lisbonchick

As we come to the end of our first year in Maputo, here are some of what we got up to apart from working and getting on with life. Bilene is not far from Maputo so we ventured there one weekend. It is a beautiful lagoon albeit very shallow!

On the way home, we stopped to buy passion fruit on the road and were greeted by these kids who wanted to have their photo taken!

Back in Maputo, we have been making our home cosy. Nacho approves of the colourful outdoor patio.

Mozambique gets its fair share of rain and cyclones. In the few months we’ve been here, we’ve been hit by three tropical storms. We thought it would be fun to go for a drive and were not expecting to see so much flooding in downtown Maputo! The other photo is at school, outside my office. After the rain, there were tons of tiny, cute frogs.

In April, we had a week off and decided to explore! Vilanculos is about 750km (466 miles) north of Maputo and although we drove for 10.5 hours, we only covered 1/3 of the country, it is so big!! The main attraction is the Bazaruto Archipelago that is made up of five islands which lie just off the mainland between Vilanculos and Inhassoro. We visited three of them – Bazaruto Island – the largest of the five, Benguerra Island and Santa Carolina. 

Ilha do Bazaruto has some amazing dunes with a view to die for. Quite a sandy climb in the heat but worth it.

Benguerra island was not as pretty but there were some cool boats and kids to photograph!

Back in Vilanculos, we found that the reason why there was nowhere to go was due to the cyclone that had hit 2 weeks prior to our arrival. The beach and the beach front hotels were badly hit and fishermen lost 200 boats. Many houses were also destroyed to the point of obliteration. A sad sight and no help in sight for local people who have lost their livelihoods. We have a fundraiser going, if you’d like to contribute, let me know.

The beach is a working fishermen’s beach and is often busy with boats coming and going and women selling fish. It’s a peaceful place and good for watching the world go by.

We took a trip to Santa Carolina island – an off-the-beaten-track rock island. Santa Carolina was truly stunning! There is a ruined hotel on the island built in the 1950s by Portuguese businessman Joaquim Alves, who abandoned the hotel when Mozambique gained independence in June 1975. The hotel was made up of 10 buildings with a combined 250 rooms. Alves also built a chapel on the island. Today, it lies in ruins but you can see its splendor as you walk around it. Apparently, there are rumours of famous guests staying while it was still in use. For example, several travel sites claim that Bob Dylan wrote his song Mozambique in the restaurant of the hotel – who knows…

Everyone said to go to Dunas Vermelhas for sunset – red dunes. So, we did! About 30minutes of deep sand driving, wondering where we were going to until the road went no further. A steep climb and presto, magnificent views!

On the way back, we stopped in Tofo beach….

And back to Maputo! I got some shots coming in to land in Maputo on my way from a conference in Tanzania.

Eswatini is very close to Maputo and very beautiful with multiple game reserves that are easily accessible. We visited Hlane Park where you can take a stroll with the rhinos. You go with a ranger and they have a wooden stick they call the rhino stick for protection – not sure how useful this is… You can only walk with the white rhinos and only the ones the rangers know not to be aggressive. By the end of the weekend, we had seen so many rhinos! Never having seen them in the wild, we went from one extreme to the other.

In May, Eswatini hosts the Bushfire Festival. I had low expectations but was pleasantly surprised. The festival was like a mini Womad, well organised, clean and very chilled. Their website reads: each year about 20,000 people from all over the world “bring their fire” to the Malkerns Valley to experience an eclectic Pan-African and international line-up of live music, theatre, poetry, film, circus, dance and visual arts. It is a stunning setting surrounded by mountains. Unlike British festivals, the food was good and affordable! We didn’t know any bands apart from Bongeziwe Mabandla from South Africa who is amazing. We will be going back next year.

Just a few random photos of a farm in Eswatini that looks like the Sussex countryside and a local beach near us in Maputo, great for chilling and chatting to the locals! Thank you Miguel, ChiChi and Madu for sharing this with us.

I am leaving today for Lisbon as I finish this first year’s blog in Mozambique. It has been full of highs and lows and heartache for Thailand but we have made some good friends and had some cool adventures. Looking forward to the next year. But… yesterday, before I finish this completely, we went to the Maputo Air Show. It was beautiful over the river, especially as the sun went down. I have been having fun playing with Photoshop too!