Maputo fish market, shopping our lunch
The fish market is actually the only place in Maputo where you meet tourists. So I was not too surprised to detect familiar faces on a neighboring table. Matt, an American and Eric, a Swede, whom I had met in Vilankulo and Tofo. We joined forces and still could not finish everything. With the tourists come throngs of street vendors selling everything from paintings, cameras, woodcarvings, bracelets, Apple tablets… This can be a bit annoying.
Eric had lived in Maputo the previous year and kept fantasizing about this bar in the city’s train station. So off we went in a cab and walked all over the place. The bar is long gone but luckily we went there. The building itself is absolutely stunning, so very colonial.
Eric and Matt were no exception, at Fatima’s all of Jason’s friends had checked in and they had quite a story to tell. The previous night they were stopped by the police in the streets and three of them did not carry their passport. They were taken along and later on “fined”. I always thought that these stories are rumors, like the one that people have copies made of their passport approved by a notary. But it is all true!
My last two nights in Mozambique combined the good and the ugly: arriving from Tofo, all worn out and tired, I could not see myself in a dorm. All I wanted was sleeping in, long and undisturbed. Fatima had only dorms that night, so they passed me on to their next-door neighbor, the Kenya Bed & Breakfast: the all African middle class hotel experience, for 111 USD! I got an okay room, a brand new flat screen TV, a telephone and a broken scale. None of the mentioned was needed, but some light in the bathroom would have been appreciated. At least I did not see, but only feel the shower door falling onto me when I took a shower in the dark…
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