Tonight, we drove out to the Ilha de Luanda. It's the tourtisty-er part of the city, and has nice restaurants and everything. We went to Cafe del Mar and had drinks and some chocos fritas (fried cuttlefish) and beef. Very tasty.
One thing I forgot to mention, and should before I forget. The currency here is the Kwanza, and it's 100 Kwanzas to the dollar. They use dollars quite a lot here, so that's the math they give me. :D It's weird paying 300 of any currency, and it's weirder when it's as offhanded as just spending 3 dollars.
Anyways, we sat and ate and drank Cokes in this gorgeous restaurant that opened up to this vast expanse of praia and we watched the oil boats on the horizon along with the cargo ships go by, while swatting mosquitos.
We drove by the city both ways, which is pretty modern looking. As Diogo's dad's friend, Paul, said, "It looks great until daytime, where it looks like it's been deserted for a decade or so."
It's pretty intense here, in the most expensive city in the world, the gap between rich and poor. I mean, we drove by the favelas, and tomorrow we're going by this market that's been going on for years and very unfriendly to foreigners, but is very telling of the lifestyle here - still very much the Africa we see in Discovery channel programs and hear about when talking of tribal rituals and habits, but meshing cohesively with the modern, urban sprawl that Westerners know.
The old Sunangol building right across the street from the new one.
An old castle/fort near the Ilha. It's been renovated and has a museum inside.
The new Sunangol building, which has a helicopter pad that is unusable due to miscalculations. (it's the lit up thing on top)
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