Today we are on our second island of the Cape Verdes, Sao Vicente. Sao Vicente is the second largest city in the island nation and is considered the cultural capital. We found the city to be much nicer than Praia. We were docked before 8:00 AM and we debarked for our scheduled included tour, "Panorama of Sao Vicent". This tour was actually a very nice three-hour panorama of the island. We traveled to the highest point of the island and then visited a couple of notable coastal areas.
If you look to the right of the ship, you can see the series of large concrete walls on the pier.
We noticed as we were leaving that most of them were covered with graffiti, and many had signs depicting the arrival of various cruise lines.
As we returned to the ship, we found one of the Vikings crew, painting our own mural to add to the collection.
Leaving the port on our small coach, we proceeded thru the city and began to make our way to Monte Verde. The peak is only about 4 miles east of the city, but the drive is slow and harrowing.
I will share a number of photos of the trip up the roadway which dates from the late 1800's. Although the peek is at 2460 feet, our coach stopped at about 2250 feet. Even at this altitude the mountain was cloud covered. It stays this way most of the year and is the only part of the island which gets any regular moisture. In fact, in earlier times the mountain was farmed as may be seen by the hundreds (thousands) of rock terraces.
As seen in this close-up the several miles of road to the top are paved in cobblestone.
We made a photo stop about two-thirds of the way up, and it was good that we did. There was no view to be seen from the top.
The best view we had from the top. Shortly after this it became totally occluded.
The following photos I took while descending the mountain.
This was taken from the coach window to give an idea of the road.
After leaving the mountain, we traveled to Baía das Gatas. The name serves a natural bay, a small town and an internationally famous music festival. Since 1984, the Baía das Gatas Music Festival has been held annually on the first full moon weekend in August. It began as a gathering of friends who would meet on the Baía das Gatas beach to compose and play music. It has grown year after year until it has become an internationally renowned music event. Every year, musicians from all over the world come to this great music festival, where African rhythms obviously predominate. In addition to performances by national and international artists and bands, there are also water sports and a varied cultural program.
As we made our way back to the ship, we passed many small farms, most seemed to be deserted but a few were still being worked.
Passing thru town, we saw many street vendors selling fish, meat and vegetables.
After returning to the ship and have lunch, we decided to walk into town and around the bay.
Taking a break.
I inadvertently caught this gentleman relieving himself. I didn't notice him at the time of the photo, but Kay pointed him out and sure enough, he was in the edge of one of my photos. I wouldn't have posted this picture, but as it turned out he was not the only person we witnessed performing this act. The second one was less than 5 minutes later, and he was using the side of a building!
The "African Market". There were plenty of used clothes and hardware as well as crafts.
Below are street scenes I photographed as we made our way back to the ship.
I dubbed this guy Canis lupus Chamaeleonidae since he was obviously a chameleon fido...
Sao Vicente is a nesting site for loggerhead turtles. As a result, they practice and encourage protection for the species as this model illustrates.
And finally, we board the Viking Sky for the last time in the Cape Verde Islands.
We leave this evening for two of the last three sea days of our voyage. We arrive in Tenerife, Canary Islands on Tuesday to begin 10 consecutive port days.
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