Cape Verde Islands. - February 24, 2022
After 9 days at sea, especially with two of them having been pretty rocky it was a pleasure to sea land. For those of you who have sailed before know, after many days at sea you have developed sea legs and now that you are back on land you have to adjust to being on solid ground. So if you see people swaying its not that they are inebriated, its just that they have been at see for a while. To compensate, they sway to and fro when standing.
The Cape Verde archipelago is a group of 10 volcanic islands, all dormant, that boasts year-round warm temperature, turquoise seas, and interesting landscapes. The islands were uninhabited when the Portuguese discovered them in the 15th. It became independent from Portugal in 1975. The majority of the population is of Portuguese and enslaved African descent, and its music, art and culture is a fusion of both. We docked at Mindelo the capital of Sao Vicente island. Cesaria Evora, born in Mindelo, and singer who became internationally know for the distinctive “Morna” ballads has her portrait chipped into a huge building wall. Impressive. She and her music is widely celebrated and is part of Cape Verde’s Heritage. Sao Vicente is a very arid island with volcanic rocky terrain. Lots of mountains, remnants of the volcano. It’s highest mountain is approximately 2,400 feet high, now adorned with cell towers used to be a Military Outpost, since you get a 360 degree view of this and some of the other 9 islands. Cape Verde disbanded it’s Military saying “well we don’t have anyone to fight, so what do we need an army for”. So the outpost is gone. But the serpentine cobble stone road that led to it remains, servicing the cell towers and tourist buses. The mountain is called Monte Verde, which means the Green Mountain. However, there was very little green about the mountain and the whole island for that matter. It gets green for a few days following erratic torrential rains at the higher elevations and leeward side. So mostly very dry and brown looking with sparse vegetation, It’s also a very clean island and even the flimsy houses clustered in the poorer neighborhoods did not give you an impression of poverty, but rather simplicity, working with what’s available. Lots of free roaming dogs, but only few that appeared malnourished.
Our tour was interesting as it gave us a an overview of the island, and yes we went up that hair raising cobble stone road that left a few buns sore to take in the awesome views of the island. A after lunch we took the pier shuttle service to town and walked around to take in the flavor of the town. Managed to find a wonderful store to buy magnets and a few souvenirs. We did not have enough time really to enjoy the town and its lovely waterfront as the last shuttle left town at 4:30 even though we were not setting sail until 6. Part of it was our fault, we did not head out early enough, but we both had gotten Covid Booster shots on board that morning and hence were not that energetic.
All in all a nice day, we enjoyed seeing the island but not a place we would hurry to return.
The pictures above were to have been at the end. Oh well! Here are some more.
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