Text and photographs: Holly Meadows. Article from the July 2012 issue of Africa Geographic Magazine.
An exotic fusion of Latino, Mediterranean and Afro living, Maputo is a city of wide, palm-fringed avenidas, sultry late-night jazz cafés, brown-sugar beaches and Art Deco high-rises. Holly Meadows salutes the top 10 things to do in Mozambique’s thrumming capital.
CFM Railway Station
(Caminhos De Ferro De Mozanbique)
You might recognise Maputo’s early-20th-century railway station from the film set of Blood Diamond, where it posed as a grand hotel in Sierra Leone’s Freetown. Its pastel-green walls, domed clock tower, wrought-iron latticework and filigree ceilings make it an extraordinary work of architecture.
Visit on a Friday evening when the station turns into a live music venue at KaMpfumo – a velvet-sofa nightspot housed in the old waiting room, with a dance floor spilling out onto the platform. If you have time, a popular weekend pastime is to take the train to Marracuene, a nearby village where you can catch a quick ferry to Macaneta, the closest beach resort to Maputo.
KaMpfumo: Platform two, CFM, Praga dos Trabalhadores, Maputo.
Ferry to Catembe
For the best views of Maputo take a ferry ride across the estuary to Catembe. Here, colourful wooden dhows anchor off the shore and women in vibrant headscarves line the dusty roads hawking their daily catch.
Soak up rural Mozambican life and stroll the sandy paths towards the Gallery Hotel to enjoy tapas and cocktails at Marisol Baia, a laid-back, thatch-roofed bar at the end of a stilted jetty jutting out to sea. At low tide, wander back along the beach and marvel at the impressive panorama of Maputo punctuating the smoggy, distant skyline.
Small ferries to Catembe cost 10 meticals and leave every 15 minutes from Avenida 10 Novembre, in front of the Ministry of Finance.
Catembe Gallery Hotel, Rua B77 Catembe, 258 Maputo Tel. +258 2138 0050/84 228 3623.
Take a Tuk-Tuk
Get your bearings and take a tour of Maputo in a tuk-tuk, or txopela in Portuguese. Imported from Havana, Cuba, tuk-tuks are a fast, efficient and fun way to soak up the city sights. Start at the crumbling red sandstone Fortaleza (Praga dos 25 deJunho), a 19th-century Portuguese fort and military museum. Cross the square (which turns into a lively craft market every Saturday morning) and browse the lovingly curated Money Museum, Museu de Moeda, before heading up Avenida Samora Michel to the rather magnificent neoclassical Town Hall, home to some interesting models of the city in earlier days.
Stop at the French-Mozambican Cultural Centre (corner Avenida Samora Michel and Rua da Radio) for a coffee and a look-in at the art gallery. Wander through the botanical gardens behind it, run-down and overgrown with strangler figs, Indian almond trees and jacarandas (left) to reach the Iron House, a peculiar steel-clad building designed by the French engineer Eiffel. Hop back-into your tuk-tuk and motor up to the Natural History Museum (Praca do Travessia do Zambezi), a wonderful Gothic Manueline-style palace with the only collection of elephant foetuses in the world. End off with lunch on the balcony of Hotel Cardoso’s Fiamma restaurant (Avenida Martires de Mueda 707), with its phenomenal view across Maputo and the bay.
Flag down a tuk-tuk from outside most major hotels or call Coco Taxis, +258 (0)84 410 0001.
Feima: Artists, Flowers & Food
This newly restored garden (Avenida Armando Tivane) is a tranquil and leafy respite from the hullabaloo of downtown Maputo. Inside it is a traditional Mozambican eatery where you can try local dishes like matapa – ground manioc leaves with coconut shavings, crushed peanuts and shrimps. It’s utterly moreish. On the last weekend of every month the gardens host Gastronomy, a food 
market serving up everything from Brazilian feijoada to Indian samoosas.
Under the frangipani trees are clusters of craft vendors (relocated from the streets) selling straw bags, hand-painted textiles and small, wooden carvings depicting scenes from daily life. A fragrant flower market with buckets of roses and bird-of-paradise flowers is tucked in the far corner. Pop over the road to the grand old Polana Hotel (right), designed by Sir Herbert Baker and built in 1922, and treat yourself to high tea in the palm-fringed gardens of this glamorous bygone-era setting.
Eye the art deco
Maputo is a maze of Art Deco eye candy, reminiscent of an era celebrating jazz, steam-liner travel and all things in vogue in the 1920s-30s. Explore the city by foot on an architectural walking tour with resident enthusiast Jane Flood.
You’ll start in the downtown Baixa district at the white-stone pyramidal cathedral (left), inspired by the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922, when the world went Egypt-crazy.
Jane will also open your eyes to the style of Pancho Guedes (son of a colonial Portuguese doctor), which I can only describe as a cross between Gaudi and Stalinist-era communist architecture. There are hundreds of Guedes’s buildings dressing up Maputo, inspiring young architects from all over the world.
Jane Flood: Art & Architectural Tours, tel. +258 (0)82 419 0574, e-mail jane.flood@gmail.com. Dana Tours also offers guided architectural walks around Maputo; tel. +258 2149 5514, e-mail info@danatours.net
Meander the markets
Maputo’s lively fish market (Mercado de Peixe, corner Avenida Marginal and Rua Palma) is a must-do cacophony of sights, sounds and smells. Wander among wooden-slat table tops piled high with silvery-green and coral-hued riches. Rub shoulders with formidable fishwives shelling shrimps and clamouring the price per kilo in Tsonga, Ronga and Portuguese.
This is one of the best spots in town to grab lunch, but bring cash and expect to pay about 100 meticals for crabs, fish or clams. (Tempting as they may be, avoid the prawns – they are harvested using bottom trawling, a hugely destructive fishing method.) Behind is a shaded courtyard lined with barakas (makeshift eateries) hankering to cook, season and garnish your seafood. Go on a Sunday to enjoy live rumba and Afro-Cuban rhythms while you eat.
Mercado Central (above) in the Baixa district (Avenida 25 de Setembro) is another market well worth a visit. It’s housed in a beautiful, arched open-air structure dating back to 1901 and sells everything from spices to hair extensions. Make sure you buy a bag of cashew nuts and piri-piri chillis to take home, and pop in to Casa Elefante, a colourful capulaña fabric shop that has been in the same Hindu family for generations.
Explore Maputo’s art scene
Nucelo D’Artes (Rua Argelai 194) is an inspiring artists’ workshop where poets and painters come to colour their canvases and sip on cervejas (beers). Open from eight until late, it has a lovely gallery, café/bar and must-hear live roots or jazz every Sunday evening. Decommissioned weapons were bought to Nucleo after the war and several artists used them for sculptures; look out for works by Gongalo Mabunda, the most famous of them all.
The National Art Museum (Avenida Ho Chi Minh) has all the modernist greats, including paintings by the renowned Malangatana Ngwenya. Pop intoTilandia (Julius Nyerere 452), an adorable art gallery-cum-florist (above), which had some fabulous ceramic sculptures by Reinata Sadimba on show when I visited, if you have time, head out of town to the suburb of Matola, where you can visit the once-home of well-known sculptor Alberto Chissano. It’s now a gallery that serves a delicious lunch in the gardens.
Jane Flood: Art & Architectural Tours, tel. +258 (0)82 419 0574, e-mail jane.flood@gmail.com
Mosey up the Marginal
The Marginal, a palm-tree-flanked promenade not dissimilar to the Malecon in Havana, wraps around the edge of Maputo and looks out to the Indian Ocean. In the early evening, people park-off with cooler boxes of beer, marrabenta music plays from car stereos, ladies grill chickens drizzled in lemon juice and young boys pull up with wagons laden with coconuts. Every night, the Marginal is where Maputo comes to life.
Take a walk and soak up the atmosphere, either between Maputo Waterfront Restaurant and the Ministry of Finance, or from the Southern Sun Hotel to Costa do Sol – the oldest restaurant in the city with a big, old Art Deco veranda to enjoy a cold 2M beer (pronounced ‘doish em’).
Feira Popular
The Feira Popular (Avenida 25 De Setem bro) is a local institution and a wonderfully weird, old-fashioned fairground. Go early in the evening and join local families on the Ferris wheel, dodgem cars and merry-go-round. Open until late, there are a number of good bars, restaurants and live music hangouts dotted amongst the rides.
Try the ever-popular Restaurante Escorpião for classic Portuguese fare, or Restaurante 0 Coquiero for food from the province of Zambezia, further north.
If you fancy dancing off your dinner, move on to Face 2 Face nightclub and pasada (a tango/salsa blend) the night away!
Café Culture
A pastime inherited from the colonial Portuguese is to while away an afternoon sipping on an espresso and indulging in a Pasteis de Nata (custard tart) at one of the many cafés spilling onto Maputo’s wide-lined avenidas.
My two favourites were Café Continental (corner Avenida 25 de Setembro and Avenida Samora Machel) for its old-world, grande-dame feel, and Nautilus (above) – great for people-watching and right in the thick of the bustling Avenida Julius Nyerere.
Citypack
Where to stay
Holly Meadows stayed at Southern Sun Maputo, bang on the beachfront with fabulous sea views, good linen and a fantastic restaurant. Tel. +258 2149 5050, e-mail maputo@southernsun.com
Other options include the Cardoso and Polana Hotels, but for something less pricey try My Guest, designed by Pancho Guedes with quirky Art Deco/retro furnishings. Tel. +258 2149 7834, e-mail myguest.mz@gmail.com. Duqueza de Connaught is a centrally located, colonial-style guesthouse; tel. +258 2149 2190.
Eating out
Maputo has restaurants aplenty. I’ve recommended some here, but check out my upcoming feature about eating in Maputo in the July edition of Safari, Africa Geographies sister online travel publication. www.agsafari.com
Nightlife
Maputo isn’t called ‘the city that never sleeps’ for no reason; in true Mediterranean style, its residents don’t even start partying until way past midnight.
For live jazz, blues, roots and marrabenta, check out the line-up at Gil Vicente (Avenida Samora Machel Baixa), KaMpfumo (Praga dos Trabalhadores), Nucleo D’Artes (Rua Argeiai 194), on the right, and Maputo Waterfront (Avenida 10 de Novembro).
For early morning dancing and caipirinha (rum cocktail) drinking go to Havana Club (Avenida Mao Tse Tung), Dolce Vita (Avenida Julius Nyerere), or the infamous Coconuts (Avenida Marginal).
Living in Maputo, found at www.clubofmozambique.com, is a free monthly e-newsletter about what’s hot and happening in the city.
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