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Santiago: Praia, Cidade
Velha
and a long scenic drive
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Monday 21st November 2022
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Waking up after a peaceful
night docked in the port, we immediately noticed more signs
of human habitation than we had seen since we were in Mindelo,
a whole week ago. Yes, this was Praia, the capital of Cape
Verde and we had a very full day ahead of us. |
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The port
offers some protection from the sea beyond, which was a nice change
after the past few days. |
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Late yesterday, we sailed
from Vila do Maio on the nearby island of Maio, a distance
of 24 nautical miles. Today, we would follow the route indicated
on the island of Santiago, although we didn't know too much
about the actual route until we had almost completed it...
more about that later. |
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It was strange to see
such a large ship next to us. It was the first cruise ship
we had seen since the start of our holiday. We were advised
that the tourist sites around the island might be a little
busy as a consequence, but we weren't too concerned. After
all, we live in a huge city with many thousands of tourists.
Another negative point, which mattered more, was that we
had lost one of our touring buses and a guide, because they
had been "stolen" by Mein Schiff for their excursions,
despite being reserved and paid for by our ship. We had
a lot of driving to do (not that we knew this when we set
off), so it meant that the remaining buses would all be
filled to capacity. |
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It was a short drive
from the port to the northern end of the pedestrianised
Rua
5 de Julho, where we disembarked to begin our guided
walk. |
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Our leisurely
walk took us through the historical centre of the city. |
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Our guide
spoke excellent English and was incredibly knowledgeable. |
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We were supposed to
visit the ethnographic
museum, but unfortunately it was closed today, despite
special arrangements having been made for us to have a private
tour. |
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More street art - a
striking work by Helder Cardoso in 2019. Not sure who the
subject is. Amilcar Cabral perhaps? There is more of his
work here. |
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The main
market in the city. |
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Praia
City Hall |
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The Presidential
Palace |
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Looking
across the harbour towards our ship, from the terrace near the Presidential
Palace. |
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The 10 stars on the
flag represent the main islands of the nation. The blue
represents the ocean and the sky. The band of white and
red represents the road toward the construction of the nation,
and its colours stand for peace (white) and effort (red).
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Back
of the Presidential Palace (I think). |
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Amílcar
Cabral Foundation |
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Supremo
Tribunal de Justiça (Supreme Court) |
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Our interesting
walk finished here, where the minibuses were lined up ready to take
us to our next destination. |
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As we
left Praia, we saw this mural. We'll never forget these works of
art, seen everywhere we went. |
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The university
on the outskirts of the city - taken from the bus |
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Before visiting the
settlement, we went to the fortress (Forte
Real de São Filipe) above it, from where there
are wonderful views in all directions. |
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Cidade
Velha, below the fortress, which we would visit later. |
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It was
only a short drive down from the fortress to the settlement of Cidade
Velha. |
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The Pelourinho
(Portuguese for "pillory") is symbolic of the
dark days of slavery and the role that this settlement played
in it. Our guide gave us a moving talk about it. |
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Not our
photo, but it does show the pillory more clearly. |
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We were
given refreshments at the restaurant on the main square. |
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We were supposed to
be treated to another performance of Batuka dancing here,
but the performers had accepted a last minute offer to go
to Dakar to perform there. An attempt to secure another
group of dancers from a rival restaurant was unsuccessful.
No doubt a lot of back-hand dealing was going on... more
about this later at our lunch venue. |
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Afterwards,
we walked through the village. |
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At the top of the village
is the 15th century church, Nossa
Senhora do Rosário (Our Lady of the Rosary).
Although much of it is restored, it is still the oldest
surviving building in the settlement. |
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After
our walking tour, it was time to get back on the road and head for
the hills. |
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After
what seemed like a longer drive than we were expecting, we arrived
at Quinta da Montanha for lunch. |
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The restaurant was very
busy. In additional to all the passengers from our ship,
the passengers from "Mein Schiff" had beaten us
there (no doubt using one of the buses they had "stolen"
from us). There was such a long queue at the buffet that
we both kind of lost our appetites and settled for a drink
each, after which we went for a walk. |
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It is really beautiful
up in the mountains, with flowers, shrubs and wildlife everywhere
and all in the shadow of the island's tallest peak, Pico
de Antónia. Quite often, we've been surprised by
the natural diversity of the islands, which is not altogether
surprising, located as they are within the tropics. That
said, we have never felt too hot or uncomfortable since
we arrived. Right here, it was actually quite cool. |
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The spiders
everwhere were beautiful, although neither of us was keen to get
too close! |
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Just as we thought the
others might finally have finished their lunches so that
we might get on our way again, a minibus arrived with a
group of Batuka dancers. Not to be beaten, our guides had
"negotiated" and managed to secure alernative
dancers from Cidade Velha. We didn't really feel in the
mood to climb back up a long flight of stairs to the restaurant
again, so we skipped it, but we could hear still the music
from where we were. |
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Finally, it was time to go back to the
port, or so we thought, but no, there was a lot more sightseeing
to do! We had both had enough by then and were slightly
grumpy, however what we saw in two hours that followed
was amazing scenery and we didn't regret the long detour.
We just wished we'd been kept a little more informed about
the route and timings. The first leg was especially stunning,
at the end of which was the most beautiful green landscape
with palm trees and and intensely green vegetation, close
to the coast.
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At one
of our stops, our guide got really nervous when one of our party
jumped too close to a sheer precipice! |
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Not for the first time,
Geoff was apprehensive about sitting on a wall with a long
drop behind him! |
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The unusually
shaped Pico
de Antónia, the highest peak on the island, can be seen
from many places. |
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The end
of the first leg, and close to the coast, we stopped at this extraordinary
place. |
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The last leg took us
directly south back to the port, passing Praia's Nelson
Mandela Airport along the way. |
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Back on board and rather
later than expected, we were invited to go to the speciality
ice-cream themed afternoon tea. The staff had put in a lot
of effort for this and because we were all late back, we
didn't want to disappoint them! |
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We watched
as Mein Schiff departed. |
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Of course,
we were going nowhere. It was our last night on board and we wanted
to make the most of it. |
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