Craft Market and "Mercado da Peixe"

Last Saturday, we decided to go out exploring. I had been wanting to go to the craft market which is located in a park. We took a cab and during the ride I attempted to muster the strength and patience for what we were about to walk into. You see, I had done this craft market "thing" in Accra and it was nothing short of a miserable experience. Just constantly getting hounded by people to buy things and people essentially chasing you through the place. So we took a deep breath and walked in.

It was lovely. A lot of stalls of the same stuff over and over again but the people were friendly. Of course, they wanted you to look at their goods but no one pressured you to stop or followed you around or made you feel horribly uncomfortable. We walked around a bit and then decided to stop for a bite to eat because we did't have breakfast. There are two restaurants with picnic tables under trees where you can have a nice lunch and just relax. The atmosphere was calm and we will probably go back just for the reasonably priced, quiet lunch. We decided on some things that we liked but didn't purchase anything this time. I'm still in the market for the obligatory Maputo Christmas tree ornament, so we were hunting for that. Dan wanted a carved rhino because he thinks Henry the Elephant is lonely back in Ghana. Luckily, he saw the logic in how impossible it would be to get it back to Ghana. Phew. Crisis averted.

After the art market, we went to Mercado da Peixe (Pronounced peshi... or like Joe Pesci), the Fish Market. Our cab driver... bless his heart... had barely pulled into a parking spot before our windows were stormed with people screaming at us in Portuguese. The cab driver smiled at us and rolled up the windows on them. We got out and people followed us, still yelling about something. The best way I can explain this scene is to say it looked like the seagulls in Finding Nemo. A cab pulls up and everyone runs to it going "Mine! Mine! Mine!".

We figure out that these people work at the restaurants behind the fish market and they want us to pick their place. We select a lady and walk into the market. Holy cow there are fresh fish everywhere. Just stacked and stacked on top of each other on various tables. People yelling again trying to get you to buy from them. Shellfish, clams, prawns, snapper, red fish, even eel and barracuda, all just sitting out waiting to be purchased. We decide on some snapper and some prawns. The lady puts them in a bag and weighs them and then the guy who is now with us tells us what is a completely arbitrary price that is probably 10x what a local would pay. Dan negotiates him down a bit but we are clearly being severely overcharged. Oh well, it's an experience.

After we pay, the kid takes our fish and asks how we want it prepared. Off he goes and we follow the original lady to the restaurant. For as loud and hectic as the fish market is, you turn the corner and it's just restaurant after restaurant with plastic tables and umbrellas and Kenny G playing over speakers. The complete opposite of where we just came from. We sit down and order beers and recap "What the heck did we just do?". Mr. I-clean-the-fish comes over at some point and we tip him 100 mets for his help and his respectable English. He says it's 200. We said for what? It's a tip. He argues for awhile and Dan says we'll see how the food tastes and then decide.

Food comes. It's absolutely delicious. They clearly know what they are doing. The prawns are de-headed, deveined and are pan seared in butter and garlic. The fish has been skinned on one side so Dan deboned the rest of it, which was flakey and cooked to perfection. Sorry, we scarfed down the prawns before I remembered to take a photo of them.

We paid the bill for our beers and the food preparation. We're walking out to the cab when I notice that Mr. Relentless is chasing us to the car wanting his extra 100 mets. We told him we gave it to the waitress at the restaurant and got in the car while he was still yelling. We did not feel sorry at all. If he's that upset, he should go demand a share of the cut from the woman selling the fish since he made up the totally ridiculous price. While we admit, it turned out to be an expensive lunch, it sure was an amazing experience that we will remember for a long time!

Live Music and Corrupt Police

Friday night, we decided to go check out some nightlife. Dan had read about a place called Coconuts Live up by the Radisson so we decided to just head there for dinner. Ate at a restaurant in the hotel and then went out to find Coconuts. We walked up and down the street looking for it and couldn't seem to find it for the life of us. We looked it up on Google Maps and walked to where it was listed on the map. There was a sign for two bars and Coconuts Pool.

We decided that maybe this was Coconuts "Live" so we went in to one bar/club. Loud music and not one soul in there. So we figured we'd try to adjoining bar. Went in to find more of the same, but at least there were bartenders. We had a beer and waited for other people to show up. Welp, beer is gone and still no one here. It's 11:30!! How is there no one here?! Oh well, let's try something else.

Got in a cab and asked to go to Gil Vicente which, apparently, is a popular hangout not far from our hotel. He starts to pull away and asks us if we have "documentation" (meaning our passports) on us. We said yes, as we've been warned several times that we should always carry them on us because the police often stop white people and things get quite difficult if you cannot readily provide your documents. The cabby said "good because the police like money". We know, buddy, but we appreciate your concern.

We start to drive back towards our side of town. Mind you, pretty much the only reason to be on this road is if you are coming from the nicer hotels on the Indian Ocean/beach side. So the police aren't stupid with where they have placed their checkpoint because it's likely tourists/foreigners who would be coming from this direction. Not surprisingly, they stop our driver and we pull over. I start to try to put my seat belt on (because I've been yelled at for this before in Ghana) and Dan says not to bother. Funny part is that probably 80% of cabs I've been in both here and Ghana have seat belts but the buckle part is no where to be found.... making it totally useless.

Dan is in the back on the curb side and the police are now outside his window. They ask for our documents in Portuguese and we, of course, play dumb and ask for English. We hand them our passports, very reluctant to let them out of our grips. The guys flip through them (honestly, we wouldn't have cleared customs without a visa so this is obviously just a money grab). They hand the passports back and try to write us a ticket for not wearing our seat belts. This is where Dan's Ghana training comes in handy.

Dan says "No, I cannot give you any money as I work for the government. I'll need your name and badge number for any payments because I am required to report it." The guys take a step back. "Who do you work for?" Dan says "PwC" blank stare. Dan says "INP" (Instituto Nacional da Petroleo).  They look at each other and say "Oh." I lean forward to the driver and say "Yeah, you can go now." Finally, the cops say "you can go" and the three of us laugh as we pull away.

We arrive safely at Gil Vicente and the place looks mobbed. At least 15-20 people outside the door, but we quickly learn they are just outside to smoke or hang out and we got right in. There was a band and the place continued to fill up after we arrived. The music was good and we had a nice time. Walked back to the hotel to get some rest after an eventful evening.

Dinner with Friends?!

Being in Maputo and living in the hotel hasn't been as glamorous as I'd imagined. I miss having an apartment with multiple rooms so that, if I have to work late, I'm not keeping Dan up or looking like a 5 year old who wants read after she's been told it's bedtime... you know what I mean... she's holed up under the sheets to block out the light of her flashlight (or Kindle since it's 2015). Mostly, I miss having friends to meet for lunch or dinner, or just sit around and do nothing.

So last week when Dan told me we had been invited to dinner with some people, you would have sworn he had just blessed me with some magical gift card that I could go shopping with and never pay a cent. I was elated. Thursday of last week, we went to the Radisson Blu hotel for a sushi dinner. I know what you're thinking... a Radisson? In Maputo? Yes, and it's arguably the nicest hotel here. Dan and I are convinced that hotel chains are backwards in Africa. Some of the nicest business hotels in Accra are a Best Western and a Holiday Inn, which is the reverse of the case in the US.

So we arrived a bit early and the restaurant didn't open until 7 (which was the time of our reservation) so we went up to the hotel bar and had a glass of wine and waited for people to arrive. In total, there were 8 of us for dinner. Me and Dan (obviously American), Dan's coworker Driaan and his wife Carolina (South African), another married South African couple who as terrible as this is to say... neither of us got their names that night, and two girls who work at PwC with the guys who are from Portugal. Their names are Ana and Elsa and they currently live together in a corporate flat. No, this is not a blurb from Frozen, nor did we go to Disney World for dinner. Although they made the Frozen reference without it being pointed out by any of us so they must be used to it.

It was a flat rate, all you can eat thing. They had sushi and sashimi and Korean BBQ and dumplings and a dessert table. I had never had Korean BBQ before which frankly, sounds more daunting than it is. When I think Korean BBQ, I picture the scorched ducks that hang from the windows in Chinatown back in SF. Do I have to BBQ the duck? Is he already dead? Is he going to convince me to switch to Aflac before I roast him like chestnuts over an open fire? Thankfully, it's nothing like that. Basically, you select a bunch of ingredients (noodles, raw chicken or fish or pork, broccoli, onions, whatever else you want) and hand it to the guy who is behind a hibachi grill. Then he cooks it for you... voila! Korean BBQ. We got some wine for the table and chatted for a couple of hours.

It was really nice to get out and meet some new people. Elsa took some photos at dinner with her phone and sent them to us. So here's a little photo collage of our dinner.

From left to right: Driaan, Dan, me, Elsa, Ana, Carolina, and the South African couple whose names we don't know (Wow I feel terrible about that. Really need to rectify that if there's a next time)

Valentines Day in Maputo

Dan offered to plan Valentines Day activities for yesterday, which is helpful because most decision making in this marriage ends with "I don't know". Where should we go for dinner? I don't know. Where do you want to go? Well, what kind of food do you want? I don't know. What kind of food do you want? And this dance goes on and on until one of us caves and makes a decision. Thus, his volunteering to take the lead was perfectly fine by me!

We slept in, got dressed for the day and headed out from the hotel. Now, to be fair, I asked Dan what to wear because I had no idea where we were going. He said a casual dress is fine. I said short or long. He said doesn't matter. So I put on a cotton maxi dress. This is significant because, upon leaving the hotel, he states "going to be a toasty one today. Google says it's going to hit 100". Fantastic, should've gone with short dress.

We walk down to a ferry which takes people across to Catembe. The ferry is massive and cars can drive on it to get across. We arrive around 11:10am and get on the ferry that should leave at 11:30. Ten minutes late (11:40am) we finally head out. Mind you, this ferry is packed with people who are all sweating profusely because it's really hot out and we were waiting there for a half hour with no air circulation... mmmm.

We arrive and Dan had planned for us to have lunch at a cute little boutique hotel in Catembe. The directions provided by the hotel are to take the ferry across and turn left and they are on the beach. What they neglect to say is that it's probably a 5k walk down the beach. Again, in 100 degrees. I am not typically a sweaty person. I can do a hard workout and just have a red face at the end but not really be drenched in sweat. Dan, on the other hand, just thinks about 100 degrees and starts sweating. So the fact that I'm quite sticky by the time we arrive at lunch, makes me realize what he must go through on a daily basis in Africa. We had a lot of water and a little beer and enjoyed the views of Maputo from across the water in Catembe.

After lunch, we got a taxi (quick learners) back to the ferry station and took a water taxi across to Maputo. Water taxis are significantly smaller ferries that only hold maybe 60 people and leave every 5-10 minutes instead of once an hour. This was a much better decision. We were shocked when we got back to Maputo and saw the big ferry that was about to head across. It was absolutely PACKED. Significantly more so than when we left a few hours before.

Upon arriving in Maputo, we took a cab to a place called Club Naval. It seems to be the expat hangout. Lots of families around and they have a pool. So you pay a fee (it was 100MT for both of us so about $3) and you can swim all day and they have a restaurant. We didn't bring swimsuits and it was already about 4pm so we just relaxed at the restaurant and had some sandwiches. The wind started to pick up and Dan mentioned it was supposed to storm later in the evening.

We decided not to tempt fate, paid the bill and took a taxi to the grocery store. Stocked up on some grapes, apples, cheese, crackers, chocolate, water, and a bottle of wine. Then we walked home, and got showers after our sweaty adventures. It started dumping rain outside and gusting "tropical storm-style". We stood on the balcony and watched for awhile as people risked turning in the flooded intersections. Eventually, we settled in for a night of movies by building a blanket fort on the floor of our hotel room (because we're clearly 10 years old).

Hope you all had a wonderful day as well!

Official Dannifer Maputo Restaurant Reviews

Dan's been moonlighting as a restaurant reviewer and by that I mean he eats and drinks at various establishments and then writes to you about it. Without further ado, I bring you Dan's latest guest post:

Mundos

I’m pretty sure this place was mentioned in previous posts.  The menu is extensive and the food won’t kill you.  The best thing here is the wings, but the pizzas are very popular too.  The pizzas are super thin crust (so in my book the highest rating they can achieve are “not bad”), and there are a large variety of toppings.  Sorry, nothing too “exotic”.  On principle, I ordered the Mexican pizza. Ground beef, lettuce, tomato and cheese.  It probably should’ve been called Taco Bell pizza. The atmosphere is what makes the place.  Good crowd, and lots of TVs for sports.  Wait staff is pretty good with English.

Africa Bar

We went on a Sunday evening.  Outside clientele will find posters advertising the exciting events they have coming up.  Sunday evening was not an exciting event.  The Saturday night before, however, supposedly was. By walking in, we can validate that the evening prior was definitely a lot of fun.  Evidence included sticky floors, the aroma of stale beer, and hungover staff.  Given all I remember about the place is the party I did not attend, apparently the food isn’t anything to write home about (pun intended).  English is not useful, hand gestures required.

The Wine Bar

What?! Wine and tapas?   Why the hell not?  Getting here required us to use a brand new taxi driver.  Like super new.  We went to this place our first week in Maputo and we knew our way around better than him.  However, his English was spectacular and he also showed up after our meal to bring us back.  But enough about him.  Walking in you can smell the wine.  Not like the stale beer from Africa Bar, this is more like a fancy smell that makes you feel sophisticated.  The menu is full of Portuguese style tapas.  Cured meats, random things with eggs on them, and plenty of fish dishes.  The wine menu involves literally walking around the place and pulling a wine off the shelf.  Not too bad.  Points deducted for having one shitty California wine (actually called “California Wine”), but I know I shouldn’t let national pride get in the way.  The food was good and what we ordered came out at a good speed. 

A Esquina

Oops, guess it turns out that Wine Bar is A Esquina’s slightly less attractive sister or slightly less athletically inclined brother.  A Esquina tops Wine Bar in atmosphere and wine list.  Coming here also revealed that Wine Bar was overcharging for their wine.  The food at Wine Bar might’ve been a bit better, but it’s hard not to like a place where the next time you sit down, they call you Papa Figo.  It’s sorta like being the Godfather except people don’t kiss my ring, I don’t get money from organized crime activity, and I have no political influence.  The name comes from the wine I ordered two bottles of the first time we ate here.  It was the second most expensive one on the list (approx. $40). 

New Galaxy Indian

Tacky neon flashing sign outside and it’s across from A Esquina.  This was very highly recommended by coworkers and others, so we were willing to give it a chance.  Also, India is a hell of a lot closer to Mozambique than the US.  The place isn’t too fancy, but there always seem to be Indians eating there – a good sign.  Unfortunately, the place is Halal (i.e., no alcohol, like, not even wine).  It’s tough to eat the flavorful dishes they have here and knowing across the street is an establishment with plenty of Cab, Shiraz, and other reds that would pair nicely with it.  Regardless, the food is pretty damn good.  Reminder: dosas in San Francisco (at the restaurant called Dosa) are about the size of your palm.  Dosas at New Galaxy Indian are approximately the size of a small newborn.

Shawarma Hut

I’m actually not sure what this place is called.  I just know it’s in the food court of the mall and cranks out $3.50 shawarma in minutes that’s delicious.  There’s a consistent group of Middle Eastern guys playing backgammon in the corner.  I’m pretty sure it’s a front for something, but I won’t push the issue as long as the food stays cheap and good.  It’s also halal, but for how quickly they turn out the concoction of sliced kabob meat, I don’t mind.

Costa de Sol

Went here most recently.  It’s a “famous” place along the beach that specializes in seafood.  On a Sunday afternoon, you can see the beach parties starting to get started (recommendation from coworkers – get a better tan and learn Portuguese before trying to partake in the Sunday beach parties).  I ordered a prawn cocktail that was quite good, but was served over some interesting neon green liquid.  Luckily the waiter came and picked it up before I drank the mystery ecto drink.  It’s rather difficult to get to without a car, but it’s worth the periodic trip.

Cape Town Adventures - Part 2

We left off after a lovely, sunny day of wine tasting in South Africa. **Warning: lots of photos in this post**

Sunday morning, we woke up and decided to take a drive down to some of the "must-do" activities south of the city center. First, we went to Boulders Beach to check out the African penguin colony. You take a boardwalk out to the beach where they are just hanging out, waiting to be photographed. The beach is absolutely beautiful and the water is clear and turquoise. I have to say they picked a good place to call "home", though I was disappointed that none of them wanted to tap dance with me.

Insert unnecessarily large quantity of cute penguin photos here:

After my desires for penguin photos were fully satisfied, we got back in the car and drove down to the Cape of Good Hope. Now we will admit there is not much here. Arguably the highlight of the drive was seeing an ostrich just hanging out right after we entered the National Park. Unfortunately, we were driving and I didn't have the camera armed and ready because, well, I didn't expect to be surprised by two ostriches on the side of the road. We got to the park and walked up the path. Theres a full service restaurant and a pretty lighthouse there. The scenery is beautiful and it's definitely a check off on the bucket list. Searched heavily for our ostrich friends on the way out but they must've found someone else to surprise.

We drove back to the hotel, and had a quiet dinner there. Watched some TV in the room with the intention of taking a nap to wake up for the Super Bowl. Kickoff was at 1:30am local time. Dan managed to power through just fine. I watched pregame, fell asleep, woke up at halftime, and managed to get about 5 minutes into the third quarter before I was out. I woke up again to Dan closing the computer and managed to ask "who won?" before clonking out again. Yay, Super Bowl. (This is arguably the worst thing about living in Africa. American sports are supremely difficult to watch due to the time change.)

Monday was our last day in Cape Town. It was also the clearest and least windy. Off to Table Mountain we went. We took the aerial cableway and I actually did alright. The cars are round to limit wind resistance and the floor inside actually rotates so that everyone gets a chance to take pictures. Turning down Dan's request to hold his feet while he hung out to take photos, I stuck to the middle. The views are incredible though. The cars hold about 60 people and come every 4 minutes or so. We walked around quite a bit at the top and took pictures back down to the city. It really is a unique mountain.

View of Table Mountain from our hotel room

From the top looking back down at the city

Headed back to V&A Waterfront that evening. We had walked past a sign for a Lego exhibit called "The Art of the Brick". Dan grew up a HUGE Lego fan and I enjoyed them quite a bit myself, so we decided that we should check it out. The exhibit was fantastic. I thought Dan would be pumped but I was totally in awe of the artist's work. His name is Nathan Sawaya and I had seen him on Ellen so I recognized his piece on the promotional sign. He used to be a lawyer who worked with Legos in the evenings to decompress from his job. Eventually, he got commissioned to do some pieces and one thing led to another. He talked about how important art was to him as a kid and how he works with charities/schools to ensure that this is not taken away from today's youth. I bought a shirt that says "art is not optional". Having grown up as a dancer, enjoying making crafts and painting, it really spoke to me. After the exhibit, we had a nice seafood dinner and made our way back to pack up for our trip back to Maputo.

Here are some of the photos of Mr. Sawaya's Lego pieces:

Us hanging out with a man made of Legos

Yes, that's Edward Munch's "The Scream" made of Legos 

Dan in front of a Lego T-Rex skeleton (approx 80,000 Legos)

Our Long Weekend in Cape Town... Part 1

Mozambique has some pretty silly visa restrictions. While Dan's visa is valid for 180 days, and mine for 90 days (work visa vs. tourist visa), they have a rule that all foreigners must leave the country every 30 days. As we were quickly approaching our 30 day mark, we decided to start thinking about what we wanted to do since we had to leave anyway. We were informed that Tuesday, February 3rd was a national holiday in Mozambique... Women's Day (yay, women!). Dan's director said almost everyone will take Monday off and several people will leave early on Friday. Well alright then, we now have a long weekend and are required to leave the country. Let the location brainstorming begin!

I had mentioned wanting to do Cape Town for my 30th birthday in March but this just happened to work out well. Not terribly far and he wouldn't need to take a lot of time off work. So, early Friday morning we headed off to the Mother City. There is so much to do in Cape Town, it's difficult to narrow down what you can fit into your days. Many of the "must-do" tourist attractions are outside the city's limits so you must be prepared to either charter a car, do the touristy sightseeing bus or drive yourself from place to place.

We decided to rent the car and drive ourselves. Well, actually Dan did. Because Esquire Magazine told him that driving a stick shift on the left side of the road is something "every man should experience" (gee, thanks, Esquire). Let me just say that he did a fantastic job. Handled the shifter being on the left, and never once turned into the wrong side of the road. He was, however, outmatched by the turn signal being on the right hand side of the steering wheel. Every time he changed lanes, the windshield wipers would go off, followed by a small outburst of profanity. But he did it! Dan can now check that off his bucket list.

On Friday, we drove to our hotel. Originally, we planned to do the aerial cableway at Table Mountain but there were some clouds and wind at the top and I was worried about picture-taking conditions. And frankly, I'm afraid of heights so any reason to delay hanging from a cable was easily justifiable on my part. We got some lunch at a place nearby and headed to V&A (Victoria & Alfred) Waterfront. This are is the touristy area: tons of restaurants, bars, shops, a sizable shopping mall, a ferris wheel, a couple of hotels and all the docks for any excursions or tours that you may have booked like whale watching, or the trip to Robben Island (the prison where Nelson Mandela was for almost 20 years). We shopped and ate dinner there before heading back to the hotel to crash.

On Saturday, we had tickets to the Stellenbosch Wine Festival. Stellenbosch is one of the wine regions about an hour outside of Cape Town. Think Stellenbosch and Franschoek as similar to Napa and Sonoma. Since we knew we would be drinking, we hired a car to drive us over and back for surprisingly cheap. Despite having been to multiple wine tasting events in San Francisco, we weren't sure what to expect out of this. Turns out it was an outdoor event with fantastic weather, mountains in the background. Over 100 wineries pouring tastings but with a separate wine shop so no one was forcing their wine on you or trying to sell it. About a half dozen restaurants selling different tapas-style bites. The wineries and food were organized in a big circle on the perimeter of the event space and the middle was filled in with tables and chairs, some with umbrellas or under tents for people to just hang out with friends and enjoy the day. We had a nice time. Topped off the day with a nap, a steak dinner at V&A waterfront and explored a bar on Long Street not far from our hotel.

In an effort to not make this a novel, we shall stop here and continue the Cape Town adventure in the next post. I know, I know. The suspense is killing you.

Indian Ocean... check!

We often comment to each other that we would like to set foot on all 7 continents and see all 4 oceans. Notice I said "see" all four oceans, as I have no intention of putting my little piggies in the Arctic. Let's just say that I'm always cold so long dangerous excursions to Antarctica aren't high on my list, but we will see if Dan changes my mind. (Hey! He succeeded on changing my mind on Africa and it's been pretty incredible thus far! Maybe he knows what he's talking about, haha.)

We've been very fortunate in our 6.5 years together. We met in Europe, obviously we lived in North America and now Africa. We honeymooned in Southeast Asia, and did a New Years trip a few years ago to Australia... leaving us with South America and Antarctica to go. We've been to the Atlantic and Pacific and now the Indian Ocean. Now, to be fair, we're still not sure what ocean Phuket, Thailand counts for. We believe it could be Indian but also could be some obscure body of water. That said, we have now FOR SURE been to the Indian Ocean.

We took a taxi to a hotel on that side of Maputo with the assumption that they would have beach access and we could just sneak through. Unfortunately, we were failed by Google/Apple Maps which made it appear that the hotel was on the water, but, in reality, it's atop a hill. The hotel is beautiful but no access to the sand. So we decided to go on a walk to another hotel. We weaved through streets, walked past the President's Residence (as evidenced by a crazy helipad on top of a mansion), and ended up at another lovely hotel that actually had "sand-access". We were disappointed to find that there are no chairs on the beach and we didn't have towels. To top it off, there was a hefty breeze coming off the water. The kind that is lovely when you're sitting on a deck with a cocktail, but requires picking sand out of all orifices for the next week if you tried to go down to the beach (spoken like a true Floridian!)

Alas, we found a lovely little beach bar and hung out watching the water and the fisherman. Afterwards we walked next door to a little seafood restaurant that was full of people. Had some lunch and slowly made our way back to our side of town. So, just in case the Indian Ocean hadn't been accomplished before... it is now!