How’s this for time zone priority? Actually, I am using these clocks to try and determine the proper formula to compute Cape Verdean time. I’m guessing that you add up the times of all six of these clocks and divide by Pi. As you can see, I haven’t quite figured it out yet…
I have probably given Cape Verde more than its proportional share of attention over the past year, but I’m still going to throw a couple more entries at you, if only to make a mental remembry about what Santiago has to offer. Yes, I’m making up words.
You haven’t really been to Cape Verde until you’ve ventured beyond Praia, the country’s capital “city”. Even if you speak no Portuguese or Creole, you can easily find a cab that will weave you in and out of the achadas (plateaus) and get you over to the old city.
From here you can see Cidade Velha, or old town. Flex your skills of deductive reasoning and you’ll see that this is code for Cape Verde’s oldest town.
Before we roll down the hill, we’re going to keep a bit with my last post’s military theme, because nothing says bread and butter like defense and welcoming tourism.
Behold the painstakingly-restored Fort Real de São Filipe, originally built in 1590. This place was constructed to attack pirates and defend the Portuguese colony from French and the English. The pirates messed a lot of the old town up, and you’ll see some of their handiwork in the church photo below.
Most of you know that I grew up with cannons, so I am always happy to patronize places with real live guns on display. Next time I come back I’m bringing some black powder and grass clippings.
Yes my video clarity is less than pristine, but this at least gives you a view of the ocean. You can see why I love to run along the coast here.
After our trip to the fort, we rolled down the hill to visit the actual old town. This place became a settlement 1466, and was an important port for trading slaves from West Africa to South America and the Caribbean. Cidade Velha’s port was also a stopping place for Christopher Columbus in 1498, as well as my favorite explorer of Mr. Horne’s 7th grade social studies class: Vasco….de Gamma.
Cidade Velha is also reputed to have this: the oldest colonial church in the world, constructed in 1495. You be the judge. They’re working on restoring it after the pirate makeover.
At one time one of the richest cities in the Portuguese realm (due to the slave trade), Cidade Velha now boasts a population of about 2200 people. Here’s the active church. I think modern day pirates have moved on to greener pastures.
Behold this bastion of humane treatment: a pillory leftover from the slave market times. Now there’s only a bunch of Senegalese vendors hanging out who have their wares strewn on the ground. The irony of the cross on the top of this thing kinda kills me, by the way.
This is Banana Street, reputed to be the oldest street in Cape Verde- and maybe the world. Okay so I’m lying about that last part, but there was some other kind of superlative attached this this street….oldest something or other.
Behold a convent in the middle of the palm trees and corn stalks. If it wasn’t so darn hot here, I might consider requesting asylum in this place.
Not only corn, but there’s sugarcane in these parts, and our driver tells us that they use it to make grog. “You know grog?” he asks us. Oh yes, I know grog, I know it very well….
I have no idea why I’m posting this photo. I just like the fact that the garden has a proper door. Cuz nothing says privacy like a real door.
This island’s got a volcano that last erupted in the 1990s. The beaches and black sand here give you an indication of the island’s composition.
You know that I love to save my favorite photo for last, and this one is it. It was taken at one of the cafes on the sea. Super Bock is a Portuguese lager (it’s not exactly Ramadan here, by the way). And nothing says “we are so not in l’Occident” like Christmas tablecloths juxtaposed with beer chairs in the middle of summer.
So that’s it for now- you got a bit of a tour of the island of Santiago. I just found out today that my flight out of Cape Verde has been indescribably canceled (and no, the airline did not bother to tell me). There aren’t a lot of flights coming in and out of this place- and I’m running out of stuff to do on Santiago. Who knows, if I play my cards right, I might just go to the airport anyway and hop on TACV’s direct flight to Boston.
