Barbados!!!!!!!!!!!
“INTERLUDE”
Okay, this is going to be a bit confusing. I am not writing this whole entry in “one go”, but over days (due to the high prices at the internet cafés). So, I wrote the “B.I. (Before Interlude)” around 2 weeks ago, and a lot have happened since then.
As I said in the B.I., the islands are very diverse and different, and we experienced that when we went to a little town on the main island, Santiago. We sailed from the capital Praia after two interesting days there, especially the “Mercardo Municipal” was a great experiences, a little area of 40 X 20 square meters where a lot of small “shops” were pushed in between each other. You could buy all kinds of vegetables, fruits, spices and I saw a tuna fish of the size of a little man. All the women would be carrying buckets on the head, 20 kilos, without difficulties.
When we arrived at the other little town on Santiago, we discovered that a little bay, sandy beaches, a bar, coconut sellers, a blue and white church all surrounded by deep valleys and beautiful mountains creates a perfect rest place after a long day on the sea.
We stayed at this neighbour to paradise before we went to our next adventure, Fogo – the island with the active volcano. I will never forget the time when I was standing and steering our beautiful boat, Roselina, towards a rock island and the sunrise came up right behind it, mixing colours that not even Matisse could create. I was supposed to end my watch at 6 o’clock, but it was impossible to take my eyes away from this scenery. These are the kind of times that I realize that my camera isn’t nearly enough; and I have to use the two God-given cameras, my eyes. I visit to Fogo was a mix experiences, the town itself was nice and cosy, but we also experienced that it could rain and be cold on Cape Verde. Nine of us from the boat took a Algueer, which is a form of cheap taxi up to the top of the volcano. We saw the beautiful countryside that we normally miss when we lay for anchor and I was pleased to see other parts of Cape Verde than the tourist industry. The trip to the top of the volcano was okay, apart from the fact that it was totally covered in clouds. Therefore we couldn’t hike the last three hours to the top, but had to stay in the local town. The town is placed right below the volcano, and they seemed to grow a lot of things, even though it was volcanic soil. We bought horrible “Fogo Wine” and “Fogo Coffee” there, but I guess that you have to support the local “industry”.
I would love to describe the next many days for you, but it is difficult to recall every day, it is also even more difficult to describe what I have seen and experienced without writing a whole book, including pictures! I am writing most of this while we are crossing the Atlantic, so many days has gone without me considering sharing this with my few blog readers.
However, I will try briefly to explain what we did, and what I thought of Cape Verde on our day of departure. We went to Cape Verde’s second biggest town, Mindelo, and stayed there for almost a week. We have had some few “internal” problems, so our skipper went with some people to the tourist paradise Sal, while we “young people” stayed at a hotel in Mindelo. I really like sailing and be on the boat, nonetheless, it was a nice feeling to be able to take a shower for the first time after two weeks of sailing, be able to stand up and pie, sleep in a “non-moving bed” and be as messy as possible. Dirk, Max and I stayed in one room where we drank Cuba Libre (our Roselina drink), beers, and vodka. We partied, listened to music, read many books and slept 13-15 hours everyday.
Here are some of the reflections of Cape Verde that I came up with while being hangover in Mindelo.
The native people of Cape Verde are not scared of their bodies, the “national costume” that almost all the girls are wearing here is a tight top and a SHORT miniskirt, even the school uniforms is a white “look through shirt” and a brown miniskirt. The guys here are a lot more “50 Cent” look-a-likes. You rarely see fat people here; it is only in the west that we can afford to be fat.
Cape Verde is one of the places in the world where I have felt most safe, and Mindelo was full of policemen all the time. There are an incredible amount of street-sellers, and even the locals buy stuff from them. The bad parts is the amount of children who asks for money (never give money to kids), hustlers (especially the people who watch over the small boats that the sailors use), and the prostitutes. We went to some nightclubs where more than half of the girls were prostitutes and only danced with fat, ugly, old Germans and Italians. Sex tourism has also reached this part of the world.
In Sahara everyone played Domino, in Cape Verde the locals play “calaha” as we call it in Danish (8 holes on each side, a bunch of small stones, get as many as possible).
The fruit and vegetables markets are extremely nice here; the atmosphere is great, and the oranges, lime and bananas even better. The bread is also really cheap; some people will argue that it is because of the European Union. The culture Life here is really good, lots of cafees, live music and camboerra (I cannot spell this dance/way of fighting).
Cape Verde was also the place where I wrote ten Christmas cards in 35 degrees Celsius; drank and ate coconut on the beach; and it was also here that I talked with Itay the last time before he went to the military for the next three years.
The Crossing of the Deep Blue Sea
We started of on the first of the December with the crossing of the Atlantic, we had bought loads of food (but we knew that all our vegetables and fruits will run out after five days), got all the water we needed for more than twenty days on the sea and filled the boat up with gasoline. The trip was going to take two weeks, inshallah, but that would only be with superb wind. We had a good start, the sun was shining, the wind was blowing 8.5 and we sailed around 6.30 knots; perfect. We caught a lot of fish, and lost a lot as well. We don’t see any other ships when we sail, and you really get to understand how big the world is. I never understand the people who sit in front of their computer and say: “the world is so small today”, they should try to come out and sail around it.
Barbados
Damn, I have so much to tell – but so little time. I arrived at Barbados two hours ago. British accents everywhere…however, it is nice to see other people after 2 weeks on the sea.
Okay, this is going to be a bit confusing. I am not writing this whole entry in “one go”, but over days (due to the high prices at the internet cafés). So, I wrote the “B.I. (Before Interlude)” around 2 weeks ago, and a lot have happened since then.
As I said in the B.I., the islands are very diverse and different, and we experienced that when we went to a little town on the main island, Santiago. We sailed from the capital Praia after two interesting days there, especially the “Mercardo Municipal” was a great experiences, a little area of 40 X 20 square meters where a lot of small “shops” were pushed in between each other. You could buy all kinds of vegetables, fruits, spices and I saw a tuna fish of the size of a little man. All the women would be carrying buckets on the head, 20 kilos, without difficulties.
When we arrived at the other little town on Santiago, we discovered that a little bay, sandy beaches, a bar, coconut sellers, a blue and white church all surrounded by deep valleys and beautiful mountains creates a perfect rest place after a long day on the sea.
We stayed at this neighbour to paradise before we went to our next adventure, Fogo – the island with the active volcano. I will never forget the time when I was standing and steering our beautiful boat, Roselina, towards a rock island and the sunrise came up right behind it, mixing colours that not even Matisse could create. I was supposed to end my watch at 6 o’clock, but it was impossible to take my eyes away from this scenery. These are the kind of times that I realize that my camera isn’t nearly enough; and I have to use the two God-given cameras, my eyes. I visit to Fogo was a mix experiences, the town itself was nice and cosy, but we also experienced that it could rain and be cold on Cape Verde. Nine of us from the boat took a Algueer, which is a form of cheap taxi up to the top of the volcano. We saw the beautiful countryside that we normally miss when we lay for anchor and I was pleased to see other parts of Cape Verde than the tourist industry. The trip to the top of the volcano was okay, apart from the fact that it was totally covered in clouds. Therefore we couldn’t hike the last three hours to the top, but had to stay in the local town. The town is placed right below the volcano, and they seemed to grow a lot of things, even though it was volcanic soil. We bought horrible “Fogo Wine” and “Fogo Coffee” there, but I guess that you have to support the local “industry”.
I would love to describe the next many days for you, but it is difficult to recall every day, it is also even more difficult to describe what I have seen and experienced without writing a whole book, including pictures! I am writing most of this while we are crossing the Atlantic, so many days has gone without me considering sharing this with my few blog readers.
However, I will try briefly to explain what we did, and what I thought of Cape Verde on our day of departure. We went to Cape Verde’s second biggest town, Mindelo, and stayed there for almost a week. We have had some few “internal” problems, so our skipper went with some people to the tourist paradise Sal, while we “young people” stayed at a hotel in Mindelo. I really like sailing and be on the boat, nonetheless, it was a nice feeling to be able to take a shower for the first time after two weeks of sailing, be able to stand up and pie, sleep in a “non-moving bed” and be as messy as possible. Dirk, Max and I stayed in one room where we drank Cuba Libre (our Roselina drink), beers, and vodka. We partied, listened to music, read many books and slept 13-15 hours everyday.
Here are some of the reflections of Cape Verde that I came up with while being hangover in Mindelo.
The native people of Cape Verde are not scared of their bodies, the “national costume” that almost all the girls are wearing here is a tight top and a SHORT miniskirt, even the school uniforms is a white “look through shirt” and a brown miniskirt. The guys here are a lot more “50 Cent” look-a-likes. You rarely see fat people here; it is only in the west that we can afford to be fat.
Cape Verde is one of the places in the world where I have felt most safe, and Mindelo was full of policemen all the time. There are an incredible amount of street-sellers, and even the locals buy stuff from them. The bad parts is the amount of children who asks for money (never give money to kids), hustlers (especially the people who watch over the small boats that the sailors use), and the prostitutes. We went to some nightclubs where more than half of the girls were prostitutes and only danced with fat, ugly, old Germans and Italians. Sex tourism has also reached this part of the world.
In Sahara everyone played Domino, in Cape Verde the locals play “calaha” as we call it in Danish (8 holes on each side, a bunch of small stones, get as many as possible).
The fruit and vegetables markets are extremely nice here; the atmosphere is great, and the oranges, lime and bananas even better. The bread is also really cheap; some people will argue that it is because of the European Union. The culture Life here is really good, lots of cafees, live music and camboerra (I cannot spell this dance/way of fighting).
Cape Verde was also the place where I wrote ten Christmas cards in 35 degrees Celsius; drank and ate coconut on the beach; and it was also here that I talked with Itay the last time before he went to the military for the next three years.
The Crossing of the Deep Blue Sea
We started of on the first of the December with the crossing of the Atlantic, we had bought loads of food (but we knew that all our vegetables and fruits will run out after five days), got all the water we needed for more than twenty days on the sea and filled the boat up with gasoline. The trip was going to take two weeks, inshallah, but that would only be with superb wind. We had a good start, the sun was shining, the wind was blowing 8.5 and we sailed around 6.30 knots; perfect. We caught a lot of fish, and lost a lot as well. We don’t see any other ships when we sail, and you really get to understand how big the world is. I never understand the people who sit in front of their computer and say: “the world is so small today”, they should try to come out and sail around it.
Barbados
Damn, I have so much to tell – but so little time. I arrived at Barbados two hours ago. British accents everywhere…however, it is nice to see other people after 2 weeks on the sea.
posted by ...The eyes of the world | 11:54 AM
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