Day one of a road trip around southern Mozambique in a Mini

After a hassle-free but sweaty border crossing at Lebombo/Ressano Garcia, my boyfriend Joe and I made our way to Maputo, our first stop on the trip. It’s my first visit to the city and I love it already.

Hot and steamy like a Bikram yoga class, Maputo smells of peri-peri prawns and salty sea, and looks like an African version of Miami, complete with turquoise and pink Art Deco buildings and a laidback tropical holiday vibe. Squashed green mangoes litter streets lined with European-style cafes, where we were offered a box of cashews as if they were heroin. We’re staying at the Polana, where World War Two spies once drank G&Ts together, and now Brazilians laze around the pool in bikinis smaller than hygienic handwipes. We feasted on delicious fat peri-peri laden prawns washed down with sweatingly-cold 2M beers listening to a seriously-cool looking guy with sideburns the size of dinner plates crooning Portuguese tunes and fell asleep to the sound of the sea and a howling north-easter.

Next stop: Chidenguele for some down-time at an eco-lodge

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Tags: Maputo, mozam in a mini, mozambique, mozambique in a mini, MozaminaMini