Porto, from atop Torre dos Clerigos
High over Portugal
In brief: We were thoroughly smitten with Portugal and its two major cities on our first visit ever. Here is what we saw and what we observed. How could we have missed out on Portugal…
Gulbenkian museum
A Garden and Delights in Lisbon
We took a recommendation and went to the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, a private collection by an developer of oil fields in Iraq early in the 20th century. Chinese screen, Gulbenkian Assyrian panel, Gulbenkian As befits…
Chapel of Nossa Senhora de Baluarte, 1522
Gone off: Mozambique’s divided old ports
In brief: Two towns, split between colonialists and natives, long served as key African ports. Despite years of decline, both still tell the past and foretell better futures... They were vital ports once, both developed…
Amazing bubble coral hiding a bubble coral shrimp
Underwater world along Mozambique’s coast
South Africans know it. Portuguese know it. Increasingly, other Europeans are discovering it. The 2500 kilometer long coast line along the Indian Ocean is a natural and tourist treasure. In the south, the coast around…
Selling honey in reused bottles along the N1
Road Hogs – and Chickens – of the N1
National route N1, the principal and just about the only highway through Mozambique, curls north from the coasts of the south toward the highlands in the west before again cutting back to the coast. There…
Art deco Holy Cathedral, Maputo
Maputo’s Surprising Style
At the heart of Maputo, the capital city of Mozambique, stands a bronze statue of Samora Machel, the country’s socialist revolutionary hero and first President. From the elliptical Praça de Independencia, he hails or blesses…
Chazunda, the principal divine figure
Spirits that Dance – Malawi rock art & rituals
Ten thousand years ago, in a region where currently Mozambique, Zambia and Malawi meet, members of the Batwa pygmy tribe recorded important features of their life on the rock walls of their shelters. Unlike other…
Rocking a puberty initiation ceremony, Mulanje
Africa in miniature – Malawi’s diverse south
Most people think...central Africa, grasslands, savanna, big animals. Southern Malawi had its share of this. Though other countries might get the headlines for big animal wildlife, you can still see plenty in this small country…and…
Reedbuck landscape, Nyika
Malawian Forest Tales
“You should go there,” a local suggested, “it’s a unique place in Malawi.” We had already experienced the lows and highs here. The heat-soaked grasslands and bush country of Majete and Liwonde where the wild…
Village street scene
TIA – This is Africa
TIA. We first heard this phrase at our 2017 starting point in Madagascar, and then repeatedly in other parts of Africa. Typically, local people used the phrase by way of an explanation when something failed…
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