This past week I flew back to Maputo, Mozambique. The purpose of the trip was to meet with a city council director to discuss the city's efforts to take property away from the Church. The meeting never happened. Probably because the city does not know what to do now that the Church has brought its lawyers to the table. If the rule of law could be trusted in Mozambique, there would be no problems but this is a very difficult place to get matters resolved fairly.

I had time for lunch but decided to pass this place up. The take away assados might be the "worse" in town.

 The resistance to Portuguese colonial rule in Mozambique began in 1962 with the formation of the Mozambique Liberation Front. By 1966, most of the north end of the country had been liberated but the war continued to drag on. In 1975, the Portuguese just got up and left the country over night. There was no transition period. The country was left in chaos with few skilled professionals and virtually no infrastructure. The Liberation Front began a policy of radical social change. Private land was replaced with state-farms and peasant cooperatives. Most businesses were nationalized. It would become a failed socialist experiment.  This statue is of the first president of Mozambique, Samora Machel. He ruled from 1975 until 1986 when the plane he was riding in, with 33 members of his entourage, crashed. There has never been an official reason given for the crash. Some have opined that the plane was following a false beacon and flew right into the side of a mountain.

 The Maputo Cathedral built in 1911.

 The central train station built by the Portuguese in 1910. Most of the beautiful buildings in Maputo, and there aren't too many, were built by the Portuguese.

 The dome on the train station was designed by Gustave Eiffel. The designer of the Eiffel Tower.

 Near the Maputo harbor entrance is the old fort built in the mid-19th century by the Portuguese.

So having looked for a better place to eat, I ended up eating at the Restaurante A Cegonha on the left. The picture does it credit, but I have to add the curry prawns didn't make me sick.