Jason and I spent an amazing week in Mozambique in late September, taking advantage of an Angolan holiday and a direct flight to Maputo which is the capital of Mozambique. We spent just about 20 hours in Maputo before flying to the resort but it was an interesting city. Mozambique was also a Portuguese colony who gained independence about the same time as Angola and like Angola they quickly fell into civil war. Their war was roughly 15 years and followed similar story lines of Angola, communist involvement along with some geographic lines drawn in the sand. One difference is they had 2 leaders (of the winning party) killed during the war - one by a package bomb and one by a deliberate plane crash. Makes me realize why the Angola president is so highly guarded. Unlike Angola the rebel forces are still VERY active in Mozambique, most recently bringing the rebel military to the middle of the country and shutting down the main road for 2+ years. Just this year they resolved that issue and people can move freely. And yes the rebels have a military, it seems like that was not turned over during the truce.
Maputo is similar to Luanda but much nicer! The first thing we noticed was how clean the streets were! The city if obviously better maintained and there is less obvious signs of poverty everywhere. We did see some of the typical things from Angola like street vendors but the number was a lot less. They also have traffic lights and don't drive crazy which was a surprise. And they drive on the left which was weird since Portuguese colonies typically don't but we learned that it is due to the proximity to South Africa (their southern neighbor). People were very nice and everyone seems to speak some English including the beggar at the airport trying to hustle money from tourists! We stayed at the Polanao Hotel which is an old Portuguese building on the water, very beautiful building much nicer then anything in Luanda.
The next morning we had a helicopter flight to the resort at 11:30am but I really wanted to see the sights of Maputo so I arranged a private city tour with a local guide. There are a few companies that do tours- unlike Luanda which has nothing really. We took a taxi (taxi are pretty nice, you agree upon a price before getting in but it was not haggling just a confirmation, very cheap too) to the Cathedral and meet our guide. He spoke great English and had a ton to tell us. The tour was supposed to be 1-1.5 hours but if we did not have a flight to catch I am pretty sure he would have provided a 3 hour tour! Maputo has protected many of the original building and historic sights and there are good stories to hear. After the tour our guide helped us negotiate a price for a ride back to the hotel - we ended up in a tuk-tuk - I was assured it was safe and it was much nicer and fun then the taxi! Overall Maputo was nice - not a destination in itself maybe but as a stop over it was great. I really wanted to see what a country with such similar history to Angola could do with tourism. The answer is with time, effort and peace they can make strides in this area but as with everything in Africa it is never simple.
Maputo is similar to Luanda but much nicer! The first thing we noticed was how clean the streets were! The city if obviously better maintained and there is less obvious signs of poverty everywhere. We did see some of the typical things from Angola like street vendors but the number was a lot less. They also have traffic lights and don't drive crazy which was a surprise. And they drive on the left which was weird since Portuguese colonies typically don't but we learned that it is due to the proximity to South Africa (their southern neighbor). People were very nice and everyone seems to speak some English including the beggar at the airport trying to hustle money from tourists! We stayed at the Polanao Hotel which is an old Portuguese building on the water, very beautiful building much nicer then anything in Luanda.
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| Polano Hotel |
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| View from the hotel |
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| The local beer |
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| Hotel pool area |
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| Lobby |
The next morning we had a helicopter flight to the resort at 11:30am but I really wanted to see the sights of Maputo so I arranged a private city tour with a local guide. There are a few companies that do tours- unlike Luanda which has nothing really. We took a taxi (taxi are pretty nice, you agree upon a price before getting in but it was not haggling just a confirmation, very cheap too) to the Cathedral and meet our guide. He spoke great English and had a ton to tell us. The tour was supposed to be 1-1.5 hours but if we did not have a flight to catch I am pretty sure he would have provided a 3 hour tour! Maputo has protected many of the original building and historic sights and there are good stories to hear. After the tour our guide helped us negotiate a price for a ride back to the hotel - we ended up in a tuk-tuk - I was assured it was safe and it was much nicer and fun then the taxi! Overall Maputo was nice - not a destination in itself maybe but as a stop over it was great. I really wanted to see what a country with such similar history to Angola could do with tourism. The answer is with time, effort and peace they can make strides in this area but as with everything in Africa it is never simple.
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| Maputo Cathedral |
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| Art panel in cathedral depicting when the locals killed the priests! |
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| City hall- they were setting up for an event with go-kart racing and skateboarding |
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| The first president- he was killed in a plane crash blamed on the rebels |
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| Local artists uses pieces of weapons and bombs to make cool art |
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| The Iron Palace - made my Eiffel - we have one in Luanda as well |
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| Entrance to the beautiful city park, very well maintained and the home of weddings in Maputo- we saw at least 5 while we stood there |
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| A little hard to see but those are fruit bats |
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| Central Market- everything is grown locally and very beautiful |
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| We tried local fruit (Maraque and Bull's Heart) here and lived to tell about it! |
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| Outside the central markets |
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| This street was the red light district and our guide told us it looked just like New Orleans! |
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| Our guide arranging or the tuk-tuk ride (roughly $2.50) |
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| Off on the adventure |
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| View from inside |
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