo. About 400Km north, is a paradise
Relaxation
A glimpse of our view during our stay in Tofo beach. So stressing!!! Hehehe of clean blue water, palm trees over the white sand in tropical temperatures. Everything you imagine when you close your eyes and dream of perfect place to be. We didn’t have plans to stay long, but we ended up a week over there
(Ahhh, forgot to say, when we left Maputo two more girls, Mary and Tina, joined our crazy mobile. Yes, the two of us and four girls 😉 ). Diving spirit came to air, we decided to do a deep diving to see the Manta rays
(this is the best place on the planet to see them), Amandine and Tina decided to do the basic diving certificate, Mary dived at least 3000 times
(we didn't do a single dive that she wasn't together) and Bek, well she doesn't like water.
After a lot of sun and crystal clear water we went north again. More 400 kilometers and more nice beaches and crystal clear waters. This time the place was Vilankulos. Sadly, Amandine left us in the airport to go back home. She took a small airplane to Johannesburg. We spend at Vilankulos just a two days. No diving or Island tour for us this time. From there,
Tofo beach
Yes, Mozambique’s beach are like a dream. White sand, clear water, coconut trees all around and a few bungalows with hammocks. we drove up for two days, dropping off the girls
(Mary and Tina) almost in the border with Malawi and continuing to Zambia.
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Amandine
non-member comment
sweet holidays...
...and hard to concentrate in my work this afternoon after reading the Mozambique part of your travel blog! lots of marvellous remembers... obrigada e bom viagem. de gros bisous à tous les deux et à Bek.