The Real Cape Verde

Jenny Adams explores a variety of landscapes and cultures during an island hopping trip to Cape Verde: an archipelago of stunning beaches, diversity and emotive music which has become one of the “must visit” destinations.

CONTRIBUTOR
Jenny Adams, as the company’s public relations manager, organises trips for journalists to discover the various destinations we feature. However, in this issue she describes her first trip to the islands of Cape Verde as well as providing press quotes about Senegal.

 

With ten islands in the archipelago, you are inclined to feel that you would only really have a chance of discovering ‘the real Cape Verde’ if you island-hopped. This is what four journalists and I did a little while back, although our time scale meant that we only had time to cover Sal, Boa Vista, São Vicente and Santo Antão. It was the diversity of the islands that made the trip for us, as you really do see first hand the fusion of African, Brazilian and Portuguese cultures.

My highlights included taking a dip in the natural lava-formed swimming pool at Buracona in Sal. Our luck was in as we were also fortunate enough to see the Olho Azul or ‘Blue Eye’, formed when the light shines into the cave.

Boa Vista dazzled us with what seemed like its infinite dunes of powder white sands. Our drive south across the desert brought us to the best beach I have ever visited: Santa Monica. It was deserted, bar the crabs, which rapidly scuttled into the turquoise ocean as soon as we had the rudeness to disturb them.

We could see why Mindelo in São Vicente is the cultural capital of the islands. Although we couldn’t fully understand the ‘morna’ that the band we went to see were singing about, we couldn’t help but be moved, literally and metaphorically by the rhythm and emotion of it all.

From São Vicente we hopped on the boat to the island of Santo Antão, without doubt my favourite island. It was not just the striking mountain peaks and sense that time stood still here that wowed us, but also that our eyes were now greeted by ‘green’ in the form of lush, verdant valleys.

Cape Verde Fact File

To find out more about the country and holidays visit www.capeverde.co.uk or telephone 0845 330 2047 to order a copy of The Cape Verde Experience brochure.

View more images and upload yours to www.flickr.com/groups/thecapeverdeexperience