Uma Onda Frescura

Uma onda frescura. A fresh wave. It is the slogan of Compal, a juice company from Portugal in their billboard throughout Luanda. But that is also sum up the beach experience in Ilha, the famous beach of Luanda, Angola that facing the cool and refreshing Atlantic Ocean. Where the city dwellers of Luanda spend most of their time during weekend (fim de semana). Praia de Ilha, onde a reunião do sol o mar. Beach of Ilha, where the sun meet the sea.

When you take a dip to the Atlantic Ocean, you can feel the refreshing and pulsating cold wave on your body that really gives a heavenly sensation. The water is still can be considered crystal clear and you can clearly see the fishes swimming under and around you. That's why Luandanese always going back to the sea every now and then. To refresh their soul with the wave of Atlantic Ocean.

Ilha is a spit of land formed by big sand bar, as a result of strong south to north Benguela current that really shaped the coastline morphology of West Africa. The Mussulo Island is another spit of land to the south of Ilha. Ilha is sheltering the Luanda town from the strong wave of Atlantic ocean, creating the Luanda Bay or Baia de Luanda.

While pondering the beautiful sand of Ilha, I start to believe that there must be a pool of oil that trapped on this similar north-south oriented sandstone reservoirs that developed million years ago along the coast of West Africa. Anyway, I think oil is still found in the mind of mankind.

The best spot of Ilha will be the near end of the spit island, where there are three restaurants adjoining strip of beach that bounded by wave breaker. The restaurant in the middle is Cafe de Mar (Ocean Cafe), where you can rent bed for USD5. Or if you really toward saving your money, then you just lay down your towel anywhere in the beach.

It seems Cafe de Mar only serving various of drinks but limited food that range only from burgers to sandwiches. Wide range of alcoholic drinks are available. The batidos (tuti frutti milkshake) is the best drink for non-alcoholic person, cost USD5. The cost of sandwich and burgers served with batata fritas (fried potatoes) invariably between USD10-15.

Flanking Cafe de Mar are Coconuts and Miami Beach Restaurants, both served various food from seafood, steak and other western delicacies. And those two restaurants have shower for you to clean yourself after beaching session.

The best time to visit is late morning, around 10-12AM where the wave is quite calm and relaxing. The sun also perfect for tanning. It is also very good for swimming, and you can literally swim with the fish. Since you can see a lot of fishes under you. Later in the afternoon, the wave is start to get bigger.

Uma onda frescura. No wonder tourists start to visiting Luanda. Starting from zero tourist in 2002 where the war still wagging Angola. The tourists mostly from South America, Brazil, Portugal, UK, and USA brought almost USD100 million revenue for Angola in 2004 and 2005 with around 200-210 thousand tourists per year.

I agree that Angola has lot of tourism potential with their friendly people and beautiful nature.