Flying to Nampula
Our agent recommended us Mozambique for the great beaches. In April, it is still very cold in Europe and after a long winter you just dream of the sun. Since we had the opportunity of a lifetime to travel to Africa, we decided that after safari in South Africa we should just lay on the beach in Mozambique.
We had a direct flight from Johannesburg to Nampula. The plane was small, during the take off some people had to move in the back, but the service was nice and we had even lunch on board.
Getting a visa in Nampula
Passing the boarding control in Mozambique and getting a visa in Nampula is a lifetime experience. We got out of the plane and some officer got our passports. The airport is quite small, like a small bus station in other countries or a small town train station. Very hot and no AC. Secondly no order, or no resemblance of it. You pick your luggage after a quick scan and you need to go to the first floor to apply for a visa. The passports were already there.
Now I am the type of the person who wants to have all the documents in order prior vacation however in Prague we couldn’t apply for visa so we had to do it on the spot. We also couldn’t find any place where we could exchange local currency prior arrival. That includes the airport in Johannesburg.
So we went to the first floor, and waited in front of a very small office. Three people and piles of files were sharing the space and the heat. We filled some papers, waited some more and then it came our turn to pay. We had dollars with us, we read previously that it was the right currency to have. But surprise! They didn’t accept the 100$ bills that were issued prior 2013! What to do?
Exchange office in Nampula airport
After overcoming the unpleasant surprise and the frustration we tried the cash machine on the ground floor! No such luck! Not sure when it stopped functioning if it had ever worked at all. At that point we were even afraid to insert our cards. After some search around without finding any exchange office we asked a security guy where we could go. In the meantime our driver who was waiting to take us to our lodge was informed that we are kind of stuck. Finally the solution was to go back to the airport via departure door, the security guy open the door for us, and to exchange money in a shop. Let’s call it a ” duty free” shop. It was more like a souvenir shop 2×2 m.
Initially we changed the bill of 100$ for smaller bills but they were again rejected. So finally we exchanged the bill for MZN ( meticais) in the same shop after they let us pass the departure control. By this point we were irritated, a bit apprehensive and we started to doubt our choice of the destination. The personnel was moving in a slow motion and we were wondering what would happen if they decided to close and go home.
We were glad that we had something to eat in the plane because the small cafeteria didn’t look very appealing. After the long wait and a prayer we got our visas. We were grateful that our agent could be contacted by phone and that the lodge manager told to the driver to wait as he was not speaking English and our Portuguese was not very good.
Finally on our way
After giving some change money to the people who waited next to the car we hopped in the car and hoped that the next stage in Mozambique would be better than the one in Nampula.
Good luck with your visas! 🙂 Sometimes you need it! If you travel to Mozambique and you need visa is a good idea to arrange to have already some local currency. And of course also a few smaller bills. Tipping is expected and desired! 😉
Turcianske Teplice and how we got there
Vacation with baby in Tallahassee