Estou indo para Moçambique! A Minha Manera!

---

July 16th

The morning started with a farewell to a great friend of mine, an awesome Brasileiro by the name of Nicio. His travel plans were similar to mine in that he was heading for Egypt, just a few weeks ahead of me. We had some good times together, seeing incredible places and cultures and learning of life outside of our homelands. I am happy to have made such a good friend, and I can’t wait to see him in Brasil in 2014!

After saying our goodbyes I got my things packed up because my travel plans were to head east to the sunny and Portuguese speaking country of Mozambique. That afternoon I jumped in the backpackers taxi and headed for the bus station and by 3pm I was at the border paying for my visa into Moz. The government of Mozambique made a smart move, the day after the World Cup ended they had increased the visa fee from about $17 to a costly $85! (They knew they would have an influx of World Cup leftover fans visiting the country). It was good for them but not so much for me and the travelers with me, but I still paid it, and I have no regrets.

On the bus I met a few people, a Canadian by the name of Kim, a Mozambican by the name of Ivan and an Englishman whose name I can’t remember, but the fact that he was from Birmingham and supported Aston Villa’s arch rivals still lingers in my memory. I also met an Argentinian named Federico and his Brazilian friend Mateo. After arriving in Maputo I buddied up with Fede, Mateo and Kim and we went in search of a hostel. Fatima’s was booked full as well as our second option, Base Backpackers. That meant we had to head a bit outside of the city center to a last chance hostel called Maputo Backpackers. Thankfully there we got a room, and after settling in and finding our way to an ATM we headed out for a dinner together.

It was bizarre how much Mozambique felt like a Latin American country and not so much like I was in Africa. Maybe it was because they spoke a language I could mostly understand, but I like to think it was more than that, their attitude and way of life was similar to what I experienced in Latin America, I felt very comfortable and welcome, probably more than any of the other countries I had visited on this trip.

I made the mistake of ordering shrimp at the restaurant we found, and it came “promptly” an hour after my friends had ate their hamburgers and Kim’s vegetarian salad. By the time I had got my food I wasn’t even hungry anymore but I ate a few shrimps, I regretted it by the time we made it back to the hotel, quickly running to the toilet to regurgitate my meal, seems the shrimps weren’t cooked fully. We had originally planned to go out that night and explore Maputo, but we decided to stay in for the night and save our energy and money for the next night.

We all went to bed an hour or so after getting back to the hostel, eager to explore Maputo he next day.

July 17th

Kim and I originally wanted to head north (to Tofu Beach) the night after arriving in Maputo but since it would be her only time in Maputo for some time to come we decided to stay another night and spend the day exploring the city.

Federico had disappeared sometime before breakfast to do some adventuring of his own, and that meant Mateo, Kim and I went out together. At the hostel we met three Chileans and they joined us in a microbus ride to the city center. We were dropped off right in the middle of the city and we began our exploration.

We visited the Mozambique Parliament building and the Maputo Cathedral before heading down to the Saturday craft market. It was an awesome market, with tons of things I hadnt seen in other parts of Africa. Before Mozambique it seemed each country had the same souvenirs and it was a nice change to see so many items that were different from other markets in the previous few months.

We walked around the market for an hour, bombarded with vendors trying to sell us souvenirs of all sorts, paintings, necklaces, bracelets, and all sorts of other trinkets. After leaving the craft market we headed to the City Market of Maputo. This is where you could find just about everything under the sun, form fish to shampoo, wigs and live chickens, beans, fruits and vegetables. Eventually you can see a video of the market here.

After leaving the city market we walked over to the Botanical Gardens, and lets just say the Mozambicans don’t really have a lot of pride in their gardens. What could have been a beautiful place was not well taken care of and was a few years off of being a trash bin, such a shame (again this reminded me of Latin America). After our stroll in the gardens we headed for a place to sit down and get a beer and chat about what we had seen so far. We drank a beer at the French-Mozambique center, a nice chill spot full of all sorts of cool art work and sculptures.

I had an idea to try and get to the top of one of the higher buildings in the city to get a good view of Maputo. We went over to one of the hotels and walked in like we owned the place, and headed for the top floor. Unfortunately we couldn’t get to the roof top but we were still able to get some good pictures. Not completely happy with the view we strolled over to another building that was about ten stories higher than the hotel. Again we couldn’t get on the roof but it was still a great view of the city from the small windows we were able to peek through.

After getting our fill of views and photos the three of us jumped in a tuk tuk and headed back to the hostel to get showered up and prepared for the night ahead of us. At the hostel we met a group of Spaniards (and one Colombian!) and we congratulated them on their recent World Cup victory. After a beer or two at the hostel the lot of us walked down to the popular dance club Coconuts, for a night of dancing and enjoyment. I distinctly remember the club being close to the hostel but after 15 minutes walking realized it was further away than I had recalled. That prompted me to stick out my thumb and immediately a nice guy in a truck picked us up and we headed for the club.

The entrance fee to get inside was a bit overpriced for us (even though it was about $15) so we stayed outside for about an hour and drank beer with the vendors on the beach. After each of us had our fill we then got inside the club to do the macarena. We all had a blast inside, it was good music, nice people and an overall great time.

Time flew when we were inside and before we knew it it was 4am and time to get back to the hostel, our bus to Tofu would be leaving at 4:30am. It didn’t end up getting there until about 6am and after some harsh words with the bus driver (and almost not being allowed onto the bus because of my antics) we were off, heading north to Praia de Tofu.

Hope you like the photos, post and videos, until next time, Pura Vida!
-Brendan

---

Comments

[Maryori]

Wow!
I really want to be there, and buy a lot of stuff!!!.... Me encanta tu trip!! deberias hacer un blog con tu viaje a Sur America... Enjoy!!!

[Aubrey]

A want khow about maputo craft.
About maputo craft.

[Gilberto José Ribeiro]

Moçambique a sua Manera
You have a wonderfull photos of Moçambique and Maputo. Congratulations for You. I loved your blog.

[Avila]

Thanks!
Thank you very much Gilberto. Ainda estou enamorado com Mocambique!