Maputo, Mozambique
November 19, 2022
We picked up our pilot about 5 am and then began the slow ride into Mozambique.
I was surprised by the size and also by how modern it looked. The language here is Portuguese. Our meeting time was 8:15 and things progressed well. We were off the ship, walked through customs and on a bus for the airport. The ride was about 30 minutes.
The airport was nicer than I expected. Many irritating people asking to carry my luggage. I like to carry my own luggage.
Our flight was at noon and we left about 12:15. The flight was only 45 minutes and they served lunch. That was the quickest flight with food service ever. Upon arriving in Johannesburg, we went through the usual ritual of immigration. We met outside of immigration and boarded a bus. This bus would take us on a tour of Soweto on our way to “lunch”.
Soweto represents south western townships and was the home of Nelson Mandela. Our guide grew up in South Africa and he told us how the state controlled media lied to them about apartheid. He spoke about a picture of children that were slaughtered by the government. He said that picture had as much impact on people in South Africa as the picture of the boy and girl running and obviously screaming after a napalming in Viet Nam did in the USA.
We drove some obviously very wealthy neighborhoods. We also saw the largest man made first in the world. The natural vegetation in this area was prairie grassland. Trees were first brought in for the wood they would produce. The wood was used in the gold mines. Later, trees were added for the shade they gave.
Our guide told us that you may see trash but that is a government problem. The people here keep their homes very clean. I’m not buying that.
Lunch was at a local restaurant in Soweto. We were entertained as we ate again.
After lunch we visited Nelson Mandela’s home. It was a very small home and there wasn’t a whole lot to see but there was a framed letter from the State of Michigan asking the President of the United States to apologize to Nelson Mandela for the role the CIA had in the arrest and sentencing of Mandela of life in prison.
After our visit we got back in the bus. Our hotel for the evening was about 30 minutes away. The 54 on Bath Hotel was our destination.
Diner was to be served at 7:30 pm. When we still didn’t receive our meals at 9 we went to our room. Nice Hotel. Poor dinner service.…