Ibo II

...Ibo is also known for its arts and crafts. Below-left, an old man in the shadows sewing capulanas--Mozambican version of a sarong. Right, a silversmith selling jewelry made from old, melted down colonial silver coins:

Below, some photos of the Ibo Island Lodge, also a Technoserve client. They did a nice job retaining the feel of the island, while living up to the high standards of a 4/5 star type place:

And finally a Pimm's on the roof of the lodge with my client, Rainer, and his sister Carola while watching the sunset, and before realizing we had to set sail again to make it back to Quirimba before dark:

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: