Thursday – Dusty Mindelo
Today, we arrived in Mindelo, on the island of St Vincent, in the the Cape Verde island chain.
It was windier than I’ve ever seen it before, and much hazier; this is because of sand in the air, coming across, West, from the Sahara Desert (apparently). Other than that, Mindelo was, as Mindelo always is; a little rough at at the edges, but always a pleasure to visit. It does divide folks, though; One woman I met in the street, from my painting class, told me that she absolutely loves the place. Other opinions are available, however; there are always a few dissenting voices to counterbalance the good. Me? I like the place.
For the first time ever, in Mindelo, I was given escort duty, which meant being up at the crack of dawn, in time to get breakfast and be down on the quayside for 8:30am.The tour I’d been assigned to was billed as ‘Colonial Mindelo Walk’. Four small minibuses were lined up to take us into the town, from where we would be guided around some of its interesting colonial buildings, before being brought back to the ship two and a half hours later… that was the itinerary, anyway…
Initially, we were three minibuses short, so we had to wait around a little, for three others to turn up. When they did turn up, we were pleased to see that they were a bit more modern than some of the others that had been provided (the free shuttle bus, for one). Once the buses were all loaded up, we headed out of the port. Two minutes later, maybe five minutes walk from where we’d boarded the minbuses, they stopped, and we we all asked to get out; the walk would now start. This confused a few people; why had we needed a minibus to carry us out if the port to a spot only a short distance away? We could have walked it in quicker time.
Once off the bus, the guide explained that they had four groups (four minibuses), but only three guides, so further faffing about ensued, as they decided how to divvy up the passengers. Once this was done, our guide (who was now assigned about thirty passengers) took out a small, A4 sized map of the Cape Verde Islands, placed it on the ground, and proceeded to give us a run down of every single island. Crouched on the ground as he was, surrounded by the passengers, by the sea-wall, made it difficult for people at the back to hear what he was saying. He rambled on for about 15 minutes about the islands, and several people started getting visibly agitated, wondering when the walking tour would begin. Eventually, he did, but it was at the expense of two passengers who’d already decided that this tour wasn’t for them, and wandered off.
It did get better; we visited a large building full of art and crafts (Colonial House Senador Vera Cruz), where two guys bashed out something on a couple of traditional African drums, before proceeding to the large indoor market, pausing only to glance at the large, pink Governor’s Palace along the way. The market was dutifully bustling, and kept the attention of the passengers, as they viewed the colourful piles of healthy food on offer. From here, we briefly dropped into a church, before heading back to the seafront, and into the large, specially-built tourist complex – arguably the least interesting thing about Mindelo – where everyone was offered a free beer (Oh yes… now things were looking up…). Once everyone had drained their glasses, our guide led us back outside, back along the sea-front – a good 15 minutes walk, and quite a stretch for some people – back to the place where we’d been dropped off by the mini-buses. When someone asked where were the buses, the guide told that there weren’t any, pointed towards the port entrance, saying that the ship was only 5 minutes walk away. This confused a few people (me included). Why we’d had to have a minibus in the first place didn’t make a lot of sense; the fact that we’d then walked all the way into town and back again was contrary to how the tour had been advertised, which turned a few people into not-so-happy bunnies. The guide was a nice enough bloke, quite laid back, and affable. I can’t say I heard a thing he said, bringing up the rear of the group for most of the way, but it did give me a bit of a glimpse into a corner of Mindelo that I hadn’t seen before.
In the afternoon, after lunch, I took another walk into the town, to photograph the old boats and see the outdoor market. It’s a curiously laid-back place, with lots of people idling around on street corners, and basking dogs. It was pleasant wandering around independently; the only thing that slightly marred the experience was the keen wind that persisted throughout the day, blowing airborne dust into the eyes.
After walking around the town, I headed back to the port, and to the beach situated a 5-minute walk in the other direction. I’d packed a towel in the rucksack, with the intention of, perhaps, having a quick swim. When I got there, however, the wind was blowing a hoolie, and, although there were a number people on the beach, no-one was swimming. I looked at the rough sea, and decided that a dip probably wouldn’t be a wise choice on this occasion (you can see the headlines now…), so I headed back to the ship.
We were late leaving. No-one knows for sure why that is; the Aurora left before us, and we were supposed to be departing, straight after, at 5pm. Instead, it was gone 6:30pm when we finally left the harbour. Backing out from the quayside was a bit hairy; Mindelo has lots of small ships anchored around, and one particular one seemed to be in the way; an exchange of sirens and a last-minute course change prevented anything unfortunate happening, but I’m almost certain there would have been a change of trousers on the little red tanker…
An unfortunate knock-on effect of us leaving late was that we didn’t get to see the magnificent coastline at sunset, as we have done in the past (and which usually spawns a watercolour). By the time we’d backed-out, turned around and was on our way, the sun had long since set and the light was fading fast – not to mention the wind….
So now we have 5 days sailing, as we cross the Atlantic Ocean towards Brazil. In the past, we’ve always had a couple of days where we’ve lost all communications, and the ability to update blogs becomes impossible… what we like to call ‘The Dead Zone’. It may or may not happen this time around, we’ll see; just don’t panic if there isn’t a blog post for a couple of days… we’re still here… we’re just ‘disconnected’.
