Maputo

Leaving a small town like Praia do Tofo is not always easy. We "knew" there was a bus that could take us to Maputo but without a bus station, most of the information is transmitted by word of mouth. Word of mouth is a bit harder when you don't speak the same language as those who have the information. The evening before we were leaving, we had one of our dive masters help introduce us to the bus driver who was hanging out in the central market and we made our arrangements: meet the bus at 4 am. The bus experience is typical of the undeveloped world, but I can say that there were no live chickens or other animals being transported with us, as experienced in some other countries. It was about 9 hours later of breathing fumes and a lack of personal space that we arrived in the capital city, Maputo. // Since starting our African vacation, we came across two magazine articles titled 48 Hours in Maputo, which made us very excited for our planned 48 hours in town. Unfortunately, our expectations from reading the articles clearly exceeded reality, and so we are going to keep this blog shorter and limit the photos. All the meals were great (we definitely suggest anyone visiting here to eat at Zambi's), except for the one restaurant that both articles and our guide book highly recommended and said couldn't be missed - Restaurant Costa do Sol. Even though they proudly print on their dilapidated menus that Wayne Newton has been there, it is not worth a visit for the ocean view, the food or the long, non-scenic ride to get there. But the flies there are skilled at swimming in wine glasses. //. Most tourist sites were not that special and run down. The train station, supposedly ranked in the top 10 most beautiful around the world, is nice, not thrilling, but nice. Same excitement with the iron building by architect Gustav Eiffel, of the Parisian tower fame. It's the greenish one on the right.


To be fair, Maputo is best known for it's nightlife, but being Monday and Tuesday nights, it was pretty quiet and we were unable to find live music. I (Hugh) did find a place to get a haircut, and I think the barber was enjoying cutting the hair of an American.


The people there were very friendly. When we had a hard time getting the bus, the locals in the street helped us. But then, we were traveling on an unfamiliar street, missed our stop, and before we knew it, the bus left the city center and was headed to some other town. It was a few miles before we finally felt it was a safe enough neighborhood for us to get off and find a way back. We didn't miss our stop the second time. //. We were unable to buy more Malarone in Maputo so the malaria medication issue remains. (Hugh had to take some of Betsy's malaria medication while in Tofo as he would not have been allowed to dive while taking his medication [Lariam]). We have enough for now, but will need to acquire more at some point. //. When we made our reservations to fly from Maputo to Dar Es Salaam, we were told that there were two stops but we could not find out where. Hugh was betting on another routing through Johannesburg (would have been #4), but Betsy won this one: Nampula and Pemba, two cities in Mozambique. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Mozambique