EPIC Africa Vacay pt.1 Maputo

I have a little treat for all my loyal fans today! Not only am I putting up a new update, but I’m also going back to my old college habits and plagiarizing!! So my mom and Miray were here for our EPIC Africa vacay and Miray wrote updates to our family so I’m basically going to put that up and include some editor’s commentary (in parenthesis) for your reading pleasure! Miray, unlike this panda, is a fantastic writer so hope yall enjoy and understand you’ll never get this type of entry ever again = ]

(After an overnight layover in Istanbul, they finally arrived in Maputo via Jburg, but because the flight was delayed, they just barely made the flight and their bags did not, but greeting them at the airport was a joyous occasion cuz I really missed them! Ok here’s miray...)

MAPUTO
We had lunch at a Chinese restaurant near the hotel. It was definitely a learning experience and a good introduction to life in Mozambique. Apparently, it's not unusual for restaurants to take between 1-2 HOURS from the time that you order to the time they bring your food out because they start cooking from scratch when you order. So we sat down, ordered 4 dishes, and when they finally brought the food out over an hour later, they told us that they didn't have the ingredients for one of the dishes so they couldn't make it. (Haha so typical)
After lunch, Mommy and I both succumbed to the jetlag and fell asleep, only to be woken up by Misol (for those of you who didn’t already know, this is my Korean name) telling us that we had to go to the airport to get our bags. Originally, the airline had told us that the hotel should be able to send someone to pick up our bags for us, but when he got to the airport, he was told that there was an issue with one of our bags, so we had to come get them ourselves. So we shook off the sleep and dragged ourselves to the airport. When we got there, we had a bit of a panic moment when the airline guy told us that the driver had already left with our bags. But after some more back and forth, we finally found a woman with all 3 of our bags. That's when she called over a customs guy who told us that because of the food in our bag, we had to pay a special tax. Misol then started arguing with him in her awesome Portuguese, and it quickly became clear that the guy just wanted a bribe. But Misol wouldn't budge and after much arguing and finally pleading, he finally got tired of her and let us go. (I don’t know if tired is quite the right word… it was more like he was entranced by my awesomeness! I fed him the same crap I give every cop who tries to stop me for a bribe – oh I’m a volunteer teaching at a local secondary school for FREE, you have to emphasize the free part cuz they don’t understand what a volunteer is, and that I’m shaping the future leaders of Mozambique and I live in a mud hut with no electricity and no running water just like the other locals… ok so I embellish the truth just a tad, but gotta do what you gotta do!) So we were finally able to take our bags back to the hotel, and Misol was able to open the bag with all the goodies we brought for her. (CHRISTMAS IN JULY!!!! It’s fitting cuz it is winter for Africa! Thanks so much Jungah and Cass!!!)
Dinner was at the hotel restaurant. Mommy ordered a pasta dish that tasted like noodles in ketchup. Misol ordered steak that was more grey than brown. I ordered fish and chips - the fish had bones, and the tartar sauce had hard boiled eggs. The only redeeming part of the meal was the piripiri sauce - that's the local hot sauce, and every restaurant makes their own version. It's made from these tiny little peppers that are super spicy. Most of the piripiri sauces we've had are red, but the one at the hotel restaurant was green, and it was delicious! Without that sauce, we probably wouldn't have been able to finish our meal.
On Wednesday, Misol dragged us out of bed at the crack of dawn because she couldn't wait to hit the hotel's breakfast buffet. (no joke as soon as I opened my eyes at 7ish I was jumping on their bed to wake up cuz we had to go eat the most amazing breakfast buffet on planet Mozambique!) The food was actually really good. There was lots of fresh fruit, an omelet station, and even baked beans! But the best thing at the buffet was this breakfast pastry that was like a cross between a Korean cream bbang and a deep fried ppat bbang. So the bread was fried on the outside and had this yummy cream filling. Delicious!
After breakfast, we went to the central market, where they actually had a pretty impressive produce selection. They even had fresh gahm (persimmons)! Right across the street, there was a store selling traditional African fabrics (kapulana) - they had hundreds of different fabrics (in a really tiny tight space), so it was a bit overwhelming, but we managed to buy a bunch of really pretty ones.
We then headed to the fish market to meet Misol's friend Colin for lunch. It was fairly small, and more surprising, most of the seafood was frozen. But we bought a kilo of jumbo prawns, a kilo of tiger prawns, a kilo of calamari, a whole croaker, and a whole red snapper. Then we took all the seafood to one of the restaurants behind the market and drank some beer while we waited for them to cook the seafood. It took awhile (like over an hour), but it was well worth the wait. The food was delicious, and we finished every last bite!
After a brief rest at the hotel, we went over to the Polana, which is the nicest hotel in Maputo. We walked around the hotel grounds for a bit, which were beautiful - the hotel is set right above the water, and then we had tea/coffee and dessert on the open veranda. It was lovely and a welcome break from the poverty of the rest of the city. After a while, we almost forgot that we were even in Maputo.
For dinner, we went to an Italian place and had pizza and pasta, both of which were surprisingly yummy. But because it's kind of a foreigners' hangout, as soon as you step out of the restaurant, there's a swarm of Mozambican men trying to sell you crafts, and they're very aggressive.
On Thursday, we got Misol checked into her conference hotel, and then we took 4 of her friends out for lunch, including Misol's roommate Vonnie. The restaurant that we went to was called Zambi, specializing in seafood. Misol found the restaurant online as the #1 restaurant in Maputo, and the rating was well-deserved. All of our dishes were delicious (seared tuna, grilled tiger prawns, grilled calamari steak), with the exception of Mommy's - she was suffering from a bit of seafood overload after our trip to the fish market, so she ordered pasta with a pesto sauce. The sauce was actually pretty good, but the noodles were completely overcooked. So boolsahnghae. (That means poor mommy) But the rest of us really enjoyed our food! For dessert, we ordered a bunch of stuff for the table, the standout being a cashew nut tart. Cashews are grown here, so you can find them everywhere. Anyways, it was a very pleasant surprise to find such good food in Africa. We're even going there again tonight, and hopefully, Mommy will make a better dinner selection.
After lunch, we went to a craft market. It was huge, set in a really pretty park, and there were all sorts of wax prints, carvings, jewelry, etc. We were able to get some great souvenirs, and Misol once again impressed us with her excellent bartering skills. (that’s a LIE! Miray actually yelled at me for not bartering harder and getting better deals!)
So that brings us to today. Like I said, Mommy and I are just hanging out at the hotel. The city of Maputo - especially the area where our hotel is located - isn't really the kind of place where we feel comfortable walking around outside, especially without Misol. It's much more urban than what Mommy expected, and much dirtier. There's no national garbage collection system, so there's trash everywhere. And we clearly stand out as tourists, so it's hard not to feel like a target for pickpocketing or worse. I feel like a wimpy American tourist, but I think it's probably safer for us not to venture out on our own. We are going to take a cab out to meet Misol and some of her other friends for dinner, so hopefully, that'll go smoothly.
Plus, Mozambique has been experiencing its coldest winter in history, so walking around outside hasn't been that pleasant. Thank goodness we're going to Cape Town, which is the only reason I packed any warm clothes. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have even brought a jacket. But we had one really sunny and warm day yesterday, which was nice. The city seems much friendlier in the sunshine. :)

Friday: Misol’s program actually ended much earlier than expected, so she came to our hotel, and then we headed over to the Southern Sun, the 2nd nicest hotel in Maputo. Mommy and I hadn’t really had lunch, so we ordered some butternut squash soup and a ham, cheese and sundried tomato panini. The food was delicious! Mommy of course loved the soup b/c it was hot, and Misol would’ve eaten the entire sandwich if we had let her.
We then headed back to Zambi for dinner with 3 PCVs who hadn’t been able to make it to lunch. Once again, the food was delicious, but we were a little sad because it turned out that the dish that we all wanted to order – fried prawns – had been the special of the day when we came the first time, so they didn’t have it. But we still got to have the cashew nut tart for dessert, so we were happy.
On Saturday, Mommy and I were planning to stay in the hotel all day, but it was a beautiful day, and there were lots of little kids going to the church next door to our hotel, so all of it together made us brave enough to venture out on our own. We walked to Surf Café, a nearby café/bakery and ate club sandwiches. I was kinda proud of us for venturing out and ordering food all by ourselves. (I was def SHOCKED when I heard they had gone out, but so proud seeing as it’s like a 5 minute walk there! Whew! = ])
After lunch, we headed back to the hotel. Mommy watched Korean dramas on my computer, while I took advantage of the South African TV, which played all American shows/movies. For dinner, we went down to the hotel restaurant. We were kind of nervous at first because we were the only diners there, but the food turned out to be really good. Mommy ordered grilled chicken in a piripiri sauce (but you couldn’t really taste the sauce, which Mommy liked), and I ordered grilled chicken in this delicious buttery, coconut-y Mozambican sauce. Both dishes came with steamed veggies and white rice, so Mommy was in heaven b/c she took a tube of gochujang (Korean red pepper paste) with her. Haha.
On Sunday, Misol came over to our hotel, and we headed to the Maputo airport. From there, we took a short flight to Johannesburg, where we had a 2 hour layover. Mommy wasn’t feeling well, so she took advantage of her priority lounge card, while Misol and I browsed the airport shops. Migum, we saw ostrich liver pate and thought of you.