Fifth day of the year.

Had yet again breakfast in Mandala House, the oldest building in the whole Blantyre.

Its arquitecture evocated that of a fort, even though it was never used for defensive purposes.

This time I was accompanied by my fresh-new Spanish travel buddy Miguel, assiduous photographer and romantic traveler. Spanish, but above everything Catalan.

After wandering around the city and its markets (Malawian people are positively crazy about shoes!) we had a classic Ethiopian meal. Doro wot with injera (a semi-sweet pancake that is unrolled on a big platter over which food is placed and eaten with) was a try-must. To drink: Ethiopian tea, superb! Our food was brought and recommended by an old man, probably with Arab ascendence, rather light-skinned, piercing bright blue eyes and a rather extreme patience when it came to scaring flies away with his hairy stick (they never seemed to go away).

Later that afternoon we visited the Hindu temple and stayed for the 108 Gems prayer. It proved to be rather long and challenging to read. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it.

Back at the hostel we talked to the owner: a Malawian-Peruvian guy in his mid-thirties, with a long-hair laid-back renegade attitude. He also wanted to go to Cape Mac Lear in the next few days, but had no idea of when he was going to find enough gasoline for the trip. He kept droning on and on about politians, media control and others. Is it us Latin Americans that are always complaining about everything or is it just that we always live in countries that are not just right for us?

With Miguel we decided to stick to a two-man group.

For dinner, we rushed off to town and tried to get some bread, tomatos, ham and cheese (unsuccesfully). 

Everything was already closing (it wasn't even 7pm) but we managed to get everything but the cheese.

Supermarkets here are really bud supplied. Imported goods cost at least 5 usd (shampoo, body cream, etc, except for Mars and Snickers candy bars). Fun fact: There's only 4 brands of cookies but around 5 shoe-polish ones.

On our way back I tried to greet Asha (Indian lady owner of a veggie restaurant), but was already closed.

We prepared dinner in our room, and even though we hesitated on the good state of the ham, ate almost the whole thing (I've eaten stuff in much more dubious states).

Tried not to think much on the following day: my birthday.