Discover the Magic of Cape Verde – Part 2

Most immigrants that came to the island are from Senegal, a country in Africa that is the nearest point to Cape Verde; immigrants are still coming to the island in hope of a better life. You can recognise them in the streets by their darker skin tone (the locals have a lighter skin tone) and the fact that they’re mostly souvenir and arts and crafts vendors at the beach. They’re extremely nice and non-intrusive; if you politely tell them you’re not interested in buying anything, they’ll just greet you and move on. They tend to shake your hand if you’re a tourist and ask you where you’re from, after which they try to remember a word or two they’ve learnt from other tourists from your country.

To the island’s south lies Santa Maria, the most developed city tourism-wise. It’s located 15km from the airport and a taxi will cost you around 15 euros. If possible, share your ride with other people who arrived on the same plane as you, as there aren’t really any cheap van transfers from the airport. The main sandy beach stretches indefinitely, and the sea is appealingly blue, clear and warm, so you can often hear people calling Cape Verde “the African Maldives”. World hotel chains have already occupied most plots of land along the coast with their four and five star hotels that are still being built. If you’re looking for accommodation and food here, it will cost you an arm and a leg, and the prices are more often than not even higher than the ones in Slovenia. We recommend walking a few blocks from the main promenade for more affordable prices. There’s a famous pier on the main beach and they say that if you don’t jump off it, you were never on the island to begin with. However, the fish market attracts even more tourists than jumping off the pier. You can watch the locals clean their interesting catch and even have a little chat with people. You’ll probably even catch a few Slovenian words, since the island is becoming an increasingly popular tourist destination.

Between the airport and Santa Maria, the Viveiro Botanical Garden flourishes in the midst of sand dunes. This relaxing green oasis is a perfect spot to take a break. You can take one of the deckchairs and order homemade iced tea and desserts, relax on the grass underneath palm trees (a tourist sign even states that you must walk on grass barefoot and hug a tree), take a walk through the exotic vegetation, and pet a small donkey – the botanical garden is also an animal sanctuary, offering shelter to a number of animals that were abandoned by their owners.

The island of Sal actually means the island of salt; it was once home to three salt production areas, one of them being Pedra de Lume which is now open to tourists. You can walk among the salt ponds and even bathe in the largest one. Nearby, you can experience a close shark encounter, that is if you’re lucky enough. Just wade into the water waist deep and wait for a shark fin to approach, though they’re quite difficult to catch on camera. The north-eastern part of the island gives you an opportunity to delve into the Blue Eye that at specific hours on a sunny day offers a look into a vividly blue-coloured cave. Apart from organised tours, these sights can be only reached from the island’s capital, Espargos, by taxi or private car (renting a car will cost you 60 euros per day and you won’t spend more than a dozen litres of petrol for a day trip around the island), as there are no buses or vans going there. While searching for a ride in the town of Palmeira, we ran into a kind local who offered us a ride in his little lorry part of the way. The lorry would’ve been retired a long time ago in Slovenia, since everything we’ve touched remained firmly in our hands. Because we had some trouble communicating, Rogerio, a resourceful man who speaks solely Portuguese, got round the stumbling block by using an online translator and hand gestures in order to explain to us, laughingly, that there’s no way we can walk on foot in the desert and that we should hop in the lorry. The aspiring photographer kindly invited us to his home after the trip where he showed us all his photographic equipment (which turned out to be even better than ours) gleaming with pride, and we briefly played with his children as well.

The least “African” of all the islands and the most touristy one, where you can easily communicate using English as well as pay in euros, doesn’t attract only sandy beach lovers. Due to the constant temperature of 26 degrees and a pleasant breeze, the island is also popular among surfers as it offers affordable prices and favourable weather conditions throughout the year. Tourists can often take part in organised nighttime turtle watching tours where they get a chance to see turtles lay eggs in the sand dunes at the beach in the eastern part of the island. With enough luck, you’ll be able to see the turtles, however, in many cases that’s not just possible.

The islands enjoy very little rain. Precipitation is at its highest during September and October, which is why fruit and vegetables aren’t exactly cheap. You can pay in euros in larger cities and towns, but if you venture outside of touristy areas, we advise you to carry some local change, namely escudos, in your pocket. Since you most likely won’t visit the islands to stuff yourself with burger and pizza, take some time to enjoy the local food. The most popular is catchupa, but you can’t go wrong by ordering the daily special at a local restaurant. This usually includes meat or fresh fish and rice; the food is really delicious. We were most surprised by little Chinese shops at almost every turn, with almost exclusively Chinese vendors. If possible, don’t stay on only one island, but rather try to explore at least another one because each one is truly unique. There’s a flight connecting the larger islands that runs a few times a day, but unfortunately the cost of a one-way ticket was 100 euros during out visit.

We hope we’ll get a chance to discover another of these islands soon.

Dušan Berdnik & Aleksandra Radojc