Angola: Luanda – Exploring the City

Luanda is a city of 2.5 million people (over 10% of the whole country’s population) as many people flocked here from the countryside to escape the devastation of the civil war and look for job opportunities.(Interestingly, Luanda is the third largest Portuguese-speaking city in the world after Rio and Sao Paolo in Brazil). It’s a large and sprawling megapolis, but the core is centered around the Fortaleza de Sao Miguel and the Cidade Alta (Upper Town) and the beautiful curve of the Marginal waterfront. Marginal has a pedestrian promenade underneath modern skyscrapers and business offices, kind of like the Malecon in Havana. Old churches and colonial buildings co-habitate here with glass-and-steel towers of oil riches – the contrasts are everywhere! All in all – the city is quite welcoming and safe.
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