Maputo, known as Lourenço Marques before independence, is the capital and largest city of Mozambique. It is known as the City of Acacias in reference to acacia trees commonly found along its avenues and the Pearl of the Indian Ocean. It was famous for the inscription “This is Portugal” on the walkway of its municipal building. Today it is a port city on the Indian Ocean, with its economy centered around the harbour. According to the 2007 census, the population is 1,766,184.
Maputo Train Station
Cotton, sugar, chromite, sisal, copra, and hardwood are the chief exports. The city manufactures cement, pottery, furniture, shoes, and rubber. The city is surrounded by Maputo Province, but is administered as its own province.
Oceania warned us repeatedly over the past few days that the City was very unsafe. We disembarked and walked about 10 blocks through the scariest neighbourhoods we had ever experienced in our lives. There is a reason that the Mozambique flag has an AK 47 assault rifle on its flag. We saw three young girls, aged 14-18 years, carrying sub machine guns and wearing police uniforms and casually strolling through a smelly, squalid, open-air market with rain and debris falling from the skies. We decided it might be best to stroll vigorously directly back to the ship. Which we did in short order.
We caught a no-air shuttle ( 30 people in a 20 capacity vehicle) ( 35 C+) to a native hill-side compound that featured arts & crafts. Again, we decided to remain on the shuttle and use it as a hop on hop off to view the City.
We read in the local paper that there is an internal legal debate as to whether men who are practicing “corrective rape” (ie: 8 men rape a lesbian to correct her behaviour) should be reprimanded.
Unfortunately, from our direct experience, we cannot recommend Maputo as a tourist destination.
Dock at Maputo
Power-walking in Maputo
Will a bus ever come ?
Crossing the street is dangerous
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