Maputo - around town

It's taken me a month to make a substantial post about Maputo, the capital of the country and where I'm more or less based in between my travels up north...but better late than never. As I mentioned early on, this city has both the tropi-colonial charm thing going as well as the delapidation and poverty you'd expect to see in a third world city. That said, my experiences so far here have been really positive. Relative to the rest of the country, Maputo could pass for a southeast African version of New York or San Francisco. Quite a bit of activity here be it commerce or culture. Some photos from the last full weekend I spent in the city below...

To the left, inside the old fortaleza--a shadow of a statue of some important Portuguese general I'm assuming. To the right, the entrance to the botanical park conspicously guarded by a statue of Samora Machel, the first president of independent Mozambique, and an adopter of Marxist policies. They were evidently pretty intent on drilling those ideals home, as some of the most prominent roads in Maputo are Avenidas Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenine and Mao Tse Tung:













Next up the mercado de peixe. A typical Sunday afternoon thing to do. First pick your catch and negotiate with the fishmongers as my co-worker Fabio is doing (left), and then head to one of the outdoor restaurants next door to have them cook it all up for you so you can eat it along with some cold cervejas (right). We went with fresh caught shrimp and lobster that day:













Finally, the beach along Maputo Bay. Left, some guys doing capoeira, which I hadn't realize had made it's way over here from Brazil. Right, more locals hanging out on the beach with the city skyline in the background: