The chilled out town of Mindelo

I am not sure what we were expecting of Cape Verde, we had seen one of the tourist resorts on a property abroad programme in the past but now we are here the TV was not really a true reflection of the real Cape Verdes.

Sao Vincent is one of 14 islands and the capital is Mindelo and has a population of around 70,000 with over 90% of the islands population living in the capital.  The islands were once Portuguese although they lie just over 300 miles west of the coast of Africa and were given independence status in 1975. Many islanders still seem to speak Portuguese although it seems to sound more Spanish than the Portuguese we encountered in Portugal (I know this may sound odd but it is more about how the language is pronounced), due to the African influence many speak Crioula and then to add to the confusion some locals speak French, oh plus the fact that often the younger generation can speak English!

The islands have their own currency which you are only able to obtain when you are actually in Cape Verde but the supermarkets will also accept Euros.

The centre of the town which is close to the marina is quite colonial and relatively well maintain, with brightly coloured building in every colour imaginable.

One of Mindelo's government buildings

Even the Club Nautico (Sailing club) has it own distinct look, shade by the palm trees.

Colonial Club Nautico

The people are also quite colourful and most local shopping is through the woman sat at the side of the road selling the fruit and veg, this is the local market and a hive of activity in the morning – even on boxing day when in the UK people would be rushing to the sales to pick up a bargain!

In Mindelo there us a University so there are quite a few students around although not to the same extent as a University town in Europe but it was interesting to see the local library (full of students) with a range of English language academic publications e.g. The Economist.

There is little begging on the streets although you are often approached by friendly entrepreneurs trying to sell t-shirts, necklaces and other local produce.  As you approach the outskirts of the Mindelo as you would expect it does become slightly more run down and on a Sunday walk it was interesting to see that locals market selling clothes, household goods, etc also funny that there is a booming trade in the barbers on a Sunday morning J.  The very outskirts of the town turn almost to a shanty town with small breeze block buildings covered with tin roofs, obviously no electric or water in sight but lots of smiley happy children :) 

Tin shacks on the edge of town

Our walk took us out the back of Mindelo through the dried river bed following the elusive “mules track”, we basically scrabbled of rocks looking for any sort of track just knowing we had to head up!  The views back over Mindelo were quite impressive.

Amanda scrabbling over rocks to get to the top

Mark relived to be at the top

View over Mindelo

 Over the hill we headed for the village of Salamensa and were hoping for a dip in the sea.  The beach looked idyllic in the distance.

Idyllic beach in distance

Idyllic wife in foreground

As we neared the village we were slightly shocked about how rural/poor it was as we walked along the road scattered with pigs, chickens, dogs, small children and rubbish plus the smells that go along with that environment.

Ah the smells of Africa...........

 The beach the other side of the village was stunning and deserted, the sea was beautifully clear and was welcomed by our hot walking feet.

Beautiful beach looking north

Not so pretty looking south

We were not looking back to the hot and dirty walk back and after no walking for a week we were shattered and looking forward to a cup of tea on our return to the boat – we are such Brits!