As cascatas da Namaacha

According to Wikipedia, the two main attractions of Namaacha are the large Catholic Church and the waterfalls nearby.  Last weekend I hiked to the waterfalls with my host cousin Ninho, some of his friends, and my host sister.  The walk takes over an hour (as my host mom kept telling me, e muito longhi!), but it's worth it.  It is a series of pools and waterfalls in the middle of a valley that attracts tourists from Maputo and even nearby South Africa and Swaziland.  On the way I found an old 500 metical coin from 1994.  Just this year Mozambique cut three zeroes off its currency to fight inflation.  So while a 500 metical coin might seem like a lot, it is actually worth about .5 New meticals, or about 1/60 of a dollar.   It’s still cool to have though!

On the walk I got to practice a lot of Portuguese because Ninho and his friends asked me all kinds of questions.  They asked me all about Alaska: what kind of animals lived there, how many clothes you had to wear there, what kind of fruit grew there.  I tried to explain about berries, but I think it was lost in translation.  They also asked me about Peace Corps and how Peace Corps chooses which countries to go to.  They showed me some old abandoned houses left over from the Portuguese and told me about the Portuguese colonization of Mozambique.  It was quite the cultural exchange!

Here are some photos of our walk.  The water was really deep so people were diving off the cliffs.  Once the rains start, the waterfalls get much bigger and the water gets cleaner.  Maybe next time I’ll even swim!