Hola Matola!

Meet Celio, my friend waving in the picture.

I met Celio by chance one day when I was walking home from work. We got talking and decided to have a chat over a cup of 'cha' (Portuguese word for tea). Celio is Mozambican but completed high school in Swaziland so he speaks English. Without the barrier of language Celio and I shared stories from our lives.

Celio is from the capital of Maputo Province called Matola - a place I had heard about and wanted to visit. In the true Mozambican style of hospitality Celio offered to take me on a tour through the interior of Matola so on a Saturday a couple of weeks back we met in the afternoon and headed off on a day out.

Before we took a chappas (public minibus) to Matola, we started with a ferry ride across the bay to Catembe, literally a 10 minute trip on the small ferry "Mapapai-I" pictured below.

The photo is of me with the jetty from which we caught the ferry in the background. In the far distance is Catembe which you can see across the water.

After having a cool drink overlooking the water and dipping my feet in the sea - for the first time since I'd left Sydney - we took the ferry back to downtown and boarded a chappas for the 20 minute drive to Matola.

You can see the chappas we took driving off on the left of the picture below.

We spent hours walking through different parts of Matola whilst Celio told me about the history of the area. After working up an appetite we sat down for a lovely lunch prepared by Celio's mum.