Mysterious is probably not the best description of the Cape Verde Islands but the word gives a hint that things superficially viewed may not be really understood. That serves as a summary of a day each spent on two of the ten islands.
The Silver Wind visited Praia, the capital of the Republic of Cape Verde on Monday February 27, 2012. Praia is on the southern end of Santiago, the southernmost inhabited island in the chain. It was settled by the Portuguese in the fifteenth century and gained its independence from Portugal in 1975.
We arrived at 8:00 a.m. and departed at 6 p.m. Michael and I chose not to take a tour but took the earliest shuttle bus to the older part of Praia, a couple of miles from the port. The old colonial city sits upon a bluff overlooking a small harbor. The shuttle bus climbed steep cobblestones streets to deliver us to an esplanade overlooking our ship. From there we took our own walking tour of the sights using a map provided by the Shore Concierge Desk on the Silver Wind. We saw the fortified cliff top, the church, the city hall, Albuquerque Square and the market. A street running from the square past the market was blocked off to vehicular traffic and made a pleasant pedestrian mall. We strolled around the area enjoying the colorfully dressed people, neat buildings and generally European flavor of the old city.
A much larger city area spread below the plateau, extending several miles along the shore and up the small valley in which Praia was set. Many more buildings that are modern filled this area. A great number appeared to be under construction. For many, the construction had apparently halted some time ago. Others were busily currently under construction.
The population of mixed African and Portuguese descent, while obviously not rich, appeared much more prosperous than the people of the Gambia or Ghana. We saw little industry and not much of agriculture. The source of Cape Verdeans' relative prosperity was not obvious. Our literature on Cape Verde indicated that the main source of income is "remittances" and foreign aid. Later, when we talked with people from our ship that had gone on the organized tour, they told us their guide said that China was a major foreign investor. Remittances refer to money sent back to Cape Verde from citizens and relatives living abroad.
Back on the Silver Wind, we spent part of the afternoon watching a truck full of boxes that looked like peaches being loaded almost entirely by hand on a small freighter. In contrast, a medium sized freighter on the other side of us loaded standard metal containers. A crane operator and several dockworkers skillfully guided the containers to their places and joined them together just as is done in any modern port. Six local police guarded our ship or perhaps, guarded the containers piled next to the ship from us. Bulldozers, cranes and dump trucks were busy extending the breakwater. It was a busy little port.
Michael and I immensely enjoyed the afternoon sail away as we relaxed on our veranda watching the shore slip by. The unraveling of the mysteries of Cape Verde would wait for another day.
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Barbara Borsuk
barbara@mborsuk.com
Boulder, Colorado, USA
303 408-3639
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