I never intended to leave Cape Verde so late on in my travels - in fact many of my friends had been as kids as a fairly tradtional British holiday destination - so I was struggling to understand how I’d never been. In any case when I went to book flights they were crazy prices. GBP800 return. As I already had my Libya visa, I could look for a round trip that got me from London to Cape Verde to Tunis (where I was meeting my group for Libya) and then back to London, and this seemed to lower the price, but it kinda chose my island for me. However, until I got my Libya visa, I couldn't book anything - everything was going to be last minute!!
I was going to ilha Santiago - Praia, the capital of Cape Verde and the most historic part. Brits usually went to Sal - with the all inclusive, white sandy beach resorts.
Praia was entirely different. The capital of Cape Verde, and the historic part, was very quiet. I was quite surprised. For the last 13 years, I haven't been legally able to drive due to my deteriorating eye sight, so hiring a car is never an option, I had booked a half day tour to Cidade Vehla and Praia. I had heard that Praia had some amazing street art and I was excited to see it, and for the following day, I had booked a day tour around the island. For some reason, switching a one hour time zone totally exhausts me, but a 7 hour time change (for example) just seems normal!!
My half day tour got changed into a full day, round the island tour. This was a little frustrating given that was what I'd booked for the next day, but it was too late to cancel. The first round the island day tour, did indeed include the old town (Cidad Vehla) which I was happy about, but not Praia. The old town was founded in 1462, and is in the southern part of the island. It was renamed Cidade Velha in the 18th Century, but prior to that it had been called Ribeira Grande. There is not so much left of the old town any more, but the remains (and restoration) of the Sao Filipe Royal Fortress, is the highlight.
There is also the remains of a Se Cathedral, of which the ruins are now used to host music concerts for local musicians, the Church of Ou ready of the Rosary, the views over the city and Banana Street. It was.a very pleasant stroll around the various sites.
Next we went to a workshop of how to make local breakfast. This was more fun than I'd envisaged when I deliberately hadn't booked the day trip, I now found myself on! We learned how to make their version of couscous (cuz cuz), which was a sweet cake, that despite the volume of sugar, was incredibly bland, and banana beignets. The lady who made them was clearly an expert, as she just whipped these up and cooked them in no time at all. The only issue was, there were only four of us on the trip, and she wanted us to finish everything!! Not gonna happen!!
We were back on the road and heading north east towards a number of towns and viewpoints.
We eventually got to Tarrafal Beach which was near the northern most point of the island and had had a town, beaches and beach bars. I had a quick swim, and headed to the bar for a seafood lunch and beverage to enjoy the afternoon sun. I had no had a beach holiday in years and so for a few hours, sitting on a beach was heaven!!
Sadly it was time to head back to the hotel, way sooner than I would have liked. On the way we stopped at the Rebalados village, where the people there were very religious and didn't want to fully integrate into local society so they remained on the periphery.
I slept the rest of the way back - desperate to catch up on sleep. ups returning to the hotel around 5.30pm, I happily slept until 7am the next morning. Blissfully happy to know that I only had one country left until I finished my major life challenge of visiting every UN country in the world.
The next morning, it was time for my "round the island day tour" again. I had luckily, booked this with a different company and explained to them what had happened the previous day and asked if they would mind revising the itinerary to not duplicate anything I'd done the day before. With the exception of having lunch at the beach (which I totally didn't mind!). we could do a totally different trip. I was relieved and glad that it was just me.
We set off towards Praia and wandered around the streets of the capital, that was more of a small town. Great views, street art and a stroll, was a good way to start.
Next we went to some of the market towns, explored the markets, that were only available on certain days (I hadn't;t seen them the previous day) and chatted to local people who were super friendly and glad for people visiting their country. Cape Verde still has pretty strong ties to Portugal, so Portuguese is the main language although there is also a creole dialect as well.
A few more stops at cute villages and viewpoints as we headed further north...
On a more note, we stopped at the Tarrafal Concentration Camp which was opened in 1936 under the Portuguese new prison system. It had two purposes: the first to house and isolate political prisoners, and secondly to send a message that Salazar's political regime would not tolerate any challenges. It became known as the camp of slow death, as the prisoners slowly starved to death, or died from illnesses related to dirty water, combined with poor medical care. The camp was finally closed down 1954. There was however a second phase to the camp, and it was reopened in in 1961 as a prison for the resistance in the Portuguese colonial war in Angola, Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde. 106 Angolans, 100 Guineans, and 20 Cape Verdeans called the concentration camp home, until it was closed again in 1974.
We headed back up to Tarrafal, but this time wandered around the town and checked out all the street art - there was so much of it.
Lunch again was a tasty local dish with a beer, sitting by the beach, relaxing and taking in the island vibe.
This time on the way back, we stopped at a number of different look out points and then my guide said he wanted to go back to Praia. I had no issues with this as he'd said he had more stuff to show me that we'd missed earlier as he hadn't realised I'd be interested in them.
He took me to another area of the town that had the most incredible amount of street art - whole blocks of houses, painted with different designs and I got to meet one of the artists - Tutu Sousa, whom had his own shop and also taught a lot of the local kids to paint. He was a super cool guy and I wandered round his gallery and the nearby streets for ages, until it was nearly dark and it was getting difficult to take photos of the art work.
I was so glad we'd gone back. It was totally the highlight of the trip.
I was leaving very early the next morning and starting the journey towards Libya. I was having to get from Cape Verde, to Lisbon, to Nice, to Tunis, (which would take the whole day) where I would spend a few days hanging out and exploring more roman ruins, before I met the group I was heading to Libya with. I could not wait. My last country was in reach. This was Libya, and anything could go wrong. Best not to get your hopes up just in case...
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