Michael and I signed up for an all day tour of Santo Antao, the northernmost inhabited Cape Verde island. We reached Porto Novo, Sato Antao around 8:00 a.m. to find that there was no dock available. No one had told the cruise line that the docks are not there but are a work in progress. There was space for only the busy inter island ferry. Consequently we tendered (took the lifeboats) to the dock. I thought the up and down across the waves was fun but I was in the minority.
Our second day exploring this unique island nation mainly involved a daylong bus tour of this picturesque volcanic island. The landscape was unlike that I have seen anywhere else. It is late in the dry season and most of the vegetation was brown and the soil was bare in many spots. The island is mountainous with dizzying heights and steep drops. Our guide told us that until recently there was just one road across the island from Porto Novo in the south to the fishing village on the north shore where we had lunch. The road, dating from the 1960's, is entirely of cobblestone and little more than one lane wide. It does not rain often so the cobblestones do not come lose. We did see two men equipped only with shovels walking along portion of the road presumably to maintain it.
July, August and September are the only months during which it rains over most of the island. We saw many dry riverbeds full of rocks and black sand. When it does rain, the rivers rise and many crossings are impassable. We saw only one river with any water in it during this, the dry season. Most of the landscape is heavily terraced and streambeds dammed every few hundred feet to catch and store the water.
There are two oil fired electric plants on the island, one in Porto Novo and the other all the way across the island at Ribera Grande. Much of the interior has no electricity. The country is developing renewable energy sources. Windmills have been constructed and solar panels are in use here and there.
What a nation of contrasts! Modern construction in the few cities compared to subsistence farmers with donkey's for transport in the hills and mountains. Why are the Chinese investing in Cape Verde? It does not appear that there are any valuable minerals, nor oil and gas to exploit. Our guide said that the main investors are the Chinese, The Portuguese, the Italians and Luxemburg. Luxemburg? This does not make sense.
Large numbers of Cape Verdeans live in Portugal, the rest of the European Union and Boston, USA. Our guide said more Cape Verdeans live in Boston than in Praia, the most populous city. Many young people go to Europe to work. The guide described some of the larger homes we passed as owned by immigrants. I'm not sure where the immigrants, or possibly just foreign owners, are coming from. The economy of Cape Verde is more than a little mysterious.
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Barbara Borsuk
barbara@mborsuk.com
Boulder, Colorado, USA
303 408-3639
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