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| national bird of Cape Verde, kingfisher, sitting in tree, Santiago Island |
To say that Sao Vicente Island which we visited on Tuesday
and Santiago Island that we visited on Wednesday are similar because they are a
part of Cape Verde would be like saying Massachusetts and Texas are the same
because they are a part of the United States.
An overnight crossing from Sao Vicente brought us to our
second Cape Verde island Santiago early in the morning. There could be no doubt that this was the
best day weather-wise of the entire cruise so far: sunny, blue skies, temps in the mid-70s and a
gentle breeze. Because we found there
was no shore excursion that met Barb’s present abilities, I decided to do a day
long comprehensive tour of the island called Santiago Island Discovery.
The Prinsendam
organizes its shore excursions differently from the Amsterdam. Here, we report to the Showroom at Sea and
check the chart to see where our particular tour group will sit to wait to be
called. Then at the appropriate time, we
are called and go to the front to get our tour bus sticker and go to the
bus. I got there a little early and
found my place. Shortly after I arrived,
what I thought was my tour was called. I
showed my ticket with the name of the tour imprinted on it and went to the bus,
handed my ticked to the guide and got on the bus. Much to my surprise, our friend Alice boarded
and came and sat next to me. It was a
surprise since Alice had commented the previous evening that she was doing a
shorter tour than I. I told her this was
the full day excursion so she would be getting the tour at a bargain
price. There was a bit of conversation
and I suddenly realized that it was I that was wrong and I was paying quite a
bit more for a half day tour than I should be.
The bus was beginning to pull away when I stopped the guide to say that
I thought I was in the wrong place. No,
said he, my sticker indicated I was on the correct bus. When I asked if this included a full day tour
with lunch he indicated it wasn’t. He
and I got off, checked the tickets and found I was doing a different tour. He directed me to one of the two correct
buses and I got on. The reason was that
I had gotten to the Showroom before the earlier tour went out, was stickered
for the wrong bus and was set to do the wrong tour. I was then directed to the correct one, got
on and took one of the single seats along one side.
A brief comment about my tour guide, Ernesto, is in order
for this tour as he was of mixed African (mother) and European (father) heritage. He was born on one of the islands we didn’t
visit and lived there until the age of 9 when his family, consisting of parents
and 11 children, moved to Providence, Rhode Island! He lived there until 2001 when he decided to
move back to his native Cape Verde. Thus
his English was flawless and no hint of anything except an American accent,
making him very easy to understand.
Our tour took is to the city of Praia, the most populated
city and capital of the most populous island in the republic. We went directly to the historic part of this
city of about 140,000 people. Many
people are of European (largely Portuguese who settled the islands) and African
descent, while a large percentage is African and a few are solely of European
heritage. In 1975, after years of
agitation, Portugal granted Cape Verde Islands its independence and it established
a republic. We were dropped off our tour
bus to begin an approximately 45 minute walk around the governmental seat of
Cape Verde as well as the historic Old Town.
We first saw the military headquarters and barracks along with several
young male and female soldiers walking the grounds. The entire area is on a bluff overlooking the
bay and we could view the Prinsendam
on the other side. We saw the
Presidential Residence which was undergoing some renovation. The Cape Verde president is elected for a
term of 5 years and he may have two terms, after which he must not run for
re-election which is patterned roughly after the US procedure. Right now their president is in the 3rd
year of his first term. After seeing the
statue of the Portuguese discoverer of the islands, Diogo Gomes, in 1460, we
walked across the square and were directed to a popular fruit and vegetable
market where we wandered through the busy enclosed area and watched people
buying their fresh fruits and vegetables.
As we walked through, obvious tourists with our white faces, I was
impressed with what seemed to be the freshest, most appealing produce I think
that I have seen. After my short walk
through the market, I waited for the rest of our group. The most interesting observation was to see
so many women walking with their purchases on their heads. One woman carried a large, very tall
container of drinking water on her head.
Women even stopped to chat with each other, each leaving her purchase on
her head as she chatted! What balance!
Leaving the city, we were quickly passing through the
countryside and then on to a tertiary, bumpy, stone road quite similar to what
we experienced in Sao Vicente. Our guide stopped briefly along the road long
enough for us to snap a picture of Cape Verde’s national bird, the beautiful
kingfisher that accommodated us with a wonderful pose as it sat in a tree. We kept climbing into the jagged mountains
and reached the Fortress of San Filipe high above a valley as well as above the
coastal town and UNESCO World Heritage Site, Cidade Velha. The views from the fortress were
spectacular. We wound our way down from
the fortress and into the city center of Cidade Velha. We got off the bus for a walking tour of the
historic town and birthplace of the Cape Verde culture. Our guide showed us some of the quaint stone
homes along the short streets, most notable of which was Rue Banana with its
(sure enough!) banana trees and several other fruit trees. When we got back to the
town square, Ernesto, our tour guide, pointed out the Pelourinho or pillory where
slaves were sold to merchants that would carry them to the Caribbean islands
and North American mainland and where misbehaving slaves would be publically
whipped to serve as example to others.
Over 500 years old, the Pelourinho remains as an unpleasant reminder of
bygone era.
From Cidade Velha, we were on our way, climbing again
through the beautiful mountains and observing the farming of land which brought
the produce to the markets such as the one we had seen in Praia. We ate our lunch at a beautiful hotel with a
spectacular view in the mountains. It was a buffet lunch of local foods. Most was “OK” but not my choice but at least
it “filled in the cracks”. I admit I
passed on the goat meat. By the way, I
don’t think I have ever seen as many goats on one day as I saw on Santiago
Island. I tried one of the desserts
which seemed to be more like cherry pits in a sauce. I must have missed the point on this one!!
We were to have two more stops on our downward drive from
the mountains back to Praia. One was to
be the Cape Verdean Botanic Gardens, but as we came down a hill into a small
village, we all heard a hissssssssssssssing sound and the bus came to a
stop. Driver and guide hopped out and
confirmed our suspicion – we had a flat tire!!
Our partner bus with others on the same tour stopped behind us. Our
guide told us we would board that bus and the driver would stay to get the tire
fixed. We all got out and jumped on the
other bus, squeezing in where we could.
The shore excursions manager, Maria, told us not to worry, that we had
made the right decision by booking a Holland America excursion because the ship
wouldn’t leave without us if we were late.
I squeezed into a seat on the other bus and someone pulled down the jump
seat in the aisle next to me and we were off.
The tour company was contacted and they were sending a new bus to meet
us as we continued our tour in the cramped vehicle.
We visited the botanic gardens which was an uphill climb on
a stony path as we observed some of the plant life typical in Cape Verde. Down a steep set of stone stairs, we got back
on our one bus and moved on to a dam and reservoir which held the only water I
saw on the island other than the Atlantic waters that surround the
islands. We waited another 10 minutes
there until the replacement bus arrived and once again we hauled our belongings
out of the partner bus and got on the replacement one.
From there, we had an uneventful ride back to Praia and the
ship and were only 5 minutes late from what our original schedule said should
be the return time. Not bad in our
opinion. (The flat tire reminded me of
another flat tire in 2008 in Peru on our tour to Machu Picchu with our Lincoln
Way Schools travel group. We were on a
bus that had a flat tire just a few miles away from the boarding place of a
train that would take us to Machu Picchu.
The other bus there didn’t have room for us and they went on their
way. Our driver and guide got out,
jacked up the bus with us on it(!), fixed it and we ran to jump on the train
just as it was getting ready to leave without us. Our worries here in Cape Verde weren’t nearly
as great as they had been in Peru!)
It was a wonderful day with magnificent sights. I was sorry Barb had to miss all of it but
she couldn’t have handled the walking, both the distance and the uneven
surfaces, and would not have been able to enjoy it. She took a shuttle bus from
the ship into Praia and then returned without getting off in town. She spent the day relaxing and watching a
favorite movie on TV.
Now we have another sea day before we reach our two ports in
northwest Africa, in The Gambia and
Senegal.
CT
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