In 1993 — just after the civil war — Mozambique's first tourists started arriving in Vilanculos. Joao Mapapay, a fisherman who knew every bend of the archipelago, took them out in his dhow.
His son Helder grew the operation — two boats by 2002, then four. Helder and the team pick guests up from their lodges every morning, return them at sunset.
In 2012, Marina Ferraris — twenty years in European tourism — flew in from Italy and never quite left. She found in the Mapapay family the partners for what became Bazaruto Incoming Agency: Italian eye for detail, Mozambican joy.
Today the operation is four boats, a traditional dhow, a helicopter partner, a network of every lodge in town and a Tripadvisor Certificate of Excellence. The same family runs it. The same patient, unhurried way of doing things. The same boats moored at the same beach Joao first launched from.
Marina & Helder Bazaruto Incoming Agency · Mapapay Dhow Safari
