Maputo Municipal Market

Entry in my travel journal: "First of all I look for the market. One look at the Maputo Market, also called the Bazar da Baixa, makes one realize that this market is about the soul of its people, one senses its feelings, its dreams and even its love. Light pours through the holes in the old awnings. Everything is shiny ebony skin and ivory smile. The fish vendors sink their gold bracelets into the buckets full of crabs that live in mud, shrimps that fit neatly into old Schweppes cans. I taste with the eyes, I smell and touch. I find a hole and a barricade and go through. Blue bowls filled with shrimps, pink fish still dripping with seawater, buckets full of snails and live lobsters greet me.