Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Maputo

Maputo is a pretty strange and crazy place. It used to be a beautiful Portuguese colony, once upon a time. You still see signs of this here and there. But now, it's pretty dirty. And falling apart at the seams. People are very nice, they all smile and respond when I greet them on the street. It seems that the Mozambican are very nice people, very proud of their appearance and their cars (big, new cars everywhere, always someone washing their car) but not of their city. A man told us yesterday that Maputo is not the real Mozambique. I'll tell you more about that once we've seen Pemba, in the North.
By the way, while we were standing at a corner, trying to figure out where to go, a Mozambican took a picture of us on his iPhone. We all laughed a lot at this. The tourists have become the attraction! We do look pretty funny.....

La circulation ici est completement folle! Je croyais que c'etait grave au Vietnam ou en Thailande, mais ce n'est rien du tout! Ici, les autos ont toujours priorite, et si tu ne t'enleves pas du chemin, ils pourraient bien te passer dessus! Ils ne ralentissent meme pas! Hier, Rheal a du courir pour ne pas se faire frapper par un mini-bus qui n'avait pas mis son clignotant pour avertir qu'il allait tourner. On ne prend pas de chances, et on regarde toujours partout en traversant. Ils viennent de tous bord, tous cotes. Il faut aussi regarder ou on marche, pour ne pas tomber dans un trou au beau milieu du trottoir. On pense que ce sont des bouches d'egouts dont le couvercle de metal a ete vole pour le faire fondre.

I don't have time to write more, but will hopefully be able to write once we're in Pemba. It will be nice to stay in the same place for a while and take it easy on the beach. Maybe I'll even go scuba diving!

3 comments:

  1. Hey ca fait plaisir de te lire :) attention aux trous dans les trottoirs, moi je suis tombe dedans a Madagascar et c'etait bien un egout, puis pas vraiment un egout "propre"... pas mon meilleur souvenir ;) merci pour es photos aussi!

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  2. I am a faithful readerm but have had problems posting! Now it might be working. I have loved your photos and am looking forward to Pemba photos. We are going to have a great evening when you are back with wine and stories and photos. Love
    Bente

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  3. Yes, it worked, but it was hard. Keep the blogs coming. You have a faithful reader!

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