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Tuesday, December 2nd, 17°N, 30°W, North
Atlantic Ocean
Two days into our 2000 mile passage, I'm eager to take
the opportunity to write down our impressions of Cape
Verde. Being completely off the beaten track for
all except boaters crossing westward over the Atlantic
Ocean, it was our most exotic destination to date.
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Mindelo is the logical jumping off spot for yachts
crossing the Atlantic and the second largest city in the
Republic of Cape Verde. I had always thought of
these islands as part of Portugal, but that was true
only until 1975 when they won their independence.
The islands were discovered and laid claim to by
Portugal in the last half of the 15th Century.
Named after the green Cap Vert peninsula of Senegal
directly across the sea, the archipelago consists of 10
islands, five islets and various rocks, and is anything
but "verde." Geologically speaking, the islands
sprang from the earth as volcanoes. They are
situated over a hot spot beneath the crust of the earth
and when the conditions of heat and pressure are just
right, the crust gives way to the bubbling magma below
and an island is created. The northeastern most
island of Sal is the oldest, dating back some twenty
million years. The newest addition, Fogo to the
southeast, is a mere hundred thousand years old.
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The most mature of the islands have been so worn down by
wind and sea that they are now nothing more than
virtually-flat piles of dirt. The whole area is
essentially a marine extension of the Sahara Desert.
The climate is dominated by the northeast trade winds
which blow year round but are strongest from December to
April. These winds carry so little rain that only
peaks greater than 1800 feet or 600 meters (on Santo
Antão, Fogo and Brava) can coax out any rain. In
addition, from October to June, dry hot winds from the
Sahara, thickly laden with brown dust, blast over the
islands in waves of torment. From August to
October, the longed for monsoon rains sometimes make it
as far north as Cape Verde, washing away the Saharan
dirt and soaking the parched soil with medicinal water.
As is the sad and tortured predicament of the islands
and their Cape Verdean people, years and even decades
can pass without this life-giving relief from the
year-round drought. Famine routinely strikes.
How did life ever come to exist in such a harsh climate?
In fact, the islands remained barren except for plant
life until the arrival of the explorers in the 1400s.
Curiously enough, it was the invention of a sailing rig
which allowed early mariners to sail against the wind
that brought "civilization" to the Cape Verde
archipelago. Earlier adventurers likely had
discovered the islands, but found them uninhabitable.
Supply ships had no way of coming and going without the
ability to sail against the wind. This
ability opened up the world to the avaricious seafaring
nations of Europe. The whole west coast of Africa
became a trading gold mine for whoever was able to stake
their claim. The Portuguese did so on a large
chunk, including the Cape Verde Islands. Lisbon
sent settlers to colonize the islands and they were
largely successful on the southern island of Santiago.
Sadly, the trade which allowed the islands to prosper
was that of slaves. Initially, they were imported
from west Africa to work the land. By the end of
the 1500s, nearly 14,000 slaves were working the land
under the supervision of 100 white settlers.
Santiago and Fogo were populated, and the other islands
were given over to goats who were left to roam,
devouring what little vegetation existed in return for
meat, hides, butter, milk, and cheese. It was
clear, however, that the islands themselves could never
provide enough for prosperity. This was to come
through the exploitation of the islands' strategic
location, vis-à-vis both winds and currents, en route to
the new world.
At
first, the primary commercial activity in the port of
Santiago was to re-supply the westward bound trading
ships with basic commodities. But the rules of
supply and demand quickly encouraged the development of
a slave "warehouse" in Cape Verde. Captured
Africans, seasoned and weeded out during the week long
voyage from the mainland, were more expensive but much
easier to acquire than slaves directly from the
continent. The risks of dealing directly with
Africa - long delays, disease, tricky river navigation
and hostile locals - made the Cape Verde warehouse
alternative an attractive one for prudent
slave-merchants.
This history is reflected in the faces of the Cape
Verdean population today. Seventy percent of the
people are of mixed heritage. Only one percent of
the population of 440,000 is white. The rest range
from light to dark skinned and are predominantly
Catholic. Because of the harsh economic conditions
at home, many Cape Verdean men immigrate in order to
find work to support their families from abroad.
As a result, women greatly outnumber men and family
units consisting of father, mother and child are unusual
to see. Most women rely on remittances from
several different fathers sending funds home to support
their children. Although at the top of the list
for quality of life in west Africa, unemployment is 26%
and the GNP is only $1,200 per person. A full 45%
of the population is classified as poor or very poor and
the country receives a large dose of international aid.
Politically, the islands gained their independence from
Portugal, in conjunction with Portuguese Guinea on the
mainland, in 1975. Unique among African colonial
holdings in its richness and long history of subjugation
(most other colonies were not established until the late
1800s), the better educated leaders of Cape Verdean
heritage led the revolt against Portuguese colonial
rule. Once independent, however, these same
leaders were faced with the problem of ruling over a
virtual wasteland. With a seven year drought that
had begun in 1969, famine struck in 1977. Thanks
to close contacts with the outside world, aid arrived
from all over and the socialist government made good use
of it. Since independence, democracy has thrived
and the government is working hard to encourage tourism,
fishing and service industries to help grow the economy.
In
fact, we found every Cape Verdean we came into contact
with to be friendly and welcoming. Warned of
poverty, begging and petty theft in the guide books, we
were apprehensive. Although cautious with our
possessions, we had no problems whatsoever.
Approached a handful of times by children and mothers
begging for money, most people were selling goods rather
than just looking for a handout. "No thank you"
was met with a cheerful "Have a nice day."
Inevitably, people wanted to know where we were from and
most were able to say they had a relative who is living
in the U.S. Most spoke a few words of English.
Although the official language is Portuguese, in reality
people speak Creole. A mixture of Portuguese and
West African, like the people, the language has evolved
differently in the different islands of the nation.
Although many think Creole should become the official
language of the nation, the issue is further confused by
the fact that there is no written version of the
language. Without a spoken or written standard,
formalizing the language is impossible.
Mindelo proved to have more conveniences and provisions
than I had feared. Internet was available,
although slow. There were a couple of restaurants
that we tried out that were inexpensive and adequate,
although nothing to write home about. The national
dish is a type of stew called Cachupa made of locally
grown dried corn and beans. A rather bland dish,
it can be livened up with the addition of meat or
vegetables and a splash of the local hot sauce called
malagueta, made from spicy local peppers, garlic, oil,
herbs, and whiskey. The local stores were mostly
small and inconspicuous, but carried canned fruits and
vegetables, canned butter, bread, eggs, long life milk,
juices, spices, beer and wine. I didn't look at
the frozen selections or fresh dairy products. We
stocked up on eggs, green tomatoes, squash, onions,
garlic, potatoes, bananas, apples, oranges, and kiwi for
the passage. Most of the fruit was imported but
the vegetables were local, mostly grown on the
neighboring island of Santo Antão.
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Santo Antão is the northwestern most island in the
archipelago and the northwestern side of the island
boasts more "verde" than the rest of the Cape Verde
islands put together. Hundreds of jagged crests of
land extend vertically several thousand feet, creating a
multi-dimensional landscape of high ridges and deep
canyons speckled with scattered fields of sugar cane,
cassava and banana trees alongside the natural scrub
vegetation. We were encouraged by all to take the
ferry excursion from Mindelo to discover the island for
ourselves and we did just that on Friday, after our
Thanksgiving celebration with Gregg.
We
had the pleasure of meeting Caley, a Peace Corp
volunteer, on the ferry ride over. He has been
living in a small town on the north coast of Santo Antão
for a little over a year now and quickly introduced
himself when he heard us speaking "American".
Originally from Texas, Caley is 13 months into his Peace
Corp assignment of two years, but he had just submitted
a request for an extension to three years. When he
first arrived, he spent a few months with an adoptive
family, learning the language (Creole, not Portuguese),
customs and ways of the islands. He has a blog (www.capocaley.blogspot.com)
which I haven't had a chance to check out yet, but in
which I'm sure he conveys his knowledge of and
enthusiasm for Cape Verde and its people as well as he
did in his conversations with us.
Caley helped us make a deal to hire a minivan to take
the nine of us (with the Following Tides crew) on a full
day tour of the northwest coast of the island.
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The contrast as we climbed up the east side of the
mountains, brown, dusty and barren, over the crest and
down the other side, was remarkable. Our first
stop was atop the caldera, a thin circular rim of rock
surrounding a cavernous hole at the bottom of which
fields and tiny houses appeared as if set down by some
miraculous hand. How on earth do the people get
down there?
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We
continued our exploration along the hand constructed
cobblestone road that runs high atop the narrow ridges,
winding down into the valleys and along the ravines.
We passed by school children walking home, full of
smiles and curiosity.
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A
day of touring was just what we needed after what seemed
like endless weeks of preparation for our big
trans-Atlantic passage. We decided that after
stocking up with whatever fruits and vegetables we could
find in Mindelo on Saturday, we would go to an anchorage
on the south side of Santo Antão with a black sand beach
and hang for the night and part of the next day.
We swam, played in the surf and on the beach and
relished in the feeling of solid ground underneath our
feet before we set out to cross the Atlantic from Africa
to the Caribbean.
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Next Entry >>>>>>>>>>
Many thanks to our friend Craig Homenko for his assistance in setting up the website.
We also would like
to thank our buddy Scott Brunner who has been kind
enough to host the website on his server.
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