We have arrived in Maputo

The trickiest part of the day would occur when we arrived at the Mozambique border. The plan we had was to purchase our Visas at the border in order to save some money. But, if anything did not go right, the bus had the right to leave without us. We would have been able to get a mini bus from this point forward, but it would have stunk to have lost the ride we had already paid for. The border process was ridiculous. We stood in the first line and were given forms to fill out. Almost immediately, a “helper” jumped up and started filling out my form for me. I didn’t know this, but, before I left my job, I was a “statee stic ian for the sta of pen see vain eya.” And my name was “Bradly”. So much for accuracy on these forms. The “helper” wanted pay for this “service,” but we declined to give him anything as he really didn’t do anything that we couldn’t have done on our own if he hadn’t grabbed the form out of my hands.

With the forms completed, we went back into the line and handed our passports, the fee, and the form to the worker behind the counter. They took everything and gave us the correct change. Then they left us for about 3-4 minutes before we figured out that we needed to go to another line. Once there, we discovered that, somehow, money was missing from the Visa fee. It seems that 10 Rand disappeared from my passport during its trip between the two counters. We asked about it, but honestly, there is nothing that you can do. After paying, the passports disappeared into a room for another 10 minutes or so. During that time, Jeremy was heckled by someone behind the counter who may have worked there but had no official uniform on. He really liked Jeremy’s watch and wanted to buy it. It is this sort of thing that makes the country very uninviting for tourism, and if they want more visitors and foreign monies, they need to shape up their officials and their border services.

We finally cleared the border and walked back to the bus, which was receiving a thorough search. Items in Mozambique are more expensive than in South Africa, and people often try to bring items in without paying taxes for them. This took another 30 minutes, and then we were off to Maputo.

The shuttle to Fatima’s Place was not at the bus stop (as promised) and we had to hire a taxi driver to take us there. When we arrived, we were greeted by 4 older men who were guarding the gate to the backpackers’ hostel. Inside the gate, there was a kitchen, a bar, and a number of shaded tables, couches, and chairs. Our dorm had 7 bunk beds in it, but it was quiet, calm, and still spacious. Each bed had its own mosquito net, though I would soon discover that mosquito nets work much better for the upper bunk than for the lower bunk! After unpacking and taking a 4 or 5 hour nap, we walked to the counter to see what we could do for the day.

The receptionist recommended a 2 hour circle walk that would put us at the Fish Market around dinner time. The Fish Market is one of the premier attractions for tourists, because you can walk through the market and basically pick out the fish that you want, and then a restaurant will cook your dinner for you. The walk also included a trip down along the beach, so we decided to give it a go.

Fatima’s is located on “Mao Se Tsung Avenua”. In fact, many of the main roads in Maputo are named after Communist leaders. For example, I have my picture on the corner of Vladimir Lenine and Ho Chi Min avenues. But, the corruption in Mozambique does not end at the border. Minutes after taking a picture of Jeremy in the city, we were stopped by two individuals claiming to be police officers. They waved us over and asked if we had permits to take pictures in the city. Of course, we did not. They asked for our passports and explained that there would be a fine and that we needed to go to the police station with them.

Jeremy figured something was up, as did I, and he said “Fine, let’s walk to the police station.” After some time and more talk, they said that we could go with a warning. They wanted to call a car, and they wanted to make us pay then, but when we wouldn’t, they basically had to let us go. We continued walking down the street to the beach, and upon our arrival, we purchased a coconut. The milk was delicious and we then broke it open and ate the meat. It cost about 15 Medacais (MT) which is equivalent to about 50 cents.

The walk to the Fish Market took much longer than we expected, but we did finally arrive at around 5pm. We actually walked by it the first time. This probably made Jeremy happy, as we purchased a Mango and sampled Black Liche, a grape type fruit with a hard outer shell.

The fish market, by this time, was dark and crowded. The atmosphere was lively, and a live band was playing for the first 30 minutes or so of our stay. As soon as we entered, we were greeted by two people. The first was a girl from one of the local restaurants asking if we wanted to eat there. The other was a local who seemed to help the restaurants by translating for them. He walked us around the stalls, showing us the local catches, the calamari, crab, prawns, mussels, and clams. We ended up purchasing a crab, calamari, prawns, and a Steinbrine fish (I think that is how you spell it.) After picking out the fish, we sat down while it was prepared for us. Everything was grilled, except for the crab, which was boiled. The meal was very good, though I have to admit that I like my food a bit cleaner in presentation. The meals were all served on plastic tables with a number of table clothes on them. The funny thing was watching the people clean the tables by simply pulling off one cloth to reveal another beneath it. I liked the prawns and the crab the most. The fish was good, but though it was cleaned, it wasn’t deboned. I don’t like having to worry about bones in the dark. In the end, I am glad that we went. The atmosphere was worth the price (which wasn’t much), but we saw another restaurant on our walk that we eventually would eat at the next day.

It was very dark by the time we were done, and we took a taxi back to Fatima’s. After one day, I can see the Mozambique is nice, but the tourist “gimme” culture is wearing on me. I don’t like having the on edge all of the time and I don’t like being hounded by every vendor on the street. You cannot stop to look at vendor’s items without three others coming up and trying to sell you something.

Back at Fatima’s, we were happy to find out that it wasn’t too noisy, and even though it was hot and very sticky, we were soon fast asleep beneath our mosquito nets.