DESTINATION AFRICA PART 6

Mozambique is a great country with wonderfull people!!! As the Castelinho38 High Commission is getting more confident on the streets and buses chatting with the locals in portuguese and gaining a deeper understanding of the cultural and historic background,we decided to extend our stay in Tofo, in order to enjoy the beach a little longer and meet new traveller friends.



Giuliano and Roberta are regular visitors to Mozambique where they support a social and cultural project in the community of Vilankulo, our next destination, located about 4 hours north of Inhambane. They are showing their Mozambique to Martina and Francesco, friends from Lake Maggiore, as they lived in Maputo during the war in the 80s.
C38 got a lift on the back of a truck, sharing the beautifull landscape and potholes with our Italian friends, all the way up to Vilankulo, the perfect starting point to visit the Bazaruto archipelago.



Unfortunately we only had time for a day trip to the closest island where we were able to do some great snorkeling, enjoy the empty beach and, of course, sailing back to the continent. Once gain the locals we met (Carlito and Narciso) turned out to be great people and we shared beer and sea food with them, our last dinner in Mozamique, before starting our return trip via Johannesburg. Here we spent just one day in Soweto at our friends Lebo and Maria ( www.sowetobackpackers.com) and a night out with our man Fefe in Melville.



We left Joburg and the following day landed at Zanzibar airport, where finally C38 High Commission met our UNEP representative Nilvo Silva, our host in troubled Nairobi. He escorted us from here to the Sauti za Busara Festival, Eastern Africa Music Festival(www.busaramusic.com).
During the festival we had the chance to hear many great musicians from all over Africa, with a great variety of sounds and cultural backgrounds. The greatest surprise was Seckou Keita Quartet + (www.seckoukeita.com), with whom we shared the swimming pool at our hotel. Seckou's youngest son Karim (4 years) became Fernanda's best friend and we couldn t control our excitement during their last concert, when he appeared on stage for the last song playing djembe in front of a crazy crowd.



After a last shopping trip in Zanzibar (probably one of the highlights of our African tour) we will stop in Nairobi (Kenya) for a couple of days, from where we started on the 31st of december 2007. Before coming back to RIO, we still have some time to spend between Trieste, Paris and London where we are looking forward to seeing our friends and relatives and where we will further spread the word of CASTELINHO38.

Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage.