Maputo, Mozambique

This was our first port in Africa. In order to manage expectations, we were warned by our port guide and others that Mozambique might be a problematic port for some. Its difficult 13-year-long war for independence from Portugal ended in 1975, but it was not a peaceful transition, because as the Portuguese left, they sabotaged the infrastructure by pouring wet cement in the bottoms of the elevator shafts, they broke the light bulbs, burned the books, disabled the trains, and more. And the new governments were corrupt so progress to move into the modern world has been greatly hampered. We were undeterred and Dean had made plans for our day, so off we went and in the end, something amazing happened on this Saturday before Easter...

It was a nice sunrise at sea, but it was gray as we sailed into port.

 
Ships and boats in various stages of repair and a giant statue on land.

Cars and trains near the port.

 
A train station and the giant statue we saw from the ship, but we had no plans for a train ride.

 
There were ruins of colonial buildings in many places, but there were also special places to visit in Maputo. Here's a map of the city's attractions.

 
Mosaic walkways are leftovers from the Portuguese.

 
The garden in front of the botanic garden included a statue of a revolutionary hero.

 
We entered the gate of Tunduru Botanical Gardens and were pleasantly surprised that in contrast to the streets we'd seen so far, there was not much litter and no people were living in the gardens. It was about five or six acres located right on the main street of the city.

 
And in the back corner there was a nursery area.

 
The trees were sizable and were certainly left over from the colonial times, but ...

The "bones" of the garden seemed good.

 
Across the way from the Gardens was a metal structure built by Eiffel or one of his students. It's has been used for various purposes over the years, but a metal building in a really hot climate is not a good match.

 
Okra being sold from the sidewalk outside the central market. Inside was a large and active market with a wide variety of produce, seafood, and crafts.

 
The area outside the market was as interesting as the vendors on the inside.

Outside the market, we saw various people dipping water from this location.

An Olympic venue. We assumed it was a pool.

The plants grew in amusing locations.

The pool was empty, but next to it was an open-air gymnasium. The roller hockey here struck us as odd.

 
Who needs a sign for a telecom company when you have an amusing, larger-than-life sculpture in front of the building?

 
We continued along the beach road, but after this "hand-painted" elephant and...

 
then stopping to marvel at this huge termite mound in the middle of this park area. We headed up a road to go to the top of a ridge and then over to the other side. This woman stopped and said it was too dangerous on this road for tourists and gave us a ride to the top of the hill and to the next garden, which was our next stop. Of course, we had to trust our instincts to trust her. But that was nice of her to be concerned.

It was fine, but not too interesting except for the view on the other side of the ridge.

 
We walked along the street at the top of the ridge.

We would walk down the slope and make that hairpin turn--it's easy when you're walking.

Look back the other way: a high-end beach and boating club.

 
Up on top of the ridge and down this side was a high-end neighborhood with nice apartments and expensive cars.

At the bottom, there was a huge mosaic on the retaining wall.

We ran into a small group of our shipmates who had taken the ship's shuttle.

Impressive. But then we headed back up to go to the shuttle stop which was a large market.

 
An interesting church with its own replica out in the garden.

Lots of kids, many were barefoot, in colorful uniforms coached by three white guys.

A lively floral market next to the soccer venue.

Here was the gate to the craft, floral, and food park where the ship's shuttle released the passengers.

A well-stocked nursery...

 
We found a bench in the shade and bought a large bottle of 2M local beer to share. It was really cold and refreshing. We returned the reusable bottle before we left the market. There was a long line for the shuttle, so we opted to walk back to ship from there--about 3 miles.

 
Two guys were painting the cement planters in this neighborhood.

We liked this large in-town mosaic.