Beyond occasional patches of floating sargassum seaweed, there is nothing but the sea. At our current location, it plunges more than three miles below us and stretches out well beyond the crystal-clear horizon. The vastness is breath-taking.
We are now ‘sailing down to Rio’ on one of the longest continuous sea-day stretches of the entire journey. We will cross the Equator tomorrow (Friday) and arrive in Rio de Janeiro next Tuesday.
It’s warm, 25 degrees, and I’ve just seen hundreds of flying fish.
Praia
Last Tuesday morning, we arrived at the port of Praia, the capital city of Cape Verde, on the island of Santiago. I joined a tour which focussed on the island’s history and learned about its past as a slave trading post and its more recent battle for independence from Portugal.
The mural pictured above is a tribute to the local hero Amílcar Cabral, who led the Cape Verde nationalist movement in their fight for independence. He was assassinated in 1973, about eight months before their independence was achieved.
We spent some time in a bustling, well-stocked food market. Most stalls were piled high with a wide variety of locally grown fruit and vegetables. Some were used for the preparation of meals on the premises and we had to push our way through the narrow gangways packed either with sacks of produce, shoppers or those enjoying cooked-to-order breakfasts.
Cidade Velha
Later we travelled to Cidade Velha on the island’s south coast. It is the oldest settlement in the Cape Verde islands, famously visited by the early explorers, Vasco de Gama, Christopher Columbus, Magellan and Darwin, but for almost three hundred years was a major platform for the trading of enslaved Africans.
Before descending into the port area we visited it’s fort, built in colonial days to protect the town and its trading interests.
With its narrow cobbled streets the town has some similarities with a Cornish village, although seeing the street-side laundry service made you realise immediately that this was not Padstow.
We enjoyed a beer and a snack at a seafront restaurant, where we were treated to a captivating performance by a group of batuco artists. Batuco music is characterised by its intricate and rapid drumming rhythms, created by slapping pads resting on the performers’ laps. The dance is a mesmerising display of hip vibrations.
Our guide, a very knowledgeable and pleasant lady was also a very good singer, which she illustrated on several occasions.
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