| Benguela's cold current regulates the coastal region temperatures and reduces the humidity. It has a warm and dry weather, the average temperature is about 25º and the relative humidity is about 70 to 80%. Mombaka, the old town of São Filipe de Benguela, faces Bahia in Brazil and is linked to it by the waters of the Great Kalunga and by the blood of the slaves. |
Flamboyant trees, Porcelain Roses and Martrindindes.
Praia Morena Beach| Sprinkled with life, the City glows from the flamboyant trees and rests over Morena beach's fine sand. It is a magical place, with a special charm, where the sun meets the fresh breeze, carrying away our thoughts in the soothing movement of the waves. The Casuarinas still offers their shade to the young people seated on the walls and the pergola, until now a Queen, wins back its bougainvillaea crown. The diving board is an old memory of laughs and shouting, a delight almost forgotten by the older people. The sunset, in a full coloured sky and with a Sombreiro upon the sea is always a surprising sight. |
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The Fishing Amateur's Club, also known as the ’aircraft carrier of Morena beach’ is a two floor building with bathhouses and a small restaurant in the ground-level.
In the first floor there used to be a big hall used as a restaurant, dance-hall and exhibition-room. The second floor was the Club-house - restricted to members. After many years of abandon, it was finally restored in the end of 2001. |
Streets and Houses of Benguela
Smells and Flavours of Benguela|
... Coming back to the giant matrindindes, there on the way to Camunda; Coming back to the dreams of a boy lost in the plots of the Cavaco, pitilessly hunting the Siripipi and Janjans; coming back to the thorn-bushes, to the blooming almond-trees and to the yellow gajajas swinging in bunches in the tree of life...
Eterna Benguela - Carlos Gouveia ‘Goia’ - 2003 |
Cafes, Pastries, Restaurants and Hotels
Kalunga Cinema, Cine Benguela, Monumental Cine Theater| Miss Angola 2002 Contest took place at the mythical movie-esplanade Kalunga, built in the 60s and completely restored now. On December 21th, 2001, in the middle of summer, Giovana Pinto Leite, 18, born in Angola, was elected Miss Angola 2002. Her ‘Dream Week’ included tours, spectacles and entertainments. |
Benfica and Sporting
Benguela's Racetrack
Established May 21th,1972, it replaced Morena beach's
traditional circuit of the 60s. Marta, Peixinho and Nicha Cabral gave
life to the racetrack and give good reasons for taking a look at the tuku-
tuku's site (Angolan Club for Motorized Sports). In the daylight's
shining and dusty hours, the Yamahas, Hondas, Suzuki, Casais and
Zundapps have made the joys of the younger people. It had been abandoned
until October 11th, 2001, when the 1st Great Prize of the ‘City of Benguela’ took place. Congratulations to tuku-tuku, which again set
in motion the organization of such competitions, satisfying the
public in general.
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Cavaco and Coringe rivers
| In 2005 a new bridge over Cavaco was ready. In 2002 Cavaco overflowed and took the 1954's old bridge away. |
The National Secondary School ’Comandante Peixoto Correia’ (Nowadays, Escola III Nível Comandante Kassanji),
o VCC, o Vento Novo, o L.13 L.13, as praxes, etc...etc...etc...|
Benguela's Secondary School was renamed to 'Comandante Peixoto Correia' on March 15th, 1967, due to a Council order from April 9th, 1966 - La Lis Battle's anniversary - that runs thus:
The designation of patrons for important works, which aims to pay adequate and lasting tribute to individualities, whose strenuous and unselfishly sacrificed life of work in favour of the Nation's elevation was a model for contemporary and posterity, constitutes salutary and eminently patriotic principle, that has been consecrated via an extended tradition in all areas of the national territory. [...] |
The German School, the Primary teaching, the old Basic Education, the Commercial and Industrial School and the Students Residence.
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The Cabo Submarino Station centenary Building - rebuilt nowadays - is known as the Cultural Building. Almost no one speaks about the Cabo Submarino or about the German School, the Deutsche Schule Benguela, or about Herr von Marschall, about the jokes made in German on the way to Morena beach, about Barbara and Hans, Roica and Anne Christine, Muki, Filomena, the twin sisters Susanne and Brigitte, Mépi and Luisa... They all come from the time of the Camavoco, the rogue train that would be filled with students coming back to the inland plantations on summer holidays.
The Cabo Submarino is much older. In 1889 CS Scotia launched the telegraphic cables across African western coast. The West African Telegraph Company, in Cape Town, was linked to Mossâmedes, in Africa. In the same year IRGP expanded Mossâmedes cable to Benguela and Luanda. Four years after, the cable was literally going round the world, revolutionizing the communications. Nowadays Benguela has a University Centre with 21 class-rooms and also has 304 primary schools and 8 technical schools. There are as11 vocational training schools for agriculture, construction, trade, electricity, railway and harbour services and mechanics too, as well as an agriculture school. |
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