Mindelo, Cape Verde

Just as the sun was rising we arrived this morning in the Porto Grande (harbor) of Mindelo on the island of Sao Vicente in the island nation of Cape Verde.

Cape Verde is located about 350 miles off the west coast of Africa, about even with Senegal and is comprised of 10 islands of about equal size--approximately 26 square miles each. The islands were controlled by the Portuguese until 1975 when they gained their independence. They have been a democratic nation since about 1990. Approximately 75,000 people live in Mindelo, which is considered the cultural capital of Cape Verde.

Used for many years as a slave port and then a coal refueling station for steam ships they went into a steep economic decline for many years and many of the residents emigrated to the East coast of the US. They are now trying to build a tourism industry, but we found very little available for sale and really no organized tourist related businesses. English is not really spoken very much at all and the local language is a combination of some African languages, Portuguese and a local creole. It sounded a bit Russian to us. (No comments from my children please regarding how useless I am at identifying languages)!!!

We met a very nice man on the waterfront who asked if we spoke English--we think he wanted to practice his. He was a university trained accountant responsible for purchasing for one of the ship repairing businesses in the harbor. He spoke excellent English, which he had learned from the business owners, with a delightful French/South African accent. When I asked for directions to the fish market he took us there and then explained what each fish was. There was a really wide variety, all caught in the bay this morning, including: mackerel, tuna, grouper, octopus, moray eels, snapper and some really cool looking red ones with spots which we never could figure out. Our new acquaintance pointed us towards the vegetable market before wandering off to work--in his bare feet on the cobble stone street.

The town has some beautiful colonial buildings which were influenced by the Portuguese and the British. We especially liked the handicraft museum, housed in an old Victorian building with high painted tin ceilings, tall windows with shutters to keep out the tropical heat, and curlicued wrought iron. They showcase some of the local handicrafts which they are trying to resurrect, including some beautiful woven tapestries.