Luanda Angola

2.6.2024 Luanda

This time I had booked a city tour that was supposed to start at 8:30 a.m. I successfully tried to be one of the first to leave the ship. I walked past a folklore group to the shuttle bus.

The shuttle bus took us to the entrance of the port, not far from the meeting point with the tour operator. Shortly before 8:30 a.m. a representative of the tour operator arrived and led us (there were now three of us) to the buses. However, it took almost an hour before they finally set off.

We drove through Luanda and further until we reached our first destination after about 40 km: "Miraduoro da Lua", a rock formation that reminded me of the American Bryce Canyon. Much smaller, but with a beautiful sandy beach in the background. Very pretty.

We drove back towards Luanda and stopped in the area where the Slave Museum is located. Since it is closed on Sundays, we had no choice but to visit the artisan market, which offered clothes, paintings and wooden sculptures that I would have refused even as a gift.

The next destination was a hilltop fortress that now serves as a military museum. There is a lot of military equipment to admire there.

Afterwards we drove to a very chic, modern shopping center where we (seven tour participants) had a very good but expensive meal. There were problems with paying: We had planned to pay by credit card, but the card reader could not connect to the card service. We offered to pay in US dollars. It took an eternity before the payment amounts were converted and we were charged. Our tour guide Alice was already very nervous because we had exceeded the agreed pick-up time by more than five minutes and our bus driver had actually already had trouble with the police.

After a final photo stop in front of the "Banco Nacional de Angola" we drove back to the port entrance, from where a shuttle bus took us back to the ship.

In the evening Peter Grant delighted us with his singing.