Mozambique

After our marvelous days at the Kruger, our next stop was Maputo, Mozambique's capital.

I had no idea what to encounter there but was very anxious nonetheless. Similar to Brazil in being a former Portuguese colony, to me our trip felt like paying a visit to a distant cousin. I must admit I prepared myself for the worst as the country is currently ranked as the 7th poorest in the world.



Maputo was a messy and dirty capital but with a very distinctive European flair. The urban design is the same you see in most Brazilian cities and I couldn't help but get very homesick. However, the sheer poverty and piles of garbage sprawled all over the place constantly reminded me we were in a poor part of Africa and that this former colony was not as lucky with natural resources as its distant cousin from South America.

The city had definitely not yet recovered from the many conflicts in the past and its population - surprise!- was not as friendly and hospitable as we had expected.

We stayed at the "Grand Dame" of Maputo's hotels, the Polana. An impressive building with a feeling of colonial times and sea views, it made our visit to the capital much more glamorous indeed.

The sun was shining and we enjoyed our trip to Mozambique. It was tiring but extremely interesting visiting South Africa's next door neighbour.

Next time our destination will be the beautiful "turquoise-water" archipelagos in the Northern part of the country. Looking forward...

PS: In the picture below, Maputo's train station built by Eiffel and later found to be inappropriate to Mozambique's heat due to all the metal work involved in the project.