Sunday, 20 April 2014

St. Vincent - Cape Verde Islands

Saint Vincent -Cape Verde
17th April 2014

Saint Vincent was our next port of call.  This is one of the smaller Cape Verde Islands, not the ones usually used by British holiday makers.  Today we embarked on a tour of discovery in the colonial capital of Mindelo.  

Throughout the town we came across various Portuguese azulejos ceramic tiled pictures of various historical scenes.  Our first stop was the African market and as you can see Doreen is already browsing.  The islands have a very strong connection to Africa as they were used as a staging point for the Africans before they were transported to Brazil and America as slaves.


Meat doesn’t appear much on their menus as they are very reliant on their fishing industy and you can see on the waterfront some of the brightly painted boats on the beach. 


Our next stop was the Vegetable Market, which is very similar to that in Madeira, but alas not quite as big.  Nonetheless Doreen did manage to purchase a locally woven fruit basket/tray, as shown in the picture middle right or bottom left, but what will she do with it? 


After walking around the town with many colourful houses, we were taken to the Mindelo Cultural Centre, where after drinking rum based cocktails we were treated to a display of traditional Capoeira Dance.


A nice enough stop after seven sea days, but not sure we have seen the best that the Cape Verde Islands have to offer.

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