During November 2006 I visited Maputo, capital of Mozambique with my husband Thys and two friends, Gawie & Esm é Janse van Rensburg, after an absence of more than 40 years. Of Lorenzo Marques as Maputo was previously known, one of the most beautiful cities in Africa, hardly anything is left after the civil war of the 1970's and 80's, Droughts, famine and floods did the rest Maputo has a population of more than two million people and is known as one of the poorest countries in the world. Although poverty is everywhere to be seen it was the lively African markets that held me captive.