Lord Byron may have said that Sintra, Portugal was the most beautiful place in the world, but the man obviously never made it to Cape Verde. That place has it all- great beaches, beautiful mountains, lush green valleys brimming with fruits, and most of all, wonderful people. My dear friend Emily Naftalin, who recently finished her Peace Corps service and transitioned from PCV to RPCV and I are just back from a 10-day trip to 4 of the 10 Cape Verdean islands. Both work and all the great people and things here in Senegal brought me back, but I can't say that the two of us didn't have moments of scheming to never leave the islands.
We started our trip in Praia on the island of Santiago, where we spent the morning, then hopped on a car North to Assomada. We were met there on a rooftop bar for a glass of wine with our gracious hosts, CV PCVs Toby and Bob. We made our way further North through the mountains to Toby's site, Tarrafal, with the guys providing a guided tour along the way. Our first two nights were spent there- strolling around town, hiking to black sand beaches and shell-filled caves, drinking CV's signature capareinas and eating its cachupa (the can't-miss-it dish- corn and bean stew with fish for dinner, then re-fried with an egg and sausage for breakfast). We went back down to Assomada for our third night, where we hiked to see the most enormous tree I've set eyes on.
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| Tarrafal |
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| Toby took us to this shell-filled cave in Tarrafal |
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| Emily and her crab shell- spirit animal? Maybe... |
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| On a hike to a black sand beach outside of Tarrafal |
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| Emily and Toby at one of Assomada's grog production sites |
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| The big tree! |
After a hurl-inducing boat ride (Emily and I managed to keep our lunches down...) to the island of Fogo and a car ride up to a little town in a volcanic crater, Cha das Calderas, we climbed Mt. Fogo. The way up the mountain took about 4 hours, and the way down, a little less than an hour, thanks to volcanic ash slopes and an exhilarating downhill slide. We were there for a couple more nights, then flew back to Praia and up to the North for a flawless cinco de mayo spent with the volunteers (& company) of Mindelo on the island of Sao Vicente. Our next fabulous hosts Drew and Rory brought us to meet all the PCVs at a 5/5 get-together, followed by some of Mindelo's finest music and dancing. We hopped on a boat the next morning, accompanied by the elite of Europe's middle-aged adventure hiker scene to Santo Antao.
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| Early-morning Mount Fogo |
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| Emily on the ascent |
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| Mt. Fogo |
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| At the summit with our guide, Nezito |
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| Skiing down the ash fields, with only a few tumbles, ending with volcanic ash in every nook and cranny |
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| Cha des Calderas' music scene |
Up to the boat ride to Santo Antao, the trip was full of all kinds of great things, but there was no topping that place. It was take-your-breath-away amazing from start to finish. We took a car up to the top of a peak, where we found PCVs Scott and Melissa, who were great company, gracious, and oh-so-wonderful, in their mountain homestead getaway. After some shady relaxation on the porch shelling beans, chatting, and munching on sugar cane, we got out for a little hike to see the scenery, then wandered back to find that Scott had killed a chicken and Melissa cooked up a traditional Cape Verdean dinner. After the feast, we stepped up to a successful Cape Verde/ Senegal dance-off.
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| On the boat to Santo Antao |
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| Leaving Mindelo |
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| The port on Santo Antao |
The next day was the stuff of dreams... Emily and I strapped on our packs and headed out for the famous, if not infamous "grog and cheese" hike, which we'd been hearing about from near every PCV along the way. It was just a little way around a volcanic crater to the top of the mountain, then down switchbacks into a valley that looked something like never-never land meets the shire. It was an oasis of irrigated terraced gardens, sugar cane, coffee, fruit trees, little huts, women selling coffee and homemade liquor (Cape Verde's moonshine- grog and ponche), all looking over the ocean.Once we made it down to the main road, and after a little ponche-tasting detour, we got to our destination- grog and cheese. It was an airy restaurant on a farm with a view where we had a lunch-to-die-for: goat cheese, salad, fresh yogurt with papaya and honey, and of course grog. This was the place that prompted our conversation about how we could possibly live right in that very spot.
(No photos here... just as we got to the top of the mountain, with the most spectacular view I've ever laid eyes on, my camera gave up.)
Unfortunately, we had to hop on a car to head to the port to catch the boat to Mindelo then a flight back down to Praia. We spent our last night where we started, in grand finale style, with Bob and Toby in Assomada.
This trip was a great break from the usual routine in Senegal, a reminder of how many wonderful people and places there are in the world, an affirmation that us PCVs have got something special going on, and a great time spent with miss Emily before she flew back to the US. While it was hard to leave, I was happy to be back with friends, host family, people who speak a language I understand, and with whom any commonality or a shared joke is cause to be instant friends.
Since I've been back, I've kept busy with census-taking for our mosquito net distribution, a meeting in Thies with fellow peer support network members, and no shortage of mango eating. While it's hard to be here without the volunteers who showed us the way and each of whom I came to love completely, we have 6 great new volunteers, lots of good work to do, and I can't complain.
