Its a dogs life! A common scene, there are dogs everywhere on the island.
The Island of Boa Vista is one of the largest in Cape Verde. On our early morning walk we found this quirky Bar in the street with a tree growing from inside.
This sheltered small boat harbour was the place to be for young children on their Easter school break. Nice to see kids being kids. It looked as though they were looking for shellfish and sailing small boats. As usual a dog sleeping nearby.
The remainder of a deteriorating shipwreck which is now just a rusty shell sitting just off the coast.
I love it when I see a brightly coloured home sitting in the middle of plain concrete buildings. The islanders certainly love their bright colours but many go for pastels too.
This man was running his home sewing business from the sidewalk outside his home.
We gathered that the ' no Stress' sign in the souvenir shops meant you could browse the products without being hassled to buy.
On Friday 31st March we arrived in Mindelo on the island of De Sao Vicente.
Its is known as Cape Verde's liveliest city and unofficial cultural capital, but before we ventured out to explore the city we took an island tour where we discovered a very dry, barren and rugged countryside where lack of rain means agriculture is at a subsistence level and farming was pretty much non existent apart from a couple of small oasis farms where they grew vegetables using a drip system with windmills used in powering the pump to distribute water. This only provided a small part of the domestic market in Vegetables. The windmill above was totally unusable as it was wrecked but there were two others in working order.
The watering drip system appeared to work very well in these dry barren conditions although it was only a very small area of maybe half an acre that had been developed.
The barren and rugged volcanic landscape had a beauty of its own and although unproductive it is one of the points of interest that attracts the increasing tourist market which will give the country some much needed revenue.
The drive along the coastal area was beautiful with wild seas against a rugged mountainous backdrop.
I feared for this young couple who decided to take a dip but fortunately they were sensible and didn't venture in past the first wave.
The sand and volcanic rock colours were interesting. It was a great beach to have a good fossic on but time didn't really allow us long enough.
Back on the road again on the beginning of the long climb up to Mont Verde 725 metres above sea level we saw a gaping huge hole where they were mining rock for aggregate. There certainly wasn't any shortage of it but it left quite an ugly hole in the landscape.
At the top it was wild and very windy but it was great to have a break from the bus after a very bumpy ride. The bus above looks quite modern and it was impressive that it was eco friendly but it didn't travel well on the cobblestoned roads because it had very little suspension, hard plastic seats with thin velveteen seat covers. A couple of quite elderly passengers ( well we were all over 65 ) found it very uncomfortable and I felt sorry for them, but having said that we were made aware that the buses they use here are not fitted with air conditioning, seat belts, or headrests. However the drivers we had in each place were excellent and safe and also there is very little traffic on the roads. It really was the bumpy cobblestones which were unpleasant and 80% of the three hour drive was on cobblestone roads.
Looking down from the top at 725metres above sea level. The view was restricted because of the sand haze caused by sands being blown in from the Sahara Desert.
An old wheelbarrow left at the top in readiness for a bit of use with the landscaping!!!
Looking back towards the top where we had come from and about a quarter of the way down. Shows how narrow the road is.
Back in the town which is busy with various activities as people go about their daily life. Always a few fruit sellers around somewhere.
The buildings in Mindelo were very attractive and probably a slight improvement on the other islands with a little better standard of living also.
These carrots in the Mindelo market weren't a patch on the produce in Praia.
The young lady that owned this small children's shop had painted the car tyres herself to help decorate the interior. It was certainly attractive and very eye catching.
Lunch stop with a lovely view. Time to rest the legs.
The former Governer's Mansion. Now an Art gallery.
Passed by another produce market closing up for the day and its time to say goodbye to the islands of Cape Verde. It has certainly been very interesting and colourful.
Next stop for us in two days time is Las Palmas in the Canary Islands.
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