Cape Verde - Sao Tiago/Fogo

Bem Vindo! Great welcome to Cape Verde. Friendly people, good food, and a beautiful diversity between the islands. The first one is Sao Tiago, the "African island". Cape Verde was first discovered by the Portuguese in the 15th century and all its inhabitants arrived or were taken there since then.

First thins first. A view of Cidade Vehla, the first settlement in Cape Verde. Charming and well preserved, including the first street - the street of the banana! This was a very important center for Portuguese traders, linking Europe, Africa and America, including during the slave trade. Vasco de Gama and Christopher Colombus stopper over during some of their travels. The city was attacked many times by pirates, which finally resulted in the city losing its status to Praia, the eventual capital.

There is an imposing fort overlooking the city. Of course, there are many churches too. Most of them were involved in the slave trade, as a converted slave would fetch a higher price.

In this context, the most disturbing monument is certainly the pillory, in the middle of the town square. This is where slaves were chained, punished or sold.

In Praia, the capital, we can see many colonial buildings. The city has a nice old town, with a long pedestrian street, a market, and the noticeable presence of the Chinese traders.

The newer Palace of the Governement and the National Assembly were built by the Chinese. The "new colonialists" are no comparison to the old ones. In the northern corner of the island, we visited a concentration camp built in the 1930s by the Portuguese to jail political opponents from their African colonies. Some would call them "terrorists" other "patriots". Different points of views, but a very dark place.

Let's finish on a lighter note: the beautiful beach in Tarrafal.

The next island is Fogo, the "volcano island". This is the most impressive island by far. The whole island rests on the slopes of the volcano. Even the airport strip is a bit scary. The volcano dominates everything. The ascension there is quite impressive!

There is a hige crater, and inside the crater, there are new volcanic cones. Yet, there is life inside the crater and close to the cones.

Volcanic soil is apparently very rich and seems to be ideal for grapes. The white wine produced in Fogo is the best in Cape Verde. Interesting that such a sweet wine can come from inside a volcano.

Lava can be beautiful. It takes different shapes and moves in different ways.

But lava is also very distructive. Fogo erupts quite regularly, every twenty years. The last eruption took place in October 2014. This time the flow of lava went directly towards the two little villages inside the crater, destroying them completely. Nowadays, only the rooftops are visible. The inhabitants were relocated outside of the crater, but many of them are already starting to come back and rebuilding their old houses...

Outside of the crater, the dark volcanic color dominates: even the beach sand is dark!

  

 Maybe to compensate for this darkness, the buildings are very colourful. A beautiful contrast.

Cape Verde - Sao Vicente/Santo Antao/Sal

Time for some more island hopping! Nice flights with Cabo Verde Airlines. 

This time we fly to Sao Vicente, the "music island". The main city is Mindelo, the place of the famous Cesaria Evora. There is indeed some "saudade" here. We get told it is mostly because of the relatives who had to emigrate to get a better life. Those staying in the islands are missing them! In Mindelo, there are many bars and restaurants with live music. And in the streets too, there are bands playing, despite the strong wind... Maybe it's because of the strong wind that the Mindelo youths were forming the tightest queue I ever saw to get into a club.

The city itself is quite nice with a few Portuguese-style houses. The influence of the old colony is so strong that the city hosts a replica of the "Torre de Belem", albeit smaller - we are in Cape Verde.

The next island hopping is by boat! A nice and fast ferry takes people over to Santo Antao. The terminal there is very modern, financed by Luxembourg. Small countries's club? The airport there was closed in the 90s due to an accident on the runway (which is now used as a jogging strip).

Santo Antao is the "walker's paradise". The relative remoteness of the island, combined with its wide mountains and its vegetation, makes it an ideal spot for beautiful walks.

Walking through small villages, we can see all the daily activities. There are fields with a wide range of culture, most of them in terrasses. Here and there, we see cows, chicken, pigs, and donkeys.

And there are the not-always-legal distilleries. The sugarcanes go through a whole process to be transformed into grogue, the local rhum. Just the smell of its production is enough to convince of its strength.

The farmers seem to have an easy life compared to the fishermen. They must brave the high waves and the big rocks to return to the harbour with their catch. 

Another beautiful walk took us along the coast to the picturesque village of Fontainhas.

Last but not least, and totally unexpectedly, another island hopping this time to Sal, the "beach island". This is thanks to TAP, most precisely its pilots who went on strike. Result: we got stuck in Cape Verde. TAP decided to move us to the island of Sal, all this for free. Life is tough!!

So there we ended our Cape Verde tour by spending two relaxing days in one of these big "no name" hotels. This could be anywhere in the world, but I take it as a nice complement to the rest of the tour.