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 Cape
Verde Travel Tips |
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Cape
Verde |
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The islands of the Cape Verde archipelago are windy, hilly, dry -
almost lunar - and fairly sleepy. But there's beauty in them thar
parched hills. And some of the islands are actually lush. There's
good diving and hiking, lively nightlife and plenty of quiet corners
to hide away in.
Islanders mix up African, Portuguese,
Mediterranean and Latin influences and come out with a flavour that's
distinctly 'Cabo'. Package tourism has gained a foothold, but Cape
Verde is still independent and unspoiled, the perfect place to pretend
that your real life doesn't exist.
Full country name: Republic of Cape Verde
Area: 4,030 sq km
Population: 401,343
Capital City: Praia
People: Creole (mulatto) 71%, African 28%, European 1%
Language: Portuguese
Religion: Roman Catholic (infused with indigenous beliefs), Protestant
Government: republic
Head of State: President Pedro Pires
Head of Government: Prime Minister Jose Maria Neves
GDP: US$581 million
GDP per capita: US$1,450
Annual Growth: 7%
Inflation: 4.3%
Major Industries: food and beverages, fish processing, shoes and garments,
salt mining, ship repair, bananas, corn, beans, sweet potatoes, sugarcane,
coffee, peanuts, fish
Major Trading Partners: Portugal, Germany, Spain, France, UK, Malaysia,
The Netherlands, US. back
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Visas: All visitors need visas to enter
Cape Verde.
Health risks: yellow fever
Time Zone: GMT/UTC -1
Dialling Code: 238
Electricity: 220V ,50Hz
Weights & measures: Metric. back
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The best time to visit Cape
Verde is from August to October, when the weather is pleasantly warm,
though the winds are pretty stiff year round, so bring a windcheater.
The rest of the year is much cooler. back to top
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Cape Verde has one of Africa's
most vibrant Carnival celebrations. It's the country's major party,
with street parades in February in Praia and Mindelo. On São
Tiago and Fogo, Tabanka is celebrated in May and June and marked by
music and abstinence. Each island also has its own festival, with
the party going on for about a week. back to top
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Currency: Escudo Caboverdiano
Meals
• Budget: CVEsc450-900
• Mid-range: CVEsc900-1300
• High: CVEsc1300-2000
• Deluxe: CVEsc2000+
Lodging
• Budget: CVEsc900-2200
• Mid-range: CVEsc2200-4500
• High: CVEsc4500-8000
• Deluxe: CVEsc8000+
Luxury is not a conspicuous feature of Cape Verdean accommodation
or dining. You could spend US$100 a day and nearly max out what's
on offer, though islandhopping, scuba diving and souvenir hunting
will all rachet up your budget. Moderate travel will run closer
to US$50 a day, though you can get by for less if you pick your
accommodation with care and do some self-catering. Budget travellers
can squeak by for well under US$50 a day if they stick to inexpensive
resthouses and restaurants.
Banks in the major towns can change money and travellers' cheques.
Some hotels in Praia will also change US dollars into escudos. There's
no bank at the Praia airport, so be sure to unload your excess escudos
in town before you leave.
Expect to tip 10% in better restaurants, but check the bill carefully
to be sure a service charge hasn't already been added. back
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Cape Verde's many hilly islands offer good hiking. One of the best
places for a short trek is the hilly green interior of Santo Antão
Island. The main hike is up Ribeira Grande Mountain, some 10km (6mi)
south of the town of Ribeira Grande, which is on the north-eastern
coast. Getting to the top and back takes most of a day. Brava and
São Vicente also have some excellent hikes. back
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The history of Cape Verde is dominated by three overriding facts:
there were no people of any sort on the islands when the Portuguese
first arrived; the environment has become increasingly fragile over
the centuries, largely due to the impact of people and overgrazing;
and it's farther from the African mainland and closer to the Americas
than any other African country. It's hardly surprising, therefore,
that Cape Verde developed along somewhat different lines from the
rest of Africa.
When Portuguese mariners first
landed in Cape Verde in 1456, the islands were barren of people but
not of vegetation. Seeing the islands today, you find it hard to imagine
that they were once sufficiently verde (green) to entice the Portuguese
to return six years later to the island of São Tiago to found
Ribeira Grande (now Cidade Velha). The Portuguese soon brought slaves
from the West African coast to do the hard labour. The islands also
became a convenient base for ships transporting slaves to Europe and
the Americas.
The islands' prosperity brought
them unwanted attention in the form of a sacking at the hands of England's
Sir Francis Drake in 1586. Cape Verde remained in Portuguese hands
and continued to prosper, but in 1747 the islands were hit with the
first of the many droughts that have plagued them ever since. The
situation was made worse by deforestation and overgrazing, which destroyed
the ground vegetation that provided moisture. Three major droughts
in the 18th and 19th centuries resulted in well over 100,000 people
starving to death. The Portuguese government sent almost no relief
during any of the droughts. The 19th-century decline of the lucrative
slave trade was another blow to the country's economy. Cape Verde's
colonial heyday was over.
It was then, in 1832, that Charles
Darwin passed by, finding dry and barren islands. It was also around
this time that Cape Verdeans started emigrating to New England. This
was a popular destination because of the whales that abounded in the
waters around Cape Verde, and as early as 1810 whaling ships from
Massachusetts and Rhode Island in the US recruited crews from the
islands of Brava and Fogo.
At the end of the 19th century,
with the advent of the ocean liner, the islands' position astride
Atlantic shipping lanes made Cape Verde an ideal locale for resupplying
ships with fuel (imported coal), water and livestock. Still, the droughts
continued and the Portuguese government did nothing. Thousands more
died of starvation during the first half of the 20th century.
Although the Cape Verdeans were
treated badly by their colonial masters, they fared slightly better
than Africans in other Portuguese colonies because of their lighter
skin. A small minority received an education; Cape Verde was the first
Portuguese colony to have a school for higher education. By the time
of independence, a quarter of the population could read, compared
to 5% in Portuguese Guinea (now Guinea-Bissau).
This largesse ultimately backfired
on the Portuguese, however, as literate Cape Verdeans became aware
of the pressures for independence building on the mainland and started
a joint movement for independence with the natives of Guinea-Bissau.
But the Portuguese dictator Salazar wasn't about to give up his colonies
as easily as the British and French had given up theirs. Consequently,
from the early 1960s, the people of Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau fought
one of the longest African liberation wars.
In 1975, Cape Verde finally gained
independence from Portugal. And still the droughts continued, one
lasting nearly 20 years. Despite kinder weather and doubled crop yields
in the mid to late 1980s, an extreme and lengthy drought in the 1990s
necessitated emergency food aid from abroad. In 1991 the first-ever
multiparty elections were held, and the newly formed Movimento para
a Democracia (MPD) party won 70% of the vote and formed a new government
under the leadership of Dr Carlos Veiga as prime minister, and António
Monteiro as president. Both were returned in elections the following
year, the first held under the country's new constitution. There were
major setbacks in the 1990s - the slow economic progress in the wake
of the drought led to a splintering of the MPD, and one defector established
a rival party. However, the MPD prevailed in parliamentary elections
in 1995.
Crippling drought wiped out over
80% of the islands' grain crops in 1997. The following year, the country's
pig population was devastated by an outbreak of African swine fever.
That same year, Prime Minister Veiga survived a plane crash in which
one of his bodyguards was killed.
Recent presidential and parliamentary
elections have seen a new prime minister and president voted in, with
the power base once again shifting back to the left, with the former
ruling African Independence Party, the PAICV, resuming power. back
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The vestiges of Portuguese culture are much more evident than those
of African culture, although this is less true on São Tiago
Island, which has a significant number of people of African ancestry.
Most people in Cape Verde are creole; about a quarter are of African
descent.
Portuguese is the official language.
People also speak Crioulo, an Africanised Creole Portuguese. For its
tiny size, Cape Verde has produced a wealth of literature. The works
written prior to independence focused on liberation and were mainly
in Crioulo. Postindependence, the themes expanded to include the mass
emigration from the islands by the 'Americanos' (those Cape Verdeans
who've gone to the Americas) and racial discrimination. Some writers,
such as Kaoberdiano Dambara, continue to write in Crioulo, while others,
such as Onésimo Silveira, write in Portuguese, the dominant
literary tongue.
Cape Verde is home to a variety
of musical styles. One of the most popular is the foot-stomping funana,
a dance beat popular in Praia and other cities and towns; morna, the
national songform, typically slow, moody and in a minor key; and coladeira,
a fast-moving, fluffy style of dance music. The country's best-known
musician is Cesaria Evora, the 'barefoot diva', who sings in the traditional
Cabo styles.
Cape Verdean food is basically
Portuguese, but some dishes are unique to the islands. One of the
most unusual and delicious is pastel com diablo dentro (pastry with
the devil inside) - a mix of fresh tuna, onions and tomatoes, wrapped
in a pastry blended from boiled potatoes and corn flour, deep fried
and served hot. Soups are also popular. One of the most common is
coldo de peixe (fish stew), which is loaded with vegetables and spices
and thickened with manioc flour. Other specialities include bananas
enroladas (bananas wrapped in pastry and deep fried) and manga de
conserva (an unsweetened chutney-like concoction).
About 80% of the people are Roman
Catholic. At the time of independence in 1975, the Church was the
single largest landowner in the country. Subsequent land reform has
reduced these holdings, but the Church remains powerful in the country.
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The Cape Verde islands are in
the Atlantic Ocean, 620km (385mi) west of West Africa's coast at Mauritania.
There are 10 major islands (9 of them inhabited) and 5 islets, all
of volcanic origin and grouped into the Barlavento (Windward) group
(Santo Antão, São Vicente, Santa Luzia, Ilheu Branco,
Ilheu Raso, São Nicolau, Sal and Boa Vista) to the north and
the Sotavento (Leeward) group (Maio, São Tiago, Fogo and Brava)
to the south.
The interior of the main island, São Tiago, is mountainous,
and Fogo has the islands' highest peak, Mt Fogo (2840m/9320ft). Fogo
was rocked by a volcanic eruption in 1995; there have been seven such
eruptions since 1760. Many of the islands are arid and hilly, and
cultivation of the hillsides has caused widespread soil erosion. Santo
Antão has the highest rainfall and tends to be much greener
than the other islands.
Common plants in the islands include rhododendrons, the fire tree,
dragon tree, marmulano, corn plant and the Florida Beauty dracaena.
Among the islands' most colourful fauna are its coral and fish, especially
in the waters around Sal, where you'll see parrot fish, barracuda
and moray eels. You might also spot blue and humpback whales, the
narrow-snouted dolphin, harbour porpoise and loggerhead, green and
hawksbill turtles. The Raza Island lark, Cape Verde petrel, brown
booby, frigatebird, tropicbird and Cape Verde warbler are among the
birds winging around the archipelago. Creepy crawlies include the
Cape Verde skink and the giant Cape Verde gecko.
Cape Verde has the coolest temperatures of any country in West Africa.
Daily highs range from 20°C (68°F) to around 29°C (84°F)
from August to October, when there can also be rainstorms. Due to
ocean currents, the sea is also considerably chillier than along the
West African coast. back
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Flying is the only realistic option for getting to and from Cape Verde.
There are infrequent sea services, but they'll probably end up costing
as much as a plane ticket. There are regular flights from Lisbon and
less frequent flights from other European centres. back
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There's a network of expensive internal
flights between the islands; between Praia, Mindelo and Sal there
are flights at least once daily.
Travel on the islands is by bus or truck. Taxis are generally
very expensive and there aren't many of them. You can rent cars on
São Tiago, Fogo, São Vicente and Sal. You'll need an
international driver's licence; driving is on the right. back
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