Angola

Angola has been emerging from decades of civil war since 2002, and the emergence is uneven and fascinating. Luanda is one of Africa's most expensive cities, oil money and reconstruction money moving through it visibly. The interior is where Angola's real geography lives: the Namib fringe in the south, the highlands around Huambo, the Cuando Cubango wetlands in the southeast - the Okavango rises here before it flows into Botswana. The country is large, the roads are difficult, and the rewards are proportional to the effort.

Our guide is being written from the ground up, with the time this place deserves.

We are still gathering the notes that make a guide worth keeping: Luanda's Ilha seafood strip, southern desert routes, highland guesthouses and the muamba de galinha kitchens where Angola's culinary identity is most clearly itself.