Mystical Mozambique

April 2, Mozambique

Today we are in Maputo, Mazambique.  It is an amazingly modern city- much more developed than we expected.  We took a ship’s tour to see the highlights of the city.  We had a fabulous guide named Eurico.  He spoke wonderful English and took the time to explain lots of facts and information to us.  

Maputo syline

 

1910 Railroad station

We started out at the 100 year old railway station.  It was built in  1910 by Gustav Eiffel- of the tower fame.  He also built an Iron Building here that we visited as well.   The railway station has stayed in wonderful condition which is amazing since our guide said there has been no restoration done over the years.  They still use the station today.

 

 

central market

 

 

 

 

 

fish market

We also went to a local market where they had beautiful fresh produce.  We picked up some hot chili peppers for the crew.  “C” got some lemons, they are actually green and bumpy here.  In the back part of the market, there is a fish area.  They had some amazing looking shrimp and prawns.  They also had some huge crabs as well as clams.  All very fresh as there was minimal smells.  The market was very clean. Our guide explained it was one of 18 in the city.  They also have supermarkets.

crabs for sale

giant prawns

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

mosque across from market

 

 

 

Across from the market, there was a beautiful mosque.  It was a wonderful light green color- almost like a sea foam color.  The country is 56% Christian and 14% Muslim.  We really didn’t see a lot of women in Muslim garb, far less than other areas. 

 

Independence Square

 

 

 

After the market, we drove to the Iron Building, passing Independence Square along the way.  There is a statue of their first president there.  There is also a huge cathedral in the area.  The Iron Building was quite warm since it wasn’t the most suitable of material for the tropic environment.  Our guide, actually worked in the building at one point as a graphic designer.  He showed us some of his work in the building. 

Iron Building

 

Natural History Museum

The most fascinating part of the trip was probably their Natural History museum.  They have some wonderful stuffed specimens of native animals.  They also had an exhibit showing artifacts from the native ways of life.  There were pictures showing the basket weaving process.  The interesting thing to us was the fact the men do it in Mozambique, unlike South America where it is done by the females.  Our guide confirmed it is still done by men today.

 

We headed to the craft flea market next.  There were some fabulous examples of carvings and batik there.  “C” got a cool balancing crane.  Our final activity was to drive out to the beach area.  This lead us through some high end residential areas and through the embassy/consulate row.  The Chinese are building a huge embassy right next to the President’s house.  They have invested heavily in the country and Africa in general.  The US is building a new complex near the beach as well. 

roadside markets

While driving through this area, we saw our Head of Hotel, Henk, and his wife Crystal, out on their tandem bike for a ride.  We ran into them again on the coastal road.  This area reminded me of the Costa del Sol in Spain.  It really was a surprising aspect to the country. 

coastal shoreline

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised at how far the country has advanced since their civil war ended.  I was expecting a developing country and it really was much more modern than I expected.  Again it was clean and the people looked very healthy and well nourished.  They were overall very welcoming to tourists and were not too aggressive on their street vending, especially compared to other areas we have visited.

Tomorrow we go on a safari.  We cannot wait.  Hopefully we will see elephants there as it is a big enough reserve for them to  have them.