Even though we are away
from the boat this week I thought I would make the odd blog entry even if just
for our own memories.
The island we are staying
on is stunning and we feel so fortunate to have found somewhere that suits us
down to the ground. We are determined to
walk at least five miles each day as well as swimming just to make sure we get
some exercise. On Tuesday we walked two miles
along the beach to the east of the villa.
We saw two other couples and a fisherman, oh, and lots of birdlife of
course. We were in an area that has salt lagoons behind the shoreline which makes
for interesting flora and fauna.
We have seen a few
butterflies, mainly from the white, brown and blue families. The most common so far has been the Plain
Tiger (aka African Monarch) which belongs to a family not seen in the UK.
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Plain Tiger
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In the evening we wandered
down to the bar on the beach to watch the fisherman come in and then went to
what’s purported to be the best restaurant in the place. It happens to be right next to the villa
which is handy. I’m not sure what
criteria is used to make it the best but we had a pleasant time. During the day it is a general stores run by
Isobel, who is 20 and the middle child of 13 – she has six brothers and six
sisters – an even bigger family than our nine. She wants to move out of Cape Verde and has
taught herself English as the first step.
She is quite an ally to us as she is the only English speaker we have
met and our Portuguese is next to useless.
The tourists tend to be aging French and Germans so not a generation to
speak English.
Anyway, Tuesday was the
day before the next supply ship arrived so restaurant choices (and stuff in
shops) were very limited.
On Wednesday we walked to
the next village, Morro. We walked out
on the road and back along the beach.
It was a bit further than we realised at eight miles and with half of that
on sand meant that our calves were pretty tired by the time we got back. Again, everywhere was deserted; on the three
mile stretch of coast we saw one person – a local fisherman.
Back in our village we
bumped into three guys we met on the first day.
They are all Italians and eight of them moved out here nine years
ago. They are Buddhists and make
their living by looking after the villas owned by the foreigners. We had a chat with them and sat at the bar
again, this time to watch the supply ship unload. It comes over from Santiago
island on a Wednesday every one to three weeks depending on the volume of goods
that have been ordered. It was
fascinating watching the locals scurrying around like ants filling up their
shops and restaurants.
Here are a few photos from
the last couple of days:
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| Evening drinks on the beach watching the fisherman coming home - our villa is at the far right at the top of the cliff |
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| These are a type of egret and I think these ones are Cattle Egrets |
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| Walking east on Tuesday |
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| Pig family in Morro |
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| A salt water lagoon |
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| Evening view across to Santiagao, the largest island in the group |
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| The extensive menu on Tuesday evening - I had the goat and Karen had the Longoustines |
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| Walking back on Tuesday |
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| The road to Morro - the building in the distance is the airport we flew into |
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| Goats outside the villa - just like the Canary islands seeing so many goats around |
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| Another pig family - pigs, goats and chickens seem to be the most common animals |
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| Beach walk on Wednesday |
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| Our local restaurant (the blue building) |
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| Morro high street |
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| Supply ship unloading |
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| Our restaurant from the back - it is upstairs and the shop is downstairs |
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