Mozambique and Mauritius

The last week has been interesting. We intended to do one blog for Mozambique and Madagascar and one for Reunion and Mauritius Islands. Caught between the cyclones as we were, we skipped Madagascar and Reunion Island and now are pairing Mozambique and Mauritius, which really don’t have much in common—weather has made strange bedfellows! BTW, the cyclone in front of us crossed the north end of Mauritius with 150 km/hr winds and was considered a “superstorm”, while the one behind us was much smaller, crossed Mozambique and headed southeast. It is still rainy and gloomy in the Indian Ocean, but we now have 4 sea days and, hopefully, the weather will be behind us.

In the south, Mozambique borders South Africa and Zimbabwe. This area is rich in wildlife and, in fact, the 3 counties have joined together to form the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, which includes national parks in all 3 countries. Most notable of these national parks is Kruger in South Africa, which is a much-visited area of that country. We did not get into the “wilds”, instead visiting Maputo at the southern tip of the country.

To set the stage, the people in Mozambique are poor—the country often ranking in the 10 poorest countries in the world based on per capita income. (Note: Madagascar often ranks at the very bottom of the list with 1/5 the per capita income of Mozambique.) Since gaining independence from the Portuguese in 1975, the same party has been in charge of the country, which has led to much corruption and a large “have/have not” disparity. The current president, Armando Guebuza, has been elected to a second term and was being inaugurated the day after we were there.

There is a central market (Picture 1) that is in a lovely old building, but is not as bustling as we have seen in other countries.

One of the architectural oddities is the iron house shown in Picture 2. It was designed by Eiffel and then shipped in pieces to Maputo. The same sheets of iron on the exterior walls cover the interior walls too. Interestingly, we’ve only seen 2 of these iron houses by Eiffel. The other was in Luanda Angola.

Picture 3 shows the main square. That’s the Catholic Cathedral on the right and a statue of the current president on the left. The inauguration took place behind the statue on the steps of the government building.

So everything looks pretty good in Maputo, right? No—I’ve shown you the sites on the “tourist route”. Picture 4 shows what the rest looks like. Infrastructure is poor, sidewalks dangerous for walking and everything quite dirty.  Glad we visited, don’t need to go back to Maputo, although the wildlife area is tempting…..

On to Mauritius….  This island is relatively small (770 sq. mi.), with a population of 1.3 million people—one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Dutch and Portuguese explorers stopped here, but did not settle. The French claimed it in the 18^th century and the British took over as part of the spoils of the Napoleonic Wars. The island became an independent member of the British Commonwealth in 1968 and independent in 1992. Interestingly, English is the official language and public school classes are taught in English, but place names are French and classes are taught in French in the private schools. Tourists, mainly from Europe, come to Mauritius for warm weather and beautiful beaches.

As part of the British traditions, there are lovely colonial plantation houses dating from the 19^th century, like the one shown in Picture 5. These are single-storied houses with high ceilings and lots of doors to keep the air moving. Two main plantation industries developed on Mauritius: tea and sugar cane. We visited one of each. Picture 6 shows a tea bush. You’ll notice 3 brighter green, small leaves in the center of the picture. These are the leaves that get picked for the production of tea. Unfortunately, as you can see on the right, this plant was picked by machine, which means some young leaves were missed and some older leaves got mixed in with the young leaves. The best teas result when the leaves are picked by hand.

Picture 7 shows sugar cane that has been recently picked. It goes through a press, which removes the liquid from the cane, which is then made into rum. The distillery we visited produced 4 flavors (Picture 8): white, coffee, coconut and vanilla. The coconut was especially tasty and would probably be quite nice with pineapple juice over ice (low-cal Piña Colada!).

Mauritius also provides Anthuriums for export. Picture 9 shows one unfamiliar variety. This one was a foot from top to bottom, with very vibrant colors. Many varieties we had never seen—could add a half dozen more pictures!

Mauritius is also a beautiful country. On our second day there we visited some of the more famous sites, many in the rain. Picture 10 shows Trou aux Cerfs, which means Deer’s Hole. It’s the crater of a dormant volcano that last erupted 35,000 years ago. It’s 300 meters wide and 100 meters deep, with a small pond in the bottom.

Picture 11 is the beautiful Chamarel waterfall. Within the same park is the Land of Seven Colors (Picture 12). This rainbow of colors in the earth occurred when volcanic ash eroded.

We also found interesting animals. You’ll have to look carefully at Picture 13 to see the frog with his chest pumped up. He was between 3 and 4 inches long and made a tremendous racket. Impressing the girls, I guess….

Picture 14 was a difficult picture to take. This mother and baby monkey suddenly appeared on the telephone line and then they were gone! We were visiting the Buddhist sacred lake and temple. People bring food offerings and the monkeys sneak in and take the offerings.

Finally, at the Land of Seven Colors we found amazing tortoises. They appear similar to those found on the Galapagos Islands, but not quite as large. Picture 15 shows one enjoying lunch. Picture 16 shows the face “only a mother could love”!

We leave Africa now and we’re on to Asia. Africa leaves mixed emotions. It’s beautiful, exotic, and depressing. Poverty and corruption abound, resources are being depleted and the Chinese are everywhere. Everyone has gone nuts about ebola and yet no one seems to worry about the 2 million Africans that die of malaria each year. There are coups, civil wars and unbelievable cruelty. We wish we had an answer….