Day 119 of 149 - LUANDA, ANGOLA

 Date: 5/03/2024   Day 119   Port Day: LUANDA, ANGOLA

Description: Angola’s capital and most populous city, Luanda has enjoyed a massive boom in construction in the last decade following the end of the Angola Civil War. Learn about the history of Angola at the many superb museums, historical sites and monuments throughout the city. The Parque Nacional da Kissama, south of Luanda, is an expansive wildlife park with elephants, water buffalo, antelopes and nesting sea turtles. Kissama is at forefront of Angola’s wildlife regeneration efforts in conjunction with a pioneering relief project known as Operation Noah’s Ark.

Planned Excursion: None

Today's Notes: It was a beautiful sunny day with a high temp in the upper 80's.  There were few excursions to choose from.  Some folks did go on a 2 hr excursion.  We decided to take the shuttle bus to the local mall.  It turned out to be a very new and modern mall but with few stores.  Those open stores had little stock to choose from.  We were only there for about 45 minutes before leaving back to the ship.  Some folks did report trouble with using credit cards.  We didn't try to purchase anything. 

Joe and Pat Rawson went on the 2 hr excursion and reported it was a disappointment.  Pat only got out of the bus at one of the three stops.  The first stop was at a museum and old fort. The other two stops were at a small church and monument.  Other than that it was pretty much a bus ride around town.  One thing to note as the group of several small bus made their way around town, they were escorted by police cars in front and behind the group.  When we went to the mall we had several guides with us inside and outside the mall.  It was a bit disconcerting with the increased security for us.  

As I write this update we have left Luanda about 3 hours ago and now have our StarLink Internet back which was out again all-day today while in port.