Tivoli Maputo

... about bribing officials at the borders, almost everywhere in Africa they were hinted that they had to bribe but fair play to them they manage to almost never bribe.


As we were talking, John had caught up with me and arrived in Maputo. I then warned Joel and Hannah that he was ok bit a bit odd sometimes. John was actually alright and I went with him for some food in town. As we got to the restaurant, the waiter wanted to tell us where to sit but his boss was not happy he did that ...

... out of the bus at Sabie was a huge relief but we were of course in for another hour and a half wait for a 10-seater bus to fill for the short 30 minute hop to Graskop although this time, we were in no mood for getting crushed again, and as there was even less room for luggage we paid for an extra seat and our backpacks travelled in style!

Buses taken so far: 12
Hours spent in intense pain unable to move: 1.5
DVT's: 0 (miraculously)

... s bloody civil war and later as a
school. As the population on Ilha surged during the civil war, the fort
fell into disrepair. Poverty-stricken Ilha residents searching for
firewood found the window casings and wooden support beams of the
fortress to be a cheap source of fuel. While wandering the streets of
Ilha this August, we came upon a man using an axe to chip away at a
large beam that clearly had come from the fortress. He reminded me that ...

... hotel and at 9pm find out it is next to a nightclub that keeps us up till 3am when we have to get up and leave for our next bus to Maputo that leaves at 4am. We spend a couple of days in Maputo, which in our experience, as African cities go is quite modern, buildings are higher that three levels and the pavements are wider that a step. We shop, in the Sunday ...

... me parece muito positivo por varios motivos. Pela valorizacao da terra, pela oportunidade de geracao de renda para as familias associadas ao plantio, pela melhoria na qualidade alimentar (por passar a comer mais produtos naturais, cada vez mais raros nas cidades grande e "desenvolvidas") e ainda pela falta de necessidade de transporte dos alimentos. Digo, normalmente os alimentos sao produzidos em grandes fazendas extremamente longe de onde serao consumidos. Quando se produz ...

... the ferry in Hong Kong a little because the air was so thick and almost foggy. Anyhoo, we hit the other side after I started chatting with some ladies with more baskets of something or other on their head. Essentially I took a photo and one of the ladies was particularly feisty and we started joking in Portuguese. Except to z and j it sounded like she was most peeved I had taken her picture without first contacting her agent. At Catembe the HIV AIDS awareness takes the form of ...

... a job in auditing in London to take a job with an HIV-AIDS research organisation. I'm now officially invited for tea at his place. When he suggested tea I was pretty much all over it, he having described this year's winter in Maputo as "chilly". More on this to come. I shouldn't forget to mention my interesting chat in Nairobi. Portuguese guy on the flight wanted to know where he could grab a smoke, he spotted me flashing my Portuguese passport so immediately thought ...

... Guest House, complete with a private patio where we can watch the sunset and listen to the sounds of the muezzin from the neighborhood mosque. We are all pretty happy to have warm weather again and are looking forward to hanging up our coats for the rest of the trip. Tomorrow we have our first meeting with MSF (aka Doctors Without Borders) and hope to spend the afternoon doing some sightseeing.

So after our very long, bumpy, and sad bus ride, we arriving in Maputo around 3 in the afternoon. We were hot, tired, hungry and grumpy as hell, so it didn't bode well for the rest of the day. (as a result, this will be a short blog :) We crashed at our hostel for a few hours, then grabbed some food across the street. Maputo seemed ok, but not great. We realized that we felt much mroe comfortable in small towns in a third world country rather ...

... a boat ride to Inhaca Island which is about 50 minutes outside of Maputo and a nice escape from the hustle and bustle. The island was quite tropical and we spent the day on the beaches swimming and lounging around. The food in Maputo is also very good and it is renowned for its fish food. We spent a few nights trying the local sea food which is caught fresh that day and was very good. One thing we had heard of was the corrupt cops in Mozambique and how ...