"Swahili Island of M ..." a Mozambique Travel Page by jorgejuansanchez

In my opinion, the best and more enchanting Swahili islands in Africa are the following three: Zanzibar in Tanzania, Lamu in Kenya, and Mozambique in Mozambique (it sounds like a words game).
To Zanzibar, every traveller knows, is very easy to go by ferry from Dar es Salaam. For Lamu, in Kenya, you have to get there in the traditional and most original way: by train from Nairobi to Mombassa, then buses or trucks, and finally a dhow.
But to Mozambique Island is not so easy to reach. In fact it took me three weeks from Maputo. Only in Beira I had to wait ten days to catch a boat to Quelimane due to the bad sea conditions, which made difficult the navigation. I did not want to fly or go first to Tete by road and then down to Quelimane. There was no bridge across the Zambezi River in that part of the country.
Mozambique Island is the only UNESCO monument in the country.
Presently is not really an island, being united to the continent by a bridge (by the way, the Portuguese architect who constructed it was the same that erected two more bridges uniting Macao to the islands of Taipa and Coloane).

Mozambique Island is a wonder. The island was the Portuguese capital during their Empire in Asia. In that Island lived Portuguese heroes, such as Luis de Camoes (who has a monument in front of the sea), or the Spanish Jesuit Francisco Javier. People are mainly muslims.
In Mozambique Island I saw a castle from the XVI century (destroyed two centuries later by the Dutch), a palace with a museum inside showing old chariots, colonial Portuguese houses, several churches constructed in Manuelino style, and a cathedral where prayed the very few catholics of the island. The streets were narrow and the bazaar very exotic.

In order to leave Mozambique and enter Tanzania I had to cross the Ruvuma River by dhow during two days, from Vila Mocimboa da Praia to Mtwara.