Vip Maputo

... wanted to buy something but I did not in the ended as I did not really need anything. It was just a really good experience to be there. <br><br>On the way back, in the Chapa, the door actually came off when we stopped to pick someone up, surreal!<br><br>I then headed back to the hostel where we had a few drinks with Joel, Hannah and the Zimbabwean guy. They ended up going out but I was too tired and also had to get the bus so I just stayed in to have a decent night sleep and watch a film.

... yes I know a Sheppard is for sheep what do you call a cattle herder!!) After some time of repeating the name of the capital Mapito with various different inflections (trying to make it sound Portuguese) the chaps pointed straight ahead.. so off we went.. after 500mts on a crest of a sand hill the dam road split again.. so I elected to break with tradition and torn onto the right hand track and finally we popped out onto supposedly the correct ...

... when people are hungry today, they can&#8217;t worry about preserving<br>cultural treasures for tomorrow.<br><br>Like its fort, Ilha itself is<br>truly a unique place to visit. Although Ilha is less than three<br>kilometers long, it has a population of over 14,000 people. Natural<br>beauty and incomprehensible squalor coexist side-by-side on this tiny<br>island.<br><br>Most of the population on the island live in shanties<br>made of sticks, straw, and the ...

... in Mozambique, smell before you buy. At Beira the minibus driver demands 100 mets (about 2 quid) for carrying my rucksack inside his minibus. I'm in no mood for another dose of corrupt drivers demanding extra cash and ask him if the locals have to pay the extra charge, he looks down and doesn't answer the question, I take this as a no and walk off. We find a ...

... em miudos e fazendo um paralelo com as americas, o relacionamento politico e economico entre Mocambique e Inglaterra eh elgo semelhante ao do Mexico com os Estados Unidos. Mas as marcas dessa historia comunista ainda podem ser vistas, como na Avenida Marx ou na Avenida Lenin. Segundo duas meninas russas qeu vieram para ca, as semelhancas com a falecida Uniao Sovietica vai alem do nome dessas ruas. Ambas se disseram impressionadas com as semelhancas de Maputo em relacao a ...

... but VERY hot wind by this point. For the first time since being in Africa I didn't crash and burn at 7pm. I guess the entertainment at the Stocker family dinner table (this family cracks me up...just awesome...they have a whole chest of funny stories). Basically the day was EXACTLY what I wanted: uber chilled and I am completely engrossed in the book I bought at Kruger at Heinrich's recommendation although I wonder if I'd be into it as much had I not gone there. tant pis, was zo leuk!

... quaint?, given what's going on. But, the scenery definitely got greener as we veered closer to the coast and down the length of Mozambique and finally into Maputo... having been stripped of my hand luggage, containing proof that I am duly innoculated against all sorts of weird stuff bugs etc carry round here, I reached passport control and eer...had to wing it, he believed me (Hey, we were speaking THE SAME LANGUAGE, of course it would work out) and I got through ...

... while taking in the views of the Mozambican Channel. We had both left our passports in our hotel...which it turns out was a big mistake. I do not speak any Portuguese (the official language in Mozambique) and would have been screwed if Megan were not with me. Bits of their conversation were easy to understand with a Spanish background and the main things I could tease out were: 1. California (the state on my driver's license that ...

... that was expensive but had AC (only the second place that I stayed with AC) and was a 2 minute walk from the bus station. The hotel's location came in handy when we had to catch the 430 am bus the next morning. From Tete we rode to Chimoio which was a 7 hour bus ride on a 30-seater bus. A 30-seater bus in Africa doesn't mean you can fit 30 people on the bus but you fit 40 people plus luggage and produce bought along the way. We had ...

... nice and modern, a sign of things to come maybe? Mozambique had recently had a civil war and was a country on the mend but still very poor and rubbish in the city was very common to see. We were staying in Fatima's backpackers in the city itself on the top floor which was not the best thing to do because Maputo is very hot and heat rises and we got the brunt of it so the room was like an oven so our nights sleep were not the best. Whilst in Maputo we ...