Ilha Day 2 - Colors of the Old Colonial Jewel

Quick trip to market for shampoo, then to museum at the governor's palace. Enjoyed chatting w/locals, haggling for bead necklaces (I was a little too ruthless - found out later the beads are all from Venice, scavenged from the sand and super-hidden to the normal eye on the ground all over the island. But got some cool zulu beads in Durban, so all is good). My guides for the tour, James and Jackson, were quite knowledgeable and patient with my comparisons with Malawi: "In Malawi, .. blah blah blah."

I saw 3 museums - maritime, governor's palace, and fortress of Sao Sebastiao. Maritime Museum had cool lamps, interesting coins from long ago, lots of Ming pottery, more ming plates - and fabulous vases! At the palaces along with intricate carved wooden tables and chairs from China, Goa & Macau, carpets form Persia and Portugal, some cool poetry by the Portuguese Shakespeare Luíz de Camões who spent some time on Ilha and wrote about it for his poems.

Beautiful spaces even with rooms made and decorated for the King of Portugal (who never game to visit the jewel of the colony!) Cool modern tapestries - war with the Persians, a shipwreck or the 1620s. Lunch at Watolofo, a local place with lovely shell decor and some fun locales to chat with. Friends shown below, walking on the streets and chatting in Portuguese/English. The local xima is like cassava nsima in lakeshore Malawi, though it didn't come in a sticky ball. Pretty good w/local fish.


Back to the museum after lunch, got Jackson as a guide to take me to the fortress - the 192nd anniversary party still raging nearby. Fun fact: The tiny Ilha has 18000 people! Jackson was obviously a charming dude, he's been a guide to tons of people, including the president, Wesley Snipes and Danny Glover and other famous travelers or movie stars on location. The fortress was gorgeously decrepit in the afternoon light against the blue waters and we walked around inside languidly exploring old kitchens, barracks and slave quarters, rooftop sentinel posts and a chapel, a sea breeze cutting the heat of the sun all the while. The Portuguese had an ingenious system of rooftop water collection, involving directing channels, closed gutter chutes, leading to a cavelike underground storage vessel, which also served as a cool secret hang out and echo chamber. The water would be enough for 6 months following the rainy season. Smart! Why didn't anyone adapt this elsewhere??? Another island was just for Indian workers nearby. Hmm.

Departure from Ilha: Great dinner on the back deck of Relíquias with Jan and Melanie. Inside is lovely and unique, with a ship and treasure chest crashing out of the wall; outside was quiet and nice. Mel had matapa, the national dish, made with sea greens and peanut-coconut sauce. I had prawns curry and it was out of this world! I could get used to having so much seafood as Moçambique offers.. and curry style is just one of a spectrum of ways to have it.