Santa Maria, Ilha do Sal, Cape Verdes

We had decided that we would have a day ashore today, which was just as well as the swell had been picking up over night and it was really quite rolly already at 7am when we set off for the pier after a light breakfast. At that early hour there was no problem from boat minders and we moored the tender and chose to head West along the beach as we had not seen that area. There was a nice cobbled path almost the length of the beach, with various hotels, wooden chalets and apartments to the north of the path and a few rustic looking restaurants built on the beach itself to the south. At the end of the path we cut back to the road behind the hotels to walk back into town and were quite surprised to find vast areas of cleared ground for development only one row back.



Developments in Cape Verdes

Generally those that have been built are quite well done with only a few exceptions but there is obviously plans for many more and apartment blocks and cranes can be seen well into the distance. The Riu Hotel, the Moorish development we saw on the way in, which I think is perhaps an all inclusive, commands the western beachfront and have taken a good spot bounded by sand dunes.



Hotel Riu

When we arrived back into town the café/restaurant overlooking the pier was opening and we decided to go for a coffee. Kevin saw bacon and eggs on the menu and decided to try, so I had a croissant. We were suitably rewarded with a good breakfast and great views of the beach and our boat and tender, which were all sound.




View from the cafe by the pier

Next we decided to go to an internet café and I directed us to a different one very close by that I had tried the day before and looked immaculate but the system was down. When we walked in, we could see again error messages on the screens and the owner apologised that again the system was down. Kevin and I looked at each other in acknowledgment before Kevin started with… So what seems to be the problem. Half an hour later after bypassing a faulty gateway server for him and reconfiguring the workstations, we had it running again, I even learned a bit of Turkish as the administrator laptop had a Turkish version of Windows. Akin Yildirim and his wife Maria Joao Costa Dihinho who is originally from Sao Vincente (Cape Verdes) but has worked a number of years in Holland who own the internet centre are now living here on Sal. After a brief complementary internet session and a cappuccino delivered to the desk by a grateful Akin. We sat around for a chat to be also joined by a very nice German lady called Corinna Gewers from Hamburg who has lived on the Cape Verdes for a few years and is also a keen sailor. Akin was fascinated by our decision to leave the rat race, though as he and Maria had worked in big cities before they came to the Cape Verdes themselves in some ways they had done the same. Although as we know running your own business is far from an easy life. Akin is also a very talented photographer and this forms the other half of his business, with his shots adorning the walls of the café. He gave me a few tips on my blog photos, so you’ll all have to leave comments if there is any improvement!



After a very pleasant hour with them, which also allowed us to miss the rain outdoors we were on our way with some tips from Corinna of what to see on the island (we have her card if anyone is planning to visit and needs a guide).
Next was time for the Chillout bar, we stopped for a beer and to watch the world go by, we were offered a number of designer watches and sunglasses as we chilled out, though they were not too persistent when we said no. There were all manner of people passing by, tourists, locals, mixed groups of the two, school children etc. The traffic we spoke of previously appears to be much the same taxis and trucks going round in circles, petrol must be cheaper here!



Chilling out

Finally, when sufficiently chilled out we set off again for the old town, to be commandeered within literally 200 yds by one of the locals apparently from the island of Fogo, who started the tale by his pleasure at seeing the English in Cape Verdes, he attributes the recent massive development to the English and the higher employment this has resulted in than to the previous Portuguese rule. There was also tales on a new born son and a celebration occurring, if we could just follow him to where it would be we should join them the following day. Obviously, this turned out to be his craft stall, still as we had wanted to pick up some souvenirs that day anyway we picked up some nice carvings.
It was now about 2.30pm, so we decided to head back to the pier café for lunch before returning to the boat. We could see the swell was up even further and we wanted to keep an eye on things. Kevin had a very good tuna steak and I had a pizza which with deserts and a beer was about £10 a head.
Boarding the dingy and the boat was quite an adventure in the swell, but we were soon on board. The anchor was holding well though we were swinging around, the sky was quite black and the swell continued to build through the night. We played cards for a while, then Kevin decided to take a night anchor watch with a DVD, whilst I none too keen on the long swell went to bed. After reaching some pretty big swell heights through the night and surprisingly in that and the pitch black the arrival of a German catamaran in front of us, all was well and this morning the swell has died right down to a gentle rocking again.