How is Mzuzu? What is it? And where? Mzuzu is actually located just 42km North from Nkhata bay. A world apart from many of the villagers down at the fishermen village and definitely a far away metropolis for our kids before they became part of Marajowi. In reality Mzuzu is a small town not too far from Nkhata Bay, though it can take even 3h to reach it with the available minibuses.
It is the place to be if you need a bank or a cash dispenser. Nowadays there is a big shopping mall, Shoprite, where you can find a sort of western style supermarket. You go to Mzuzu if you need a good hospital. It is also the place where a few good secondary schools and an university are located. And there are a few factories too.
Getting there from Nkhata Bay
Today we need to get some cash and so we head there. We decide to go with a taxi, rather than with a minibus, but despite this, it takes us 2,5h to reach our destination. The first taxi doesn’t have the license to go further than the district of Nkhata Bay. He transfers us to another taxi which takes really a long time to load two women and the tons of mangos they are bringing to the market. Only 5 km from Mzuzu there is an unexpected road-block from the police and our car suddenly makes a U-turn. He doesn’t have a valid insurance…Finally we step into a minibus and eventually make it to Mzuzu.
A stroll downtown
At the only cash dispenser which accepts foreign cards, it takes us almost a hour to take all the money we need. We can withdraw a maximum of 40 EUR per transaction and each time it costs more or less 7min. Luckily we are not in a hurry…
Before heading back we go for a small walk downtown. This really is a huge dusty and rather dirty open-air market. Traffic is really heavy too. After less than a hour we have enough. We want to go back to Nkhata bay, its lake and its quietness. Luckily the trip back is easier and it takes us just a bit more than 1h.
