Mozambique is Back

When my family first arrived in Malawi we would hear legendary tales about Mozambique and how fabulous it was. Buckets of large shrimp would be served with fine wines in restaurants on the beachfront. The waters of the Indian Ocean were warm and the beaches were clean. But by 1975 the country had plunged into a brutal civil war that would continue for the next two decades. And yesterday, leafing through the New York Times travel section, there's Mozambique again, "A Rising Star". With its Portuguese influences and African pace it makes for an ideal beach vacation.

Joshua Kurlantzick reports from the coastal village of Barra: "Chefs were barbecuing piles of freshly caught prawns, kingfish and crab, and the waiters were bopping to Portuguese funk and passing around a local version of a mojito, a drink blending Mozambican cane sugar and fruit liquor. On the water, in the distance, dhows sailed around the tip of Barra beach, taking the last passengers of the day home. Two Mozambican women in long dresses and floral-patterned headscarves, with pots of fresh fish balanced on their heads, wandered in from the beach."