On this day we were on the island of Sal. Our dynamic and sometimes bewildering timeline for once left us with a good stretch of time to kill before an evening departure back to Praia. Sal’s chief offerings are pretty much limited to pristine beaches and wind. With that in mind, we decided that were either going to partake in one of those resources, or hang out at a local watering hole (which is not necessarily a bad thing). We chose wind and beach. Kinda.
Unbeknown to me, the island of Sal boasts a bizarre
salt mine that located inside of a volcanic crater. Always up for the unconventional, a visit to the crater sounded good to me. Even if I had no towel, no change of clothes- or much of anything in the way of salt mine accoutrements.
A walk through a tunnel bored into the crater and yields a view of what might pass for a cranberry bog- if it was filled with salt. Nevermind…
You’ll be shocked to learn that there was no one here. We had the run of the place.
So like I said, the only stumbling block with spur of the moment tourist trips like this one is that you don’t always have the requisite supplies at your disposal. The bathing suit, which I had, was key, but I wasn’t sure that dipping into a salt solution just prior to a flight was the wisest course of action. My travel companions (two guys) told me that this was absolutely not a problem, and I could dry off by simpling standing in the wind. Dudes…we just don’t think alike….
Yeah, that’s all salt. Rocky, punishing salt, and I only have my good leather shoes on during this trip- no flip flops. Who said this was a good idea again?
Whatever- no towel, no shoes to protect my precious (and actually pretty calloused) feet- but when the Hell am I going to be out here again? The reasons that I am giving myself for not going into this relatively unappealing body of water are pretty unconvincing. So in the water I go.
It’s a bit torturous to wade in the water barefoot, but once I get to a place where I can float, yeah- it’s pretty cool.
This place is a tourist spot. You don’t see any Cape Verdeans going in the water, and accordingly our lovable Coast Guard pal stayed and watched up take a dip. In retrospect, it kind of looked like we had military protection as we swam in the middle of nowhere.
I said that it was painful to wade into the water while barefoot. You know what it feels like? Picture your precious soles going for a stroll on a sidewalk that has a nice thick layer of rock salt on top, only the rock salt is sharper and angrier.
So I got over my lameness and floated. As promised, the walk back to the main area was windy, and I dried pretty fast. The only problem was that I had a nice protective coating of salt as a new surface layer to my body. Not good. I opted to pay the 110 escudos to watch shower while a stern Cape Verdean woman watched me to make sure I didn’t use up too much of their fresh water supply. My life is an exercise in awkward cultural interactions.
After my shower I was still wet, so back into the wind I stood while my bathing suit tried to dry. This was not the highlight of the trip, but the entire process managed to prove that I can use the wind and the same clothes that I will be wearing to dry off. Fantastic use of limited resources.
I imagine I am more impressed by this minutiae than you.
We still have a little time left so we head to the base drinking establishment. It’s great because we can sit around and not be bothered. No beer for me, after sitting in the salt I am wicked thirsty.
So this wraps up my random adventures around the islands- at least I think. I’m back in Praia now and things have slowed down to Megan speed. For me the speed of Cape Verde is superior to that of Senegal, because that’s just the kind of person I am. If the rest of my trip is an exercise in utter nothingness I will be totally cool with that.
That said, I’ll definitely be game if any further opportunities for cultural enrichment present themselves….
