Maputo Journal

Field notes · Issue No. 4

Six days of ochre light on the Indian Ocean.

A slow travel journal from Maputo: Art Deco facades, peri-peri nights on the Marginal, and the light that comes off the Indian Ocean.

Read the journalSee the photographs
Maputo waterfront at golden hour with Art Deco buildings and palm trees
Avenida Marginal, an hour before the grills light up.

Latest entries

  1. 01
    12 August

    Concrete flowers on Avenida 24 de Julho

    Half the city is a modernist museum nobody bothered to label. Balconies curve like ship rails; the plaster is the colour of dried mango.

  2. 02
    13 August

    Prawns, charcoal, and the 7pm blue

    The grills start before dusk. Peri-peri, lime, a plastic chair facing the road. Dinner takes three hours and costs almost nothing.

  3. 03
    15 August

    The ferry to Katembe, twice

    Once for the crossing, once for the way the skyline flattens into gold behind you. Best fifteen minutes in the city.

All five entries →
Weathered blue and white tiled wall with a rusted iron balcony in Maputo
Street grills with prawns under lanterns in Maputo at dusk

Next issue: Inhambane

One dispatch a month. Photographs, cheap dinners, and where to sit at sunset.