The trip to Cape Verde came about more or less as a coincidence. My friend and I had been talking a long time about wanting to escape the Swedish winter for some sun and beach and were just looking for the right time-price-climate-combination. First we talked about Thailand, then Cuba and then even go for skiing instead, but somehow there was always something wrong. Then in a call to a travel agent, the agent all of a sudden suggested Cape Verde and gave us a good price for exactly the time we wanted to go. So in a matter of no time at all we had booked and paid the trip. I must admit I knew absolutely nothing about Cape Verde before and did not have too much time to read about it, but at least I scanned some web pages and the Lonely Planet for West Africa before going there. As this was only a one week charter trip I did not find it very important to learn a lot before leaving, although I normally really like to learn about a place I am going to.
As most tourists we ended up on the island called Sal. Of all the 9 inhabited islands of Cape Verde Sal is the flattest and most arid island, it is basically all sand, volcanic rocks and a few hills. As there is a lot of sand it means the island is not very green, but there are plenty of beautiful beaches. The main centre for the tourism at Sal is Santa Maria, where we stayed too. It is a small town that stretches along the beach. It is really not big, although huge holiday complexes are being built on the outskirts and along the beaches. Many are still under construction and I wonder if they all will be viable, somehow I am afraid they might overexploit it a bit. This far however, I did not have the feeling the place is yet overexploited. The town still has a very relaxed, laid-back and almost sleepy atmosphere, that I found very pleasant. Later I realised that many of the tourists stay at the all-inclusive resorts (many of them Italian-owned and Italian-visited) just outside the centre of the town and hardly ever ventured into the town and that’s why we did not see them. Therefore I was very happy we stayed in a smaller hotel that seemed to be run by Capeverdans and that it was not all-inclusive so we had the opportunity to try out some of the local restaurants and cafés.
We found some nice places to eat and drink, although some other people we met seemed to find the supply too limited. Of course, the place is small and the variety might not be huge but for one week the selection is ok, especially if you like to eat fish and seafood. The nightlife is also rather limited, but there are a few quite nice bars and some nightclubs. People seemed to find their favourite hang-outs and return night after night to the same place. As the town is so small that meant that you met the same people and got to know some which gave it a feeling of familiarity which was very nice. But still again, if you stay longer than one week you might want to visit some of the other islands too.
We had some plans to go to some other island as well, but we never did. To Boa Vista you can go by boat, but it was a bit difficult to find clear information on when and from where the boat left. I would also have liked to go to Sao Vicente, but there we would have to fly and that was quite expensive so we stayed the whole week at Sal. To me that was not a problem. I felt very comfortable with the laid-back attitude. The slogan of the place seems to be “No Stress”. Very appealing! I just loved to sit at a café or a bar and look out over the sand and the sea and doing nothing. That was really enough for me. The sea is very beautiful. Great green, turquoise waves crashed in on the sand or the black volcanic rocks in fluffy white foam. I believe the islands are quite windy most of the time and January is obviously the most windy month so sometimes the wind was almost a little too strong to be comfortable, but it felt very fresh and caused beautiful waves. The winds also make it a popular place for surfers of all kinds. Although now the winds were so strong that only the really good ones dared to go out. Sometimes the waves were a little too strong for swimming, but most of the time it was just good fun to dive in the waves. The wind and the sand also provided a free and very efficient full body scrub.
Life on Sal is less expensive than in Europe, but still not very cheep as almost everything, except fish and seafood, must be imported. They have there own currency the CV escudo, but as it is tied to the Euro you can pay with Euro everywhere. The rate used in most places is 1€ = 100 CVE although the official rate is closer to 110 CVE, so of course you lose on using Euro, but on the other hand that can be the price for the convenience of being able to use Euro. The good thing is also that the rate 1 to 100 makes it easy and very convenient to mix the two currencies at will. If something costs 10 000 CVE you can very well give 5€ and 5000 CVE. You also get both Euro and CVE back at the same rate, although I guess most shop-keepers prefer to keep the Euro and give CVE back. The only ones using the official rates were the official souvenir shops and the shops at the airport (some of them!) and that only complicated things. Most of the souvenir vendors that you meet in the street however are not from Cape Verde at all; they come from Senegal, Guinea Bissau or Angola.
One thing that I felt we missed was the music. Cape Verde is rather known for its music and relative to its size have quite few know artists. I read before that you can hear live music almost everywhere and many bars also had signs saying they would have live music some or even every night of the week, but during the week we spent there we did not manage to hear any live music. You do hear it in the shops, restaurants and bars etc, but of course live music is something different.
To some Gambia has a bad name as a tourist destination, because of the sex-tourism. There is a prejudice that most of the tourists are older European women going there to pick up young African men. That is; more or less the same thing that happens in Thailand, but there the Europeans are male, picking up young Thai women. I have never been to Gambia and can not say anything about the scale to which this is true, but I have been to Thailand and can say that there is nothing of that scale in Cape Verde. But of course you will get approached by persons who might have another agenda than just chatting for a while or having a drink or a dance. It can be a matter of getting you into their souvenir store and trying to sell you something. Or it can be a matter of them asking you to marry them and taking them to Europe. As we were two single women travelling together, we initially got the impression that it was more a matter of African - not from Cape Verde but always from mainland Africa - men approaching women. They were not very intrusive however and if you told them to leave they did, most of them were rather polite and funny and some even quite charming. The last night however, we became aware of the women approaching the male tourists. They were much more intrusive and persistent! Earlier in the week we had met two Belgian guys that we were hanging out with. The last night just one of them was in the bar as the other was sick, but he was talking to the owner of the bar, an older man who also happened to be Belgian. We joined in and stood with talking with them at the bar. The night began rather soft and relaxed as always, but then all of a sudden, some time around midnight, the ladies attacked. In a matter of no time the whole place was full of a different kind of women, and these ladies were aggressive!! One came up to our Belgian friend, although he stood between me and my friend and started rubbing herself against him. We were almost chocked. And more chocked we got when the guy did not turn her away, but later he left together with her!! Insisting she was not a hooker!!! The thing is we had seen her before and the older man positively confirmed that she is a prostitute. I have not seen that many prostitute, but this one only lacked a red blinking light at her forehead, so it is a wonder that men can be that blind!!
Unfortunately this left a somewhat stale aftertaste as well as us being robbed, but apart from that I must say I liked Cape Verde. I would definitely like to go back, but maybe then visit more than one island.
