Live posting from 2205 Wind Cape Town to Las Palmas

[duct tape]

Yes, people who have not crossed the equator before, both guests and crew (pollywogs), need to ask permission from King Neptune to cross into his waters in the other hemisphere. It is a production, all in good fun. YES!!! We have champagne. It is varied labels and a few bottles here and a few bottles there, but SS hopes it will last until the Canaries. Who knew SS could be so successful on the spur of the moment in Takoradi, Ghana? Good job, F&B et al. Also, something of nautical interest to some of you - as we crossed the equator, I watched the latitude and longitude readings: 00.00.00/00.00.14. Amazing!

[patnlcc]

Yes, I was one of the victims this time last year and Colin and his 'entourage' made it just hilarious. It was one of the highlights of our cruise.

[wripro]

Usually they make pollywags kiss a fish.

[MCCooch]

Yes, people who have not crossed the equator before, both guests and crew (pollywogs), need to ask permission from King Neptune to cross into his waters in the other hemisphere. It is a production, all in good fun. YES!!! We have champagne. It is varied labels and a few bottles here and a few bottles there, but SS hopes it will last until the Canaries. Who knew SS could be so successful on the spur of the moment in Takoradi, Ghana? Good job, F&B et al. Also, something of nautical interest to some of you - as we crossed the equator, I watched the latitude and longitude readings: 00.00.00/00.00.14. Amazing!

 

Duct Tape,

Glad to see the sailing is going smoothly on this trip. Wish we were there with you! Hopefully our paths will cross again on SS and thanks once again for joining Wendy & I during our vow renewals. You helped to make it very special, it was a pleasure meeting you.

[Northerncheapo]

Thanks for the info! That sounds like alot of fun :)

 

I'm curious tho...is a pollywog someone who hasn't crossed the equator by boat or does it matter? I'm wondering...I've flown across it (trip to Australia), so am I pollywog? :confused:

 

 

More importantly...glad to hear that everyone is having such a great time AND that champagne was secured...whew!

 

Looking forward to next report!

 

Anita

[Goldens4]

Hey, Kate! Glad you are having a great time. Love your posts! I am living this experience through you. Thank you!

[MCCooch]

During my old days in the Navy, you are considered a pollywog if you have not crossed the equator by boat. Once you have crossed you become a Shellback. This traditional ritual is a ton of fun for all involved though I am sure the ritual on SS is far less severe than the one experienced by the "Wogs" in the Navy :)

[CanadianKate]

I've been letting Ghana sit with me overnight while I figure out a way to express our day.

 

 

 

We chose the seven hour tour that took us from the port of Takoradi, down to the Cape Coast Castle, on to St. Georges (or Elmina) Castle and then a luncheon and cultural show at a luxurious resort on the ocean.

 

 

 

One of the advantages of taking the longer tours, is that they take us away from the port or the town we are in, and out into the countryside. We found that worked well for us in Bali and the Philippines.

 

 

Cape Coast was a 1.5 hour drive away from the ship so we got to see a good deal of the contrasts in the country, although we never veered very far away from the more prosperous areas along the coast.

 

 

My impression? Yet another African country I hope to return to someday. Ghana is closer to the life I expected to see in Africa, so it was much less of the 'bubble' feeling that Cape Town and Namibia had. There we saw wonderful sights and disturbing sights. Our tour yesterday didn't take me out of my comfort zone because we were whisked by things in an air-conditioned bus but to really experience the country we will have to do just that. Even the luxury resort where we had lunch was roughing it by North American standards.

 

 

Yesterday, we saw a country full of energy, education, industriousness, and potential. Our guide was very proud of the fact that democracy has remained in place since 1992 after several false starts since their independence in 1957.

 

I think this is the first developing country I've been to where I haven't seen signs for KFC or McDonalds or other global chains.

 

 

 

What I saw instead was enterprise after enterprise, people working, technology in unusual places, and schools. Public schools, church run schools, technical schools, and a university - education of some sort was easy to spot in each of the communities we drove through which gives me great hope for Ghana's success. In my travels, I've come to the conclusion that my overseas charity dollars are best directed towards education projects, part of the reason why we support a specific charity working to establish a library in a small town here in Ghana.

 

The schools were what you'd imagine, buildings with large open windows to let in the light.

 

Traditional ways of life seem to be blended with modern.

 

I have a shot of an electronics store, next to 'With God Fashions.' We saw treadle sewing machines set up on the 'front porch' of the dwellings so women could sew in the light. Some were collectives, some were singular. We saw a 'school' to train the women on running a cottage industry business.It was Tuesday, a day of rest for the fishermen, so we got to see the fishing boats hauled up on the beaches and the nets being mended. Tuesday is also market day so we saw the teeming market place that was set up at one of the toll booths we passed by.

 

The country is about 55% Christian but this is a Christianity that is proclaimed daily, not just on Sunday. We got a great kick out of the business names.

 

Goats, and chickens were everywhere. We even spotted two goats on the second storey of an unfinished building!

 

 

We saw flamingos and lizards as well.

 

 

 

Children were everywhere. The little ones were with their parents as they worked. The older ones were in the schools.

 

 

We saw more of the walking that I talked about from Namibia. This time often with amazing loads balanced on the heads.

 

From a history perspective, we were taken to two slave 'castles', one British, one Portuguese. At Cape Coast, we were taken to the suffocation room, where rebellious slaves were thrown to literally be suffocated to death, their bodies then left out on display as a warning to the others.

 

We descended a few steps into the room and stood there, our eyes adjusting to the light from a 40W bare bulb, in a room that felt airless after only a few minutes of being in it. And that was with the door open. The guide summed it up best when he said, “We can only say, 'May their souls rest in peace.'” There simply are no other words to add. We stood in the cells where up to 200 slaves would be packed for up to 2 months at a time after being sold and branded, awaiting the ships to take them away. We walked through the Door of No Return to see where the slaves would be loaded onto the ships. And we got to see the sign on the outside, leading back, which calls it the Door of Return since people are now bringing the bones of the slaves back to Ghana to be buried in Africa.

 

 

 

The sense I had from the guide was that there is genuine regret for the part that Ghanians played in the process (after all, the slave traders never ventured inland, the slaves were brought to them by the tribes willing to trade.)

 

 

 

After Cape Coast, we were taken to St. George's Castle which is the oldest, sub-Saharan European building still standing (it is 530 years old.) There the focus was more on the female slaves and what they went through. The Portuguese built the castle for the ivory and gold trade but converted the store rooms to dungeons when the slave trade replaced those.

 

 

 

This was the entrance to the cell where they'd starve to death the rebellious slaves.

 

We left the walls of St. George's and walked across the street into the fishing harbour, having a few minutes to walk around. From there we then drove to the Coconut Grove Beach Resort to enjoy a lovely lunch by the beach and to watch a cultural show.

 

 

At this point we felt completely removed from all that we had seen and learned through the day. The two hour respite over, we headed back to the port, retracing our steps. This worked well for me since I had a chance to take shots of things we had seen on the other side of the street.

 

 

The most chilling site of the day was not the poverty in the fishing village, but the prison and the arms reaching out through the bars as we drove by. This was not some relic from long-ago history, but part of the here and now.

[CanadianKate]

Our sea days continue to be smooth, sunny, and warm.

 

There are spot lights on the rails at the back of La Terrassa and on the maneuvering bridges, causing speculation.

[ging466]

Very interesting comments CanadianKate. Thankx for taking the time to post.

 

Enjoy your trip.

 

Cheers

Jennifer

[RachelG]

Appreciate your notes on Ghana. I showed them to my son, and he is encouraged as he prepares for a 6 month volunteer teaching post there.

[CanadianKate]

Rachel, the people are amazing. You son will have a wonderful adventure.

 

What I loved about the place was the signs of industriousness everywhere we went. That plus all the schools really gave me great hope for the country even though what I was looking at was often quite desperate.

[duct tape]

All of her observations are spot on. What struck me also was the fact that the people were well groomed, clothes were clean, shoes, not flip-flops were worn and school uniforms. I did not see anyone who looked underfed but they live in scandalous conditions. On one of the beaches was a "used clothes" market. I think it reminded me of reports I have seen in the past about what is done with Salvation Army, Goodwill donations that are rejected. The are packed up and shippped to 3rd world countries. In the twin city of Secondi, all of the Dutch and English ruins are occupied by squatters. The guide said no one in that town owns anything. The spotlights on the fly bridges and aft on the Terrace rails were installed recently as additional surveillance tools in dangerous waters. They were used when we were on our way to the Seychelles and further along.

Edited February 23, 2012 by duct tape

[Champlain]

Since leaving the ship in Capetown after 41 days from Dubai, I've been following the posts from both Duct Tape and Canadian Kate with envy. I wish I was still with you. When we disembarked on January 14, we spent about 3 weeks in southern Africa including 4 days in Sabi Sand and 3 in Zambia, then the rest driving through the Garden and Wine Routes. I can't speak to Ghana or the rest of Africa, and I'm hardly an expert on South Africa, but I will add my 2-cents worth. I loved South Africa and its beauty, but I was appalled at seeing the townships virtually everywhere we traveled, always outside the cities/towns with limited transportation and people walking and hitchhiking along every road including the major ones. And the saddest part was the state of access to public education. The most profound experience for me was visiting a township (in Gansbaai) with a guide from our hotel and actually going to his home there. Most significantly was his description of life in the township as we drove through and saw outside toilets for about 70 people, no running water in the individual abodes so people had to go to a central water distribution place, the lack of vegetation, just dirt for children to play in. Our guide spoke of the sadness of the Freedom Fighters who lived there with no benefits or care. My hope is for South Africa to find a way to rid itself of the incredible corruption and begin to care for its people. There is so much promise and so much beauty to hold onto. Good sailing.

[duct tape]

Well said. Today we are in Banjul, the Gambia. We were here a few years ago and I am interested to take the shuttle bus to see what changes, if any, have occurred. Today is "Cleaning Day" so we will go ashore after 1 PM when things re-open. The last Saturday of every month is so designated. Interesting concept. Large market has been set up on the pier and everything looks very colorful. Weather is cooler than expected but it warms up nicely.

[duct tape]

In the Atlantic on our way to the Cape Verdes. This segment has been quite a geography lesson. Get out the atlas and see how many countries we have passed on our way up from Capetown. A slight bit of rockin' & rolllin'. It is definitely cooler but sunny. Pool is heated and sounds like a good idea.

Edited February 26, 2012 by duct tape

[CanadianKate]

We had quite a day in Banjul, the capital of The Gambia.

 

Once a month, a 'cleaning day' is declared and nothing is open until after 1 p.m. on a Saturday. So, we arrived in port at 8 a.m. but were told nothing would be available. This didn't sound quite right to me so I checked with one of the lecturers from South Africa. He said he had never heard of this but being Africa, he said such surprises were to be expected. We ended up heading out with both lecturers so had people experienced with Africa with us.

 

 

We took the shuttle bus to the market area which was deserted. The streets were deserted. The shops were shuttered. Few people were about. It was very surreal. We literally walked down the middle of the streets.

 

 

On the shuttle bus on the way in, I had seen a sign I wanted a photo of, so we walked back to it. It said, Behind Every Great Man is a Great Women. Turns out this is over the entrance to the State House where the President lives. It is a tribute to his wife. Which wife, I'm not sure (he has two.)

 

 

We chatted with the guards in front, young men in fatigues with guns. English is the language of the country and they were a delight to chat with, if one could ignore the guns. They were 19 – 23 years old, two were twin brothers.

 

 

From there we decided to walk down to the Arch 22 and the Statue of the Unknown Soldier. A plaque in front says the following about Arch 22: “To the present and succeeding generations is bequeathed this monumental structure commemorating the bloodless revolutionary of the administration of the Republic of The Gambia. It symbolises the strength of the Nation's faith in Allah, our high hopes in the future and strong will to develop the Motherland finally liberated by heroic and patriotic officers and soldiers of The Gambia National Army, on the 22 day of July, 1994 under the leadership of Captain Yahya AJJ Jameh, chairman of the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council to be governed henceforth according to the new national vision of self reliance, accountability, transparency, and probity, based human rights and social justice.” Yeah, right.

 

 

Along our walk to the Arch, we kept attracting 'guides' who just wanted to chat with us. This was where having experienced African guides helped since they told us ignoring these people was the best way to deal with them. This would bring on claims of racism from the guides “we are the same under our different coloured skin” but there is obviously a culture gap here – us wanting to explore on our own without harassment after exchanging pleasantries, and the guides pushing and pushing to gain our attention.

 

 

We ducked into the National Museum for a moment in order to lose a couple of the more pushy ones but decided not to stay at the museum for any length of time.

 

 

After leaving the Arch, we walked onto the beach. At the entrance, off to one side, were a group of children playing.

 

 

One had a mask made out of grasses and horns from some animal. Another had a makeshift drum made from wood. The children came up to us and the masked one danced as the others sang and beat out the rhythm on the drum or just hitting two sticks together. One boy had two hinged pieces of wood that he'd clap together. One child would sing out the line and the others would echo. It was very interesting. Unlike some of the later people from the ship, we 1) didn't feel threatened and 2) got away with a simple thank you. We must have been their warm-up session.

 

 

Also on the beach was the unusual spectacle of the goats being led, on their hind legs, down to the ocean to be washed.

 

 

We walked along the beach, the enjoyment partly disturbed by the men encouraging us to come to their juice bars.

 

 

Eventually we walked back down to the beach side of the State House. Huge walls surrounded it, with guns installed at the top. By then we pretty well realized that taking pictures was a bloody poor idea (the guards earlier had told me no pictures were allowed and it was quite obvious we were in a police state.) On the other hand, we were struck by the line of vultures on the wall. One of the others made sure to take a picture of my dh and I on the beach, with him standing on tippy-toe with his camera angled high!

 

 

The symbolism of the vultures in the palace, standing, posed to scavenge all they could from the poor of Africa was amazing.

 

 

At this point, a young guide had been walking with us but not hassling us. The beach ended here (actually it hadn't quite ended but because it was high tide we couldn't get by a building) so we had to head through an alley into the back of the market. Our map didn't have the details of the alleys that made up the market so we actually had to use the guide at this point.

 

 

As he led us back to the street, others came towards us, saying something in the native tongue and our guide turned us around and said that the gate was locked, so we'd have to go another way. At that point we plunged into the warren of aisles that made up the maze of the market. Nothing was open except the underground tanks that store the runoff from the market. Black gunk was being dug out these and carried by wheel barrow to the street. At one point our path was blocked by an open tank lid so our guide asked permission to take us through a stall. Even so, there was some careful stepping to be done.

 

 

At this point, we were at the mercy of our guide and all those mystery or crime novels set in the Middle East was setting off warning bells but there was nothing to be done but to press forward. All was well and we were safely delivered out onto the street at the exact spot where the shuttle bus would take us back to the ship. It was 10 minutes until the next shuttle so we discussed whether to wait or walk and just as we made up our minds to walk, the minibus pulled up and we gratefully climbed into the air conditioning to wait until it was time for it to leave. The passengers he dropped off were quickly back to the bus, having no interest in exploring further and we were quickly taken back to the ship.

 

 

After a rest and lunch, we headed back out, this time intending to only stay for a few minutes and perhaps snap a few shots of the market.

 

 

As we entered the market, one of the guides who had been with us as we walked through the market in the morning spotted me and said “you came back!” then asked where the other two were. On our own now we figured out that life would be easier if we had a guide to shoo away the other 'vultures.'

 

 

Lallos, the guide, took us through the market, showing me roots that they grind to make a paste to protect against malaria biting mosquitos, bluing for washing, starch that they dissolve in water to make ironing easier and different kinds of produce being offered for sale.

 

 

He then seemed to be required to take us through the souvenir section. I did stop at a stall that belonged to his 'aunt' and bought a batik that best captured what was, for me, the most striking image of West Africa (a women with a load on her head and child on her back.)

 

 

After leaving the market by a back entrance, he took us down an alley to the fisherman's beach. He pointed out how it was not as clean as the tourist beach, would hold down the lines that tied boats to the shore so I could walk along unimpeded and told us of the fishing industry, how long it takes to build boats, and then took us to where the fish was smoked.

 

 

Lallos reminded us a lot of Alex and we thought he was in his 20s. Turns out he's turning 40 this year. He showed us his driving licensed when we didn't believe him!

 

 

He took us further through the town, into residential areas. Unlike 'neighbourhoods' (as Lallos called them – and which he's seen on television) people live in compounds. Extended families live together in these. We passed one open door and inside I saw lovely mosaic tiles in the courtyard so I suspect they aren't as bleak on the inside as they look on the outside. We saw one multi-storey building that would be for a man with several wives but all living in the building would be closely related. We also spotted a water reservoir. Running water is available but for most people that means a tap with water at some point in the compound, not to taps within the houses.

 

 

FYI, although there was an open drainage ditch, it didn't smell. In fact, while there were places that did smell slightly, on the whole, there was no major smell. It was very dusty though and our throats were dry and my eyes stung. It was very, very, hot, mid 30s or higher and the sun was very hot.

 

 

Lallos took us to a rice seller who explained that we should buy a bag of rice – paying him in rice would ensure that Lallos' child (he was not married and the sex of his child kept changing) would benefit from our generosity in tipping Lallos. We did tip him the full amount, justifying it in our minds because we had seen all we wanted to see and spent less than third of what a tour arranged by the ship would cost.

 

 

The walk back to the ship was less pleasant because we no longer had Lallos to shoo away the guides but we could have ended the tour at the market. It was us who wanted to walk back to the ship.

 

 

For hours after returning to the ship, our bodies were vibrating from the stimulation of the day. We got back to our luxury oasis, showered and then I did a load of laundry. My bra was wetter when I took it off my body than it was when it came out of the washer!

 

 

Tea time helped bring us back to life a little. Our pre-dinner snack helped as well but we were still exhausted so decided to just order in hot dogs, fries, and ice cream for dinner and watched a movie. We left port late because of slow bunkering (refueling) but I ran up onto deck to watch us leave and get a sense of how far we had walked. Over the full day we did well over 7 km.

 

 

I really enjoyed my time in Gambia. The part I saw could not be considered a tourist destination but it was a good introduction to a totalitarian regime (although the president keeps 'winning' his elections) and I'm pleased we ended up there and not in Dakar.

[fairbourne]

Canadian Kate

I first went to the Gambia nearly 30 years ago when there was just 3 or 4 tourist hotels along the strip at Senegambia. What a shock I got when I returned there with the DH 3 years ago. It has changed almost beyond recognition - in fact I went to find where I had originally stayed and couldn't believe the development. In saying all that nothing stays the same forever and development is good in some respects. Gambian "guides" have always been around and I understand these days the government tries to control them but sounds like not making much headway. Education is of course still developing to be available to not just the few and resources are tight. When we were there I spoke with the therapists at the spa and they had terrible problems getting books to learn even the basic anatomy and physiology, so they learnt "on the job" as it were. I was able to give them some books.

 

However we came across one initiative which we thought was just great - one day we saw some english firemen obviously carrying out an hotel inspection with the local staff - well it turns out that these guys come over from England twice a year to train and work with the local fire brigade to try and bring standards up to something like acceptable, or what we would term as acceptable. They even shipped one of their retired UK fire engines over and it is now proudly part of the Gambian Fire Service and the english firemen do all this in their own time.

 

The Gambia is a major european all year round tourist destination as we can get there flying time approx 5/6 hours from the UK and it's in the same time zone, so it's perfect for a quick week away in the sun without having to fly longhaul and suffer jetlag! I am enjoying your reports immensely but it does make you stop and think about how very very lucky we are in our developed world.

[CanadianKate]

The next ports in our trip were in the Cape Verde Islands.

 

We stopped at two of the islands, Sao Tiego and Santo Anteo, one in the south and one in the north of the group of islands. The Cape Verdes belonged to Portugal until their independence so are not part of the European Union but have a special relationship with it, and have pegged their currency to the Euro.

 

Our first stop was in Praia, the capital. We chose not to go on tour here but to just walk around on our own. We covered just under 7 km while ashore, taking the shuttle bus onto the Plateau (an older area of town with the market) and then walking down to along the the beaches and out to the lighthouse on a point at the entrance to the harbour.

 

I found Praia to be an interesting mixture of Africa and what I imagine Portugal to be like (I've never been, just seen pictures and I've been to the Azores.)

 

Outside the port was a long line of stalls set up with people selling wares. Here poverty was evident. Once we were up on the Plateau and for the rest of time walking around Praia, the poverty wasn't as noticeable. The market on the Plateau was stunning for its colours, amazing selection and quantity of fruits and vegetable and cleanliness. It was crowded and bustling, but felt prosperous, not desperate (as the market in Banjul had felt.) We were left on our own, not hassled at all. After walking around a little on the Plateau, we walked down a staircase to the valley between plateaus and began our more strenuous walk out to the lighthouse.

Along the beach we came to a workout park. The equipment was in good shape and simple design. For instance, on one piece you sit on the chair and pull down on the bars above, pulling your weight up (but it is leveraged in some way so wasn't hard to do.) The park was sponsored by Coke, which I found amusing!

The city has about 115,000 people but everyone seemed to be in cars. This was first place we've been since South Africa with a bus system. So very auto oriented. Praia is the capital of Cape Verde so we walked past numerous embassies.

Turns out the lighthouse isn't a ruin but is actually functioning and was manned (at least we think he was the keeper - he could have been a workman of some sort.) Because we weren't thinking it was used, we walked through the door in the high wall into the inner courtyard. The keeper came out and asked if we spoke Portuguese? Us: No, English? Him: No, Espanol? Us: No, Francais? Him: No. Oh well, we made do. He asked if we were from the ship (across the harbour from the light) and we indicated yes, and that we had walked. He indicated we were strong for doing that. He commented on the wind and we asked if it was always like that and he said no, just 3 months of the year. Although now we suspect maybe he was saying three months it isn't windy. Anyway, it was a short but pleasant exchange.

We walked from there back to town. It was too early for lunch so none of the restaurants we walked past were open.

 

We walked on a slightly different route which eliminated one hill and then up the stairs back onto the Plateau. We walked around a bit more, seeing a nursery school, checking out a grocery store and coming across a woman selling fish door to door carrying one basket of live fish, in water, on her head and another in her arms.

 

We went back to the ship after this and had a quiet afternoon on board.

 

The lecturer had gone hiking in the hills and I wanted to go but the length he had in mind (15 km) and the imprecision of his plans and instructions made me too nervous. He had a delightful day with the wife of another lecturer. They took a taxi to a small village, found the path and hiked along it. Unfortunately, they kept coming to cross-roads and didn't know what to do. There were people walking the paths who would give them long sets of instructions in Creole or Portuguese but that didn't help. Finally some school children came along and walked with them, leading them out into a village. There they stood waiting. Roddy didn't know what was expected but finally the school bus came along! They got on the bus with the children and ended up at the school where the best student was brought out to display his English skills and explained the local bus system to them. They took a bus back to town and the shuttle back to the ship and were back by 2. I would have been freaking out so I'm glad I didn't go with them, on the other hand, I envy them their adventure!

 

We set sail a bit late (I can't recall what the delay was, but remember a delay) and arrived the following morning in Porto Novo on San Anteo, one of the northern islands. When we woke up in the morning, I turned on the tv and was shocked to see 70 - 80 kph winds. Then we anchored, instead of berthing because the pier expansion project was not finished on time and the port agent had failed to inform Silver Sea of this fact! I can just imagine the words on the bridge when they arrived in the morning to find no pier!

 

We were in the shelter of the island for a few minutes and the winds went calm so we enjoyed our breakfast outside. But the winds were picking up and by the time we were to tender into the port, it was pretty rough.

 

There were about 70 of us on the tour, spread over 4 small tour buses. We lucked out with a guide who spoke very good English. He had a degree in English from the Cape Verde University and had spent a year in Austria learning hospitality management. He worked as a teacher and is hoping to do a masters degree in England at some point. The person organizing the tour was not so gifted and the tour had many comical moments because it was so poorly run.

 

This island is volcanic and is arid on one side and lush on the other. They don't get storms, they just “make them there and send them across the Atlantic” (!) but it was very windy.

 

This may be the only time I rave about a road but we took the most amazing road, all hand made, over the mountain range that runs along the centre of the island. I might not have taken the tour had I fully understood what the road would be like (remember my fear of heights) but if I had to be staring at a road while desperately trying to ignore the steep drop off on the other side of the bus, there is probably no more beautiful a road to be staring at.

The views were stunning (I'm not too bad with heights if I'm standing on the ground, just not keen on them when I have something between me and the ground.)

 

 

After a 2 hour drive we finally got close to sea level on the other side of the mountain. At this point we drove up a dry river valley to see a small village church. The guests in another bus revolted and demanded a pit-stop so we ended up using the washrooms at the local high school. Our guide was busy hugging and kissing many of the teachers who were friends of his from university so I suspect he had something to do with that detour. It was a wonderful detour.

This beautiful school was a gift from the country of Luxembourg. Most of the touches of modernity we saw were gifts from Europe, the majority were from Luxembourg, the reason given was that a large number of Cape Verdeans had emigrated to Luxembourg and were such good workers helping to build that country that Luxembourg wanted to repay the favour by helping out Cape Verde. Cape Verde is one of the poorest nations in Africa. It didn't seem poor like The Gambia because we never saw terrible poverty, but it was as if it was stuck in a time warp. Up in the mountains people lived in houses built from the rocks or more modern ones were of cinder block but they were small (100 - 200 square feet) and there is no running water so people walk miles to get water from reservoirs and carry it back on mules. The unemployment rate on the island is about 40% and we saw a lot of men just sitting about. Most of the labour we saw was by hand, cutting sugar cane and carrying out of the field in large bundles on one's head.

 

Our guide was very appreciative of the funding received to build a decent road (asphalt, not cobblestone as all other roads were) and modern buildings. The school was built in 2006 and was still in pristine condition after 6 years so it seems the gifts are well cared for.

 

After the stop to tour the church, we headed to Ponta do Sol for lunch. We had a half hour to walk around this little town after a lovely buffet lunch. I tried Guarana Antartica, a Brazilian soft drink which was very good. Ponta do Sol used to have the airport for the island but there was a crash that killed 18 people in the late 90's and the airport was deemed too dangerous after that. So now the only link with the other islands is by sea, with daily ferry service leaving from Porto Novo on the other side of the island.

 

The men of the village seemed to all be at the waterfront. The fishermen were on the

beach below, cleaning their catch and the men in the shelter were just hanging around, playing a card game.The streets were basically deserted. I'm assuming the women were working inside the houses.

We saw a few on the the street with children. After lunch we drove back along the shore for a bit, turning to drive up a river valley to see some of the traditional agriculture. Turning our buses around was a big trick. The tour had been badly run and our guide knew of a place up the valley where there was enough room to turn around, but to' save time', the first bus started the turnaround about 5 minutes too early. He made a 24 point turn with our guide just sitting on the wall at the edge of the road, shaking his head. He convinced the next bus in the line to go further on and even he did the turnaround too early, but made it in 6 points, as did the rest of the buses. In the meantime, the first bus had to wait for all of us so no time was saved.

 

Finally, we hit a piece of highway financed by the European Union and Italy. It included the first tunnel in Cape Verde.

 

For about 15 km, we had a quieter ride. Cobblestones are noisy. Even with the 'better' road, the speed limit was still 50 kph and it took 2 hours for us to return to Porto Novo after lunch even without going over the mountain range. Back on the arid side of the range, the scenery turned bleak again. Then a glimpse of our ship. Home!

 

Well, not quite. It was 4 p.m., the original end time of the tour but I knew we still had to have refreshments at a hotel. So we were taken to a lovely resort and offered food. A rather cranky group barely touched what was offered as we were anxious to get back. The last tender was at 4:30 and while we knew they wouldn't leave without us, I had been concerned because it was now awfully rough and I only saw one tender at the dock waiting for us (we had come over in two.)

 

Eventually, we were loaded back onto the buses and taken back to the pier. We were all loaded onto the tender for what we knew would be a rough crossing back to the ship and then waited for all the crew and pier-side paraphernalia (podium, stanchions and ropes) to be loaded onto the tender. It was rough. Not unbearable but we had tucked ourselves in the very back corner, well away from the open sides. Sure enough, a number of passengers were completely soaked when we came alongside the ship and the waves came up between the tender and the platform.

 

Home at last, I high-tailed it to trivia (our team won!) and heard what I had suspected. As the wind came up again, the tender service was suspended and by noon the captain had pulled up anchor as well.

 

 

We were very tired from the day so we had our pre-dinner snack and then ordered in a light dinner and watched the movie Casablanca in preparation for our next leg of the journey.

 

So that's our adventures on Cape Verde. I'm very glad I didn't understand how to decode the tour description because if I had known about the steep roads I may have chickened out. Tonight at dinner someone explained that I should avoid all tours with vistas and panoramic views! Duly noted.

[patnlcc]

Your descriptions are so vivid, Canadiankate, I feel I am with you!

[CanadianKate]

Yesterday we arrived in Las Palmas and bade goodbye to the passengers leaving and welcomed aboard an almost full complement of passengers for the next leg.

 

Our last two sea days were relatively quiet. I did absolutely nothing the last day except attend the final lecture and watch the boat building results (only one entry but the Silver Passing Wind was impressive so I wanted to see how she did in her sea trials - she passed with flying colours in the pool which had its own breakers due to the 70 - 80 kph winds.)

 

At the last formal night we found out the winner of the Silver Wind Has Talent contest. Members of the crew had performed for us and we all voted for our favourite. An AB Seaman won and was presented with his prize on the last formal night.

 

Hopefully Countess has a safe journey home. Duct Tape and I continue on to Barcelona.

[duct tape]

John is the AS who won and who was just promoted to AbleBody Seaman. Congrats, John! Good job, CanadianKate, and keep up the good work!

[Countess K]

Have finally arrived home (spent a little time in Madrid before heading back to the workaday world) and have enjoyed re-living this great cruise thru your posts, CKate! Thanx for taking the time to put it all down for both those who weren't there to enjoy it all with us, and esp. for me, who was there having such fun, I didn't take time out to do any live posting. Meeting you and DuctTape (and your respective other halves) was a delight. This cruise was something of a revelation to me as I found that sea days can be even more fun than port days. The luxury of staying in your swimsuit all day by the pool snoozing, chatting with friends, playing cards, gossiping (!), reading and being catered to at every turn by the great pool staff is addictive. The port days, of course were terrific too-this West African itin is really special. I booked some independent tours in Walvis Bay and in Ghana that were superb and I would highly recommend these great local operators to anyone interested in getting off on your own. If you're interested in further info, let me know and we can discuss offline.

[stephanmarc]

The last Saturday in every month is "Clean the Nation Day" in Gambia (set setal) the President declared this some years ago as a means to encourage everyone in this little country to clean up their environment. Even the security forces, police, Immigration, Fire service etc all join in with this. No traffic is allowed to move about, all shops and businesses have to close - in order to join in the work. Not a bad way to try and help the environment really. You need to be aware of this if your Ship is due to dock on the last Saturday of the month. Restaurants, Bar's and Hotels in the main tourist area's remain open of course as do many of the beach bar's- quite a quirk...

[duct tape]

That was a great trip!