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Ian Wright travels to one of the world's poorest nations,
a country wiped off the tourist trail for twenty years
by war but now on the rise again - welcome to Mozambique!
Ian starts his journey in its capital Maputo
where he meets artists working to heal the wounds of
war. He views the city's colonial relics, lives it up
in the Polana Hotel, one of Africa's
most luxurious hotels, and shops at Ipanaema
market - a real taste of Africa.
Up the coast Ian finds himself in the Bazaruto
Archipelago, a strip of islands off the coast
that are fast developing as a diver's paradise. Here
he comes up close to one of the world's most endangered
animals, the dugong.
Pressing on north to Chimoio, Ian
finds out how the central region of the country is dealing
with the terrible landmine legacy of its civil war.
From here Ian crosses the mighty Zambezi River
and continues his journey to Quelimane where
he stops at Africa's biggest coconut plantation before
learning about how locals are dealing with the lethal
spread of the AIDS virus in Mocuba. Then Ian travels
to the first European settlement in East Africa, magical
Mozambique Island, which was built
as a replica of Lisbon in Portugal.
 Finally, Ian travels to Mueba, Mozambique's
most remote area where you won't find many travelers!
He stops in the village of Mueba, famous for a massacre
of its people by the Portuguese in 1960. As the men
of the village perform the animal dance to bring healing
to the land, Ian finds it a fitting summation of the
country as a whole - a place in which people are looking
to the future and trying to heal the wounds of its recent
troubled past. Travel in Mozambique is still hard but
worth all the effort! |
