Optimism Through Art
Day 248
Waking up in the cool air of our comfortable room and flipping on BBC world news was a nice way to wake up. We both had a great sleep, something we needed after some very early morning recently. Out our 7th floor window Maputo looked like most developing world cities. Concrete apartment blocks with laundry hanging out the windows, noisy potholed streets and some faded colonial buildings. We headed out to a large cafe down the street from the hotel for breakfast. With Portuguese being the language here and a sweets for breakfast I almost felt like I was back in Latin America.
Maputo was a huge change from any South African city. Sure it was dirty, lacked infrastructure and every corner seemed to be another disgusting scent, mostly of the urine variety. Even with all that I preferred it over most South African cities, which were a bit lifeless and sterile. Maputo was alive, the streets full with people and several markets around town selling everything from fish to cheap chinese electronics. The wide potholed boulevards were lined with fire orange flowering trees that gave much needed shade in the morning heat.
While it wasn’t a horrible city there isn’t much in the way of tourist sights. The one spot in the city that interested us was an art centre. The centre has a small museum, cafe/restaurant and workspace for artists. We entered the small museum which was free. The art pieces are all local artists and there is some great stuff here. Many of the sculptures are made from guns and weapons from the 25 year civil war. Almost all the pieces were for sale and we definitely saw a few that, if we had the money we would be interested in. Outside we enjoyed a cold beer on the shaded patio. The art centre was an interesting place, a place full of creativity and optimism in a country where it’s been hard to be optimistic.
The art centre pretty much concluded our sightseeing, like I said Maputo is pretty devoid of sights. We stopped for a seafood lunch that was OK, but spicy. If they influenced anything, the Portuguese really left their mark on the food of Mozambique. Which may be just about the only good thing they left behind. Apparently when the Portuguese left they dumped cement down wells, cut off electricity and generally wreaked havoc on their way out. We walked back through the centre of Maputo to our hotel. We passed a beautiful looking park smack in the centre of the city, overgrown with tropical vegetation. Jordana commented, “It must have been beautiful when the Portuguese were here.” Maybe, there were several crumbling colonial buildings that must have been beautiful in their time. Today they stood empty and hollowed out. The park was very rough looking and now looked home to the destitute of Maputo. I guess cities like this must have been nicer back in colonial times but then again these buildings were only occupied by the colonizers, the locals wouldn’t have lived in the same conditions.
Back at the hotel we got comfortable in our a/c room for the evening and ordered in a pizza while we watched tv. The sort of luxury you miss from home. In the morning we are headed north to Tofo, a small beach town 7 hour bus ride up the coast. Considering we haven’t been on a warm beach since Panama we are looking forward to it, and as much as I didn’t mind Maputo one day is just about enough.
Tags: Art, Maputo, Mozambique, Tofo
Michael Coroneos
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