The name Tete has a certain ring to it, a place you want to visit. Besides that, who is not interested in visiting a booming mining town all around, with all this coal around it? The other unique attraction is the Cassasso Dam about two hours upriver, the world’s fifths largest dam (hard to believe that Mozambique suffers from regular power breakdowns) and Mozambique’s hottest city.
With our hopes so high up, our arrival at 22:00 pm was really sobering. The taxi driver overcharged us heavily and no arguing would help. Our first pick to spend the night, the “O Paraiso Mitsterios”, was a (bad) joke. Nicely situated on the river, it had the aura of a construction site. Better rooms were 100 USD… When we asked to see the cheaper room, we were walked across a garbage-filled yard, past a torn down fence, to a shabby bungalow surrounded by broken down dusty cars. These stuffy rooms were “only” 50 USD…
Being already in a bitter quarrel about the fare with our cabdriver, we then had to ask him to take us to another place, the Motel Tete. Great rooms, great location with little terraces overlooking the river for 50 USD, a bargain for Mozambique! If there had not been a karaoke party in one of the neighboring rooms, after we finally fell asleep we were woken at 07:00 am by loud shouting. A group of construction workers had gathered on the terraces outside our room, sitting on piles of bricks and shouting at each other at the top of their lung.
During breakfast, we had sobering talk with a Spanish guy who works in the mining industry. So we decided to quit the place and head straight to Malawi. Leaving Tete in a chapa designed for 15 people, but packed with 25 people, just finished what never started well.
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