Inhambane gastronomia postcard

The coconut trees fill the landscape of Inhambane and Tofo Beach, lending the horizon a ragged look. In them lies the livelihood of many residents in that area, and every part is useful. For example, one of the region's specialities is sura (palm sap, consumed in the form of buns, toasts or biscuits. When fermented, it makes for a traditional drink sold throughout the region and beyond.
Sura is the drink that comes out of a gash in a coconut tree branch. It has a strong, sweet taste, and it is naturally carbonated, with few resemblances to coconut water.
Filipe Agosto climbs the coconut tree like it was nothing, placing his feet in the right place, arms pulling the body up. Up there, he undoes the knot holding a plastic bottle to the branch, removes the of paper covering the orifice of the bottle and changes it for an empty one.
He makes this climb in the morning, and in the afternoon to take the sura coming out of the branches of the thirteen palm trees he has set up for the collection of the sap.
A branch takes at least three months to start realising sap.

Filipe Agosto already knows how to pick them.
He has been doing this job for three years, taught by his father.
At first, he even fell. But today he is no longer afraid to go up, and does it like he is walking on solid ground.

This is not Filipe's only job, but it is the one that gives him money everyday, since his wage comes only at the end of the month.
So, in the morning, Filipe sells be his sweet sura to the mamanas ( an informal term for an older family woman, a mother) baking buns. And in the afternoon, he sells the already fermented version to men who pass by his house, looking to relax after work.
INDICO, IN-FLIGHT MAGAZINE