Feb 3 Luanda
We were unsure about Angola and Luanda. The civil war was not long ago, we had heard that they were not hospitable to tourists, and Oceania even said that we would have "escorts" and not "guides" on the shore excursions.
Our stop in Angola turned out to be delightful. We chose a short excursion, Panoramic Luanda, that was scheduled to visit 3 cultural sites in the city. Our escort turned out to be more of a guide, whose English was very good. The two 40-passenger buses that comprised our group were escorted by a motorcycle policeman who whisked us through traffic and red lights. We had no difficulties at all.
We stopped first at the Nazare Church, built in 1664 by a governor who survived a shipwreck and arrived at this location. The Portugese heritage was clear in the beautiful tiles the covered the church walls.
Stop number two was the colonial fort that now housed the Museum of the Armed Forces. Here again there were Portugese tiles on the walls, but the views from the fortress walls were the best. Everywhere you looked, Luanda was growing, construction cranes outlined the sky. Luanda is the most expensive place to live in the world, outpacing Tokyo, New York and London. But if our guide Andreas is any indication, the people are happy to be here.
That's the Mausoleum in the distance
The last stop was for the Mausoleum for the first president of Angola who led them into independence. It's an amazing structure, looking like a Soviet rocket on the launch pad. And there are other touches of the Soviet influence around the building, especially the statuary around the crypt.
After a tour out to the beaches it was back to the ship.
We really didn't see much of the city and the country. We stayed within a couple of miles of the port, and didn't stray far from the water. We did go past a large area of slums that Andreas said were being demolished and the people relocated. But we had seen slums and the very poor in Togo and Benin, probably worse than those in Angola. So our fears were without foundation. We had a good time, saw the local sites and enjoyed it. We probably won't be coming back to Angola anytime soon, but there's no reason not to.... dave
We were unsure about Angola and Luanda. The civil war was not long ago, we had heard that they were not hospitable to tourists, and Oceania even said that we would have "escorts" and not "guides" on the shore excursions.
Our stop in Angola turned out to be delightful. We chose a short excursion, Panoramic Luanda, that was scheduled to visit 3 cultural sites in the city. Our escort turned out to be more of a guide, whose English was very good. The two 40-passenger buses that comprised our group were escorted by a motorcycle policeman who whisked us through traffic and red lights. We had no difficulties at all.
We stopped first at the Nazare Church, built in 1664 by a governor who survived a shipwreck and arrived at this location. The Portugese heritage was clear in the beautiful tiles the covered the church walls.
Stop number two was the colonial fort that now housed the Museum of the Armed Forces. Here again there were Portugese tiles on the walls, but the views from the fortress walls were the best. Everywhere you looked, Luanda was growing, construction cranes outlined the sky. Luanda is the most expensive place to live in the world, outpacing Tokyo, New York and London. But if our guide Andreas is any indication, the people are happy to be here.
The last stop was for the Mausoleum for the first president of Angola who led them into independence. It's an amazing structure, looking like a Soviet rocket on the launch pad. And there are other touches of the Soviet influence around the building, especially the statuary around the crypt.
After a tour out to the beaches it was back to the ship.
We really didn't see much of the city and the country. We stayed within a couple of miles of the port, and didn't stray far from the water. We did go past a large area of slums that Andreas said were being demolished and the people relocated. But we had seen slums and the very poor in Togo and Benin, probably worse than those in Angola. So our fears were without foundation. We had a good time, saw the local sites and enjoyed it. We probably won't be coming back to Angola anytime soon, but there's no reason not to.... dave
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