Ibo

I finally got to visit Ibo island--my first trip to Quirimba, the steering cable on the boat broke so we had to abandon ship. This time around we left at high tide so that we could take the boat route through a mangrove forest (below-left). The trees grow essentially half in/half out of the sea and at low tide, you can actually walk on foot to Ibo through the forest. Once we arrived, we were greeted by a rather impressive facade (below-right) of one of the many historic buildings that Ibo is known for:

We disembarked at my client's friend's place where he is building a really tastefully put together guesthouse (below-left). He's one of the ones who has payed ~$50-100K to the government for the right to take over a ruin (similar to the building below-right) and renovate it for tourism or other locally benefical purposes. Technoserve is attempting to encourage investors to do the same thing but on a larger scale on another island down south, Ilha de Mocambique...

Below some more old, Portuguese colonial buildings erected when Ibo was once a bustling capital city of the Cabo Delgado province. Left, the building that is the home of the incumbent FRELIMO political party on Ibo, and right the main church in the town center: