11/18/2022

Ship's position

We rolled into Mindelo, Cabo Verde a bit before sunup.  It was interesting in the pre-dawn promenade to see the dark island rising from the sea.  Paul first glimpsed a light house on Sao Antao, then more and more of the island came into view.  It was almost spooky.  Lights of the various towns gradually emerged out of the darkness.  The mountains are quite high and barren and jagged.  I’m sure our family Geologist would/could put it all in scientific perspective, but it reminded me of the Hobbits going into Mordor.

 

                                                    

                                                            a volcanic mountain 

After breakfast we took the shuttle into town.  The drivers are so good here that there are no seat belts in the cars or buses 😊   We were dropped off at the Marina and were accosted by locals offering their services – fortunately they took no for an answer the first time.  The town is very African in culture.  We walked around a bit; Shirley identified some new species of plants including the amazing “Flamboyant” tree.  We saw women carrying baskets of fish and all around near the market, the locals were selling produce and whatnots.  There were lots of dogs lying around – no cats … curious.

                                                 the SEEK app find a new species

 

the Mosque across the street from the Catholic Church

inside the Catholic Church (Cape Verde is 70% Catholic, 20% Islam) 

sewing on an old Singer treadle machine

We really saw an actual instance of this!

The Lisbon Tower replica in the background, the Jupiter in the far background

                                                    Various scenes around town

 

We felt safe in town.  The people seemed oblivious to the tourists.  We shuttled back to the ship for lunch and awaited our organized tours of the landscapes and seascapes of Sao Vincente.

    

Watched a sailing regatta while eating lunch

After lunch we went on the Viking tour – the bus picked us up ad we drove into town.  There we got off and did a walking tour around many of the places we visited in the AM.  The fish market where we saw the fish scaler remove scales using an old tuna can with nail holes punched through the bottom – old school.  Then several other open air markets selling anything one may want.  We got back on the bus and drove out of town to the Bay of the Sharks.  There weren’t any sharks, but there was coffee at the Atlanta Take Away café.  Shirley and Paul got their feet wet in the Atlantic ocean – it was quite warm.  Then off to a scenic view of the eastern part of the island.  Here there is a lot of fine white sand.  Our guide said that this sand has continually been blowing in from the Sahara desert for thousands of years.  After that we were taken to a fishing village, Porto Calhau.  Our tour ended with a visit to the Cesaria Evora, an iconic Morna (the style of music heard in Cape Verde) singer's museum.   We made it back to the ship (the last group aboard) in time to get freshened up for dinner.  Touring is a hungry proposition 

 

                                                    the tuna can scaler dude

                                                         a (mostly) veggie market

                                                        the highest mountain on Sao Vincente (7400')

                                        

                                                            Atlanta ??  c'mon

                                                            official "feet in the Ocean" shot

                                                                 waiting on the bus

                                                    where we found Cliff's rock - see the Sahara sand 

                
                                                        fishing village

 

We ate in the restaurant with our cabin neighbors Pete and Christine.  Pete is a retired lawyer and Christine spent 40 years in the corrections industry as a parole officer and owner of a parole agent outsourcing company.  Lot in common – Shirley and Christine swapped Probation Parole stories.  And we found out that they have walked the Camino multiple times and Pete has written a 250 page book about the experience and it is on his blog or web site – He shared the URL (mediationKC.com).  Good people.

 

Somewhere close to 9,500 steps today – plus another 3,000 for the promenaders.

            The Jupiter undocked around 7 as the sun set over a spur on Sao Vincente