CAPE VERDE

Friends! How do you do? Before our adventures in Cape Verde pass into ancient history, we wanted to share with you all this amazing experience.

We had a blast spending time with Noémia's dad, uncles and aunts and exploring "Island Life". We spent most of the time in Mindelo on the Island of São Vicente where we stayed with Noémia's dad, John. The island is amazingly arid; there is very little vegatation and pretty much no fresh water to speak of. The fresh water that serves the towns is proccessed sea water; we take so much for granted!

The first two weekends we spent with John and his family in a little hut that he made on the other side of the island about 15 feet from the water edge. The main activity of the weekends.... EAT! We ate fish, lobster, kachupa ( a hearty stew kind of thing), rice, etc. Very nice!

Almost everyday we would jump on a "Hiace" (the term used for public transportation that is based on the Toyota van) to go to some random destination on the island: Calhão, Praia Grande, Santo Luzia de Terra, Baia das Gatas and San Pedro. Every place sported the usual volcanic-lava-desert-with-volcanos island look, with beautiful beaches and really chill fishing villages/towns. One of the best memories we have is of a hike we went on with one of Noémia's friends, Leps up to Santo Luzia de Terra; it's an amazing hike that he led us on over this amazing landscape of mountains and valleys to the backside of a mountain that boarders the open ocean where there is a hidden valley with fresh water springs. Lush vegetation: palm, mango and fig trees; ferns and moss make an amazing contrast to the bare lava rock valley walls. To top it off, Leps had brought a pot, so after starting a fire and collecting mint leaves made some absolutely fantastic tea.

The last weekend we were in Cape Verde we took a boat to the island of Santo Antão which is the greenest of the Cape Verdian islands. We spent 3 days there, and we're blown away by the lush green valley, bannana and sugar cane plantations, terraced hillsides and high peaks. Agriculture is everywhere! They have taken advantage of every square foot; even in the mountains where the pine trees are growning they have built up little mounds around every tree to take advantage of every rain drop!

The first day we arrived on Santo Antão we did some of the most grusome hiking I've done in years. We caught a ride from the port city of Porto Novo and went up, and up and up.... until the top of the ridge that divides the island. There, after getting our bearing we hiked our way up to Pico da Cruz, the highest peak on the island (or so we thought! :-) . Being the experience hikers we decided it would be a great idea to descend this trail that looked great on the map. Incredible views, steep trail... and never ending trail...after 4500 ft.,we were FINISHED. Completely BROKEN! The next two days on Santo Antão were highlighted by lot's of hobbling and grunting. I'm not sure what we will forget first: this descent or the DRY tuna-without-mayonaise on old-stale-dry bread!!! I must not forget about the Grogue! It's a type of moonshine that they make out of sugar cane.... a little strong for me, but when mixed with molassas (also from sugar cane), or passion fruit.... it's quite tasty!

On our way home, we had a 5 hours layover on the island of Praia, which we wisely took advantage of and soaked in the hot sun and warm water at the beach. Absolutely wondefulness! On the way out I went in for one more dip..... and came out with a big 'ole cut on my foot! It made the last hour in Cape Verde very exciting/dramatic, but we were able get stiches and make our plane at the last minute.

The trip was a blast, and we loved getting to spend time with Noémia's family and the other people we hang out with along the way (Like Mr. Pinto, Jovem, Leps, André do Porto Sol, to be continued!