Mozambique fast facts
GDP (PPP): $1400
Population: ~21 million
Capital City: Maputo
Official languages: Portuguese
Primary Exports: Cashews, shrimp, fish, cotton, citrus fruits
Religion: ~35% Catholic,~12% Non-Catholic Christian, ~20% Zionist, ~8% Muslim
Independence: 1975
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For example, we had lunch at the intersection of Avenue Mao Tse Tung and Avenue Kim Il Sung…
What an address!
The beautiful Hotel Polana (didn’t stay there)
Occasionally you can feel the Portuguese influence in the people and food, especially in a particular fondness for a spicy condiment called “peri-peri” sauce. Fiery and quite tasty.
In Maputo, we visited the Museum of Natural History and I was terrified by the vast collection of creepy taxidermy there: taxidermy on the order of an entire floor filled with dusty relics of wildlife, posed as still life on the African tundra. Specimens such as whole lions, positioned mid-pounce with fangs bared and gleaming yellow eyeballs, were truly the stuff of nightmares.
We also stopped to watch a peculiar boat race along the city’s waterfront, where brightly colored and futuristic-looking aerodynamic things zipped along the surface of the water.
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A dash of sparsely
Mozambique is the 3rd least densely populated African country, which is so diametrically opposed to Rwanda, the most densely populated African country. It came as a bit of a surprise to pass through parts of the country and not see a single person for long stretches of road. In Rwanda, this is a nearly impossible feat.
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Part of our week-long stay in Mozambique included a jaunt to one of Mozambique’s many beaches. We hopped in a “chapa" minibus (crammed in the very back seat with 1) our luggage 2) an entire family of 4 and 3) seemingly the entire season’s harvests, including overflowing bags of raw sugar cane and a duffle of corn husks) and took the long 8-hour plus journey to Tofo Beach. Bone-shattering discomfort comes to mind.
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Beachy keen
Mozambique has 2470 kilometers of Indian Ocean coastline...
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Tofo beach
It was everything a beach vacation should be: completely unscheduled days filled with languorous hours of reading, sunning and admiring the vast stretches of unoccupied white sands. Our most titillating topics of discussion revolved around what we should eat (prawns or sushi again?) and when we should get back in the water (are the waves big enough to body surf?). We stayed in a rustic little grass hut banda that rustled when the wind blew. That combined with the sound of crashing waves was a lovely way to be lulled to sleep.
The sleepy beach town of Tofo had one internet café staffed by one very severe Portuguese woman and a tiny market where the scent of smoky chicken skewers wafted through the air and clotheslines of rainbow-colored pants and sarongs flapped in the ocean breeze.
Sunset
Me, atop a sand dune...
