Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
tion from about 6am and usually have space (about Mtc300, six hours from Namialo to
Pemba). If you miss these, there are always smaller vehicles going north, and by 2pm or
earlier you should be in Pemba.
Quelimane
For travel south to Quelimane, you'll need to overnight in Nampula.
Lumbo
Chapas
to Lumbo cost Mtc10 (Mtc5 just to cross the bridge). If you're driving,
wide vehicles won't pass over the bridge, and maximum weight is 1.5 tonnes. There's a
Mtc10 toll per vehicle payable on arrival on the island.
MUSIRO
All along the northern coast, and especially on Mozambique Island, you'll frequently see women with their faces
painted white. The paste is known as
musiro
(also
n'siro
or
msiro),
and is used as a facial mask to beautify the
skin, and sometimes as a sunscreen by women working in the fields or as a medicinal treatment (though the medi-
cinal paste usually has a yellowish tinge).
Musiro
was also traditionally applied in ways that conveyed messages
(for example, whether the wearer was married, or whether her husband was away), although most of the meanings
have since been lost.
Musiro
is made by grinding a branch of the
Olax dissitiflora
tree (known locally as
ximbuti
or
msiro
) against a
stone with a bit of water. Local women usually leave the mask on for the day, and sometimes overnight. If you go
walking in villages early in the morning and see women with white paste on their hands, chances are that they are
in the midst of preparing
musiro
.
