We cruised through the night and arrived at the next Cape Verde island at 8:00 am. This time the Viking Sky docked in Mindelo a city on Sao Vicente Island. This will be another short day in Cape Verde as we depart at 6:00 pm.
Mindelo is the capital of Sao Vicente and has a population of approximately 70,000. It is the second largest city in Cape Verde, after Praia. It is a vibrant city known for its colorful colonial architecture, lively music scene, and beautiful beaches.
We spent no time in the actual city other than drive through it on our tour bus. We were able to appreciate some of the architecture and bustling street life, however, as we passed by on our way to our tour destinations. I captured a few photos from the coach window. It’s difficult to capture photos from the bus window as they are often difficult to center and more often than not are fuzzy.
Our excursion today was called “Panoramic Sao Vicente” and was the included tour. Everyone has their own tastes when traveling and Mark and I discovered that on this tour. He absolutely loved it and I found it to be rather boring and redundant! The tour was a quick drive through the city center to a highway and then back roads to show us beautiful landscapes surrounding Mindelo. We were fortunate to see the gorgeous beaches that the area is famous for plus the mountains and desert areas. I must say that the landscapes were gorgeous but there was a lot of the same things. For example, we stopped to view three different beaches…….
I will post photos of the stunning views that we saw and will tell a little about each of them. That will be about all I will do this time. We are on the ship for only 14 more days (sad) and have many back to back excursions, so I am trying not to get behind in my blogging. We still have spotty internet service on the ship and uploading photos takes a lot of time and often it starts to feel like a job! I am trying to find a balance where I can continue to share our experiences and still be able to enjoy all that the ship has to offer. So, here we go! Enjoy the photos!
Fishing is one of the few sources of income in Mindelo. There were many residents skinning their daily catch on the street beside the harbor. The other photos show buildings across the street of the harbor.
City views as we drove along…..
The buildings were quite colorful! Here is a building that looks like it houses apartments or condos. We also passed by a beautiful, stately church.
After leaving the town center and highway, our coach traveled along a bumpy cobblestone road and passed by acres and acres of desolate landscape dotted with homes. Several of the homes had small gardens and our guide, Mia, said that the women usually tend the gardens and sell their produce at the markets on weekends. Growing anything is very difficult here because it rains only a few times a year! 90 % of the food is imported. As we drove past the homes, what struck me most was that many of the homes looked uninhabited and those that obviously had someone living there had no vehicles. There were no cars or trucks parked at the homes and since this was a holiday weekend, I felt that was odd. It made me wonder how the people living here get to town since they live so far out. I did notice a young woman sitting on the side of the road, obviously waiting for a ride……. Something for me to research and ponder.
The two landscape photos are examples of farm life here. Small gardens and herds of goats. Here is our tour guide, Mia. She was great!
Speaking of Mia, she was very informative and funny. She also sang for us and played popular music. At our second beach stop she decided it was time for cocktail hour! She offered everyone a shot of Cabo Verde Sugarcane Ponche which is a local rum. She made a toast for “Kindness and Peace”.
This is our first beach stop. Hardy anyone swims here because the waves are too rough. It is popular for surf boarding though.
Second beach stop. No swimming but beautiful views. My favorite shot here is of the road disappearing over the mountain.
Third beach stop. This is the beach that is safe for swimming and is used by the locals. It was dotted with tent campers. I loved the unusual sculpture on the beach made with ropes and metals. It was decorated with beads and colored stones. The homes in the beach area were very nice and Mia said that they were used mostly as weekend get-aways.
The second part of this excursion was a somewhat scary drive to the top of the tallest mountain: Monte Verde - 744m/2441 feet above sea level. Single lane cobblestone road all the way up (and down - yikes!) with hairpin curves, but beautiful views! I snapped a lot of pics from my window, but honestly because of the distances, they all tended to look the same. I’ve included some here to get a gist of what we saw.
This was taken as we made our way to the mountain top. You can see the road below us where we had been and the stunning view of the shore and city.
Once at the top, Mia told us that “happy hour” was not over and we were offered shots of three different liqueurs and we had to vote for the one we liked best. The green beverage won hands down. It was a sugarcane liqueur infused with cilantro and anise seed. I thought it had a licorice flavor.
Stunning Mountain Views. Nothing grows here since there is so little rainfall. That’s why this island had been uninhabited until founded by the Portuguese.
The clear liqueur “grogue” is made from sugarcane. It is the national drink of Cape Verde. Mark says that it tastes like it has been infused with moonshine and he didn’t like it. The amber colored one was infused with molasses and was very good. A close second for us. The third one was our favorite - the same liqueur infused with cilantro and anise seed. Mark had two!
Back on the bus and the ride down to the port. After the “cocktail tasting” everyone was mellow. Maybe that was the plan! It was a fun and interesting day!
Port and Harbour Views.
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