Cowbright: A short visit to Maputo, Mozambique

Yesterday morning we docked at Maputo, the capital and largest city of Mozambique. We were tired from having been off the ship the past 3 days in a row and we even talked briefly about not getting off the ship at all. But you hate to think that you were in a place where you've never been before (and will never be again) and didn't even step foot off the ship! Since we were only in port for about 7 hours, we decided to go ahead and catch the shuttle to a local craft area. We figured we could at least see a little bit of the city on the way. We also figured it would be a hot, crowded shopping center with all the same souvenir type stuff we've already seen.

Coming into Maputo

busy capital city

sailboat in harbor from bus window

The craft area they took us to was probably a good 15-20 minutes from the port so we drove through a good bit of the downtown area. We could also see a nice beach area very near the downtown area.The streets were busy with mostly cars and people (not a ton of scooters like in many places), some nice areas and then some that were not-so-nice areas. The downtown area had lots of tall buildings, some clean and modern and others in much need of repair.

downtown buildings

We were pleasantly surprised when we arrived at the craft market to find that it was spread out in a large park-like area. There were many talented artists and craftsmen selling their wares. We were bombarded as soon as we stepped off the bus with people selling fresh cashews, fake handbags and fabrics. I got the distinct feeling that all prices were negotiable. Like some other places, it's not good to show too much interest in something unless you are really going to buy it; otherwise it's hard to "shake" the salesperson. Some can be really persistent if they think you might potentially buy something.

Ronnie excited about shopping for crafts (not)

colorful prints and batiks

drums, wind chimes, carvings and misc

woven containers

In all honesty, I would have enjoying having more time to shop, but the salespeople were pushy and Ronnie (who is not a shopper) was ready to go within a half hour or so. I did manage to buy a pair of earrings made of wood (I later regretted not buying several pairs) and a couple of Mozambique Christmas ornaments for our girls. I wanted to get some local currency for my nephew Chris, but that's not always easy to do. We asked one of the guys working there if he would trade us a US dollar for some local currency. He gladly traded one of his bills for ours because ours was worth more than his. He was happy and so was I.

a good trade

I'll post a few pictures that I snapped. If you're a woman reading this, I'm sure you can understand why I would have liked to have had more time and money to spend there. 😉 However, it was just beginning to sprinkle when we arrived back at the ship and it was soon raining.