March 6 - Maputo, Mozambique

Maputo at dawn.

Authorities were slow getting to the ship this morning in order to run us through customs.  However, we eventually made it off and found the guide for our tour of the city of Maputo.  Our first stop couldn’t have been more than a few hundred yards from the ship.  The train station in Maputo was built by the Portuguese more than 100 years ago and has been named as one of the 10 most beautiful train stations in the world. 

It also houses a train museum.  There were a couple of very old looking train engines...

and some cars that looked like box cars but were apparently used to carry the lowest paying passengers.  Didn’t look like fun.

In the plaza in front of the station was a statue of the Snake Lady.  The legend is that a cobra had been hanging out in a tree and striking people as they walked below.  The enterprising Snake Lady put a bowl of porridge on the top of her head (no one knows why she chose porridge) and when the snake struck it drowned in the porridge, thus ending it’s reign of terror.  Would that all terror problems could end using a bowl of porridge.

From there we stopped at the Portuguese fortress.  In front of the fortress was a tree with a large interesting fruit (looked a little like a giant peanut).  This fruit is rumored to enhance male performance.  

Inside the fortress were the usual guns and statues...

and a small museum with lots of small wooden carvings.

Some of the surrounding buildings were quite modern. 

We stopped briefly at the Central market where there were the usual fruits and vegetables,...

fish,

and tourist items.

Independence Square had a statue of Samora Machel, the revolutionary who helped Mozambique gain it’s independence from Portugal.

Next door was the Cathedral of our Lady of the Immaculate Conception.  Worth a short visit.

We then took a short walk to the Iron House.  It was designed and built for the governor by Gustav Eiffel, designer of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.  Since he liked working with iron the entire house is built of iron, inside and out.  Needless to say it didn’t work out very well.  An iron box in the hot, humid African climate was beyond uncomfortable.  It wasn’t too hot today so it wasn’t too hot inside when we visited.

The drive around Maputo took us by a number of very interesting buildings…

and art pieces.

We then stopped at St. Anthony’s Cathedral.  It had a very unique shape

which resulted in a very unique and beautiful interior. 

The stained glass was isolated in the very top peak of the building…

and around the very base of the oddly shaped walls.  Very beautiful.

We also stopped by the Natural History Museum.  It featured a lot of very old (and rather dusty and worn) stuffed animals native to Mozambique.

We had a lovely drive along the very long beach.  

There were a lot of stalls set up to sell food and snacks to the beach goers.

There was a snack wagon shaped like a ketchup bottle

and trash containers also shaped like bottles.

Our last stop of the day was the arts and craft market where they had all things touristy from fabrics to

carved wooden items (many looking suspiciously massed produced),

although there were some that looked pretty unique.

There were a lot of basket stands,

many items made from beads,

and even a number of items made out of old tires.

It was a hot humid day but we saw most of what we wanted to see so it was a good day.  We didn’t have lunch until we got back to the ship mid-afternoon.  And since it was a hot humid day we had to have milkshakes from Scoops, the on-board ice cream shop featuring Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream.  Yum.

The entertainment tonight was Irina Guskova, our favorite violinist.  She put on a wonderful show.