Bocoio

Two weeks ago I went with Angola friends to Bocoio, a small town about an hour and a half outside of Lobito. Whereas Lobito is on the coast and humid, Bocoio is in the mountains and nice and cool. It was a nice change from a hectic and at times dusty city. A friend just bought a large piece of property with a small house on it.

We didn’t do much except eat, drink, and relax. The highlights were: sitting in the rapids of the river on the property, getting an improvised hydromassage; walking up the big hill across the road from the property and seeing the valley below; seeing a homemade bicycle; hearing about the dragon.

Homemade bicycle and the boy who made it

Yes! There is a dragon in Bocoio, and it lives in a tree on the mountain that looks like a pregnant lady giving birth. No one is allowed to climb that mountain. Only one person ever has- the soba, or village leader- and survived! The dragon, you see, is very protective of the pregnant lady. At night it breathes fires and swoops down from the mountain to eat cows and cover itself in their excrement.

When we asked the boy with the homemade “bicycle” about the dragon, he confirmed the story. Our plans to hike the mountain on our next visit were quickly scrapped. The dragon, however, doesn't mind if you watch him breathe fire, so next time we will return to the road at 10pm to watch himprotect the woman.

Pregnant Mountain