An island that does not live up to its country’s name
Our day started early on Saturday, meeting at Mollis Airport at 0745 to prepare the aircraft and get ready for takeoff. The last remnants of winter were still noticeable, as the ‘Zigerschlitz’ was covered in shade accompanied by sub-zero temperatures. Once the set-up of the plane was completed, we bid our friends good-bye and headed out.
Directly following the take-off, the pilots did a 180º turn, which led us right by the mountains surrounding Mollis airport and set us on our course. As opposed to previous trips, the early March starting point meant that we were able to admire the snow-covered Alps, along with fantastic views of the Matterhorn, Monte Rosa and Mont-Blanc on our way to the first stop.
After a 3h leg, we made our first fuel-stop in Casablanca. Slight cloud coverage accompanied us during landing, but the airport was very efficient and we were up in the air again within the hour. The second leg of the day saw us fly along the coast of Western Sahara, before heading West into the Atlantic and to Sal, one of the 9 Inhabited Islands of Cape Verde. Although the approach to Sal was incredibly Windy, the pilots were unfazed and made an excellent landing. We covered up the plane, were not met with any significant obstacles in immigration and quickly got on our way to the hotel.
Once we arrived at the hotel, I was able to finally witness the infamous ‘Pool Walk’. The crew lined up and and made their presence felt by walking around the pool in uniform, drawing many confused looks from the other hotel guests. After a short period of ‘fremdschämen’, we got changed and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing by the pool.
Sunday began in a similar manner too many of our stops on the last trip; with a search for a Covid PCR testing site. Sunday is a quiet day in Sal, so it took us two stops and about an hour before our guide was finally able to track down a testing site where we could do the tests for Uruguay. Afterwards, we set out for an island tour.
Unlike the name suggests, Cape Verde is not actually very green. Instead, Sal is a pretty barren island that most closely resembles a very windy desert. The only access to fresh water comes from desalination sites, and outside of tourism, the island does not possess any real sources of income. 85% of all people on the island work in said industry, which has been pretty much monopolized by Tui, who themselves own the three largest hotels on the island and also the transport to and from the island.
Although the weather is quite warm, even in winter, the island is incredibly windy. As such, it is a popular destination for wind and kite surfers. This, along with the sun, are the main attractions as the island itself can be described as ‘just one of these places with not much to see’.
We started the tour by sitting in on the end of a local youth football game. Both teams were struggling in the strong wind, with the home team taking the game. We were later told that the home team usually wins, as they know how to take advantage of the wind. They begin the game by playing with the wind in the first half, getting up a healthy lead while also tiring out the other team, before spending the entirety of the second half defending their lead.
After that, we got in the back of the pickup truck and drive to a main view point of the island. Similar too many other developing nations in Africa, you come across many partially completed buildings in the main town of the island. The third stop took us to a bay that is frequented by lemon sharks. Tom and I put on some shoes, and we were accompanied by the guide into the water who attracted small, quite cute, sharks to swim around us. Finally, we ended the tour with a visit to the namesake of the island, a salt mine, before returning to the hotel and spending the rest of the day in leisure.
Cape Verde is an archipelago and island country in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about 4,033 square kilometres (1,557 sq mi). The islands lie between 600 to 850 kilometres (320 to 460 nautical miles) west of Cap-Vert, the westernmost point of continental Africa. The Cape Verde islands form part of the Macaronesia ecoregion, along with the Azores, the Canary Islands, Madeira, and the Savage Isles.
The Cape Verde archipelago was uninhabited until the 15th century, when Portuguese explorers discovered and colonized the islands, thus establishing the first European settlement in the tropics. Because the Cape Verde islands were located in a convenient location to play a role in the Atlantic slave trade, Cape Verde became economically prosperous during the 16th and 17th centuries, attracting merchants, privateers, and pirates.
It declined economically in the 19th century due to the suppression of the Atlantic slave trade, and many of its inhabitants emigrated during that period. However, Cape Verde gradually recovered economically by becoming an important commercial center and useful stopover point along major shipping routes. In 1951, Cape Verde was incorporated as an overseas department of Portugal, but its inhabitants continued to campaign for independence, which they achieved in 1975.
Since the early 1990s, Cape Verde has been a stable representative democracy, and has remained one of the most developed and democratic countries in Africa. Lacking natural resources, its developing economy is mostly service-oriented, with a growing focus on tourism and foreign investment. Its population of around 483,628 (as of the 2021 Census) is mostly of mixed African and European heritage, and predominantly Roman Catholic, reflecting the legacy of Portuguese rule. A sizeable Cape Verdean diaspora community exists across the world, especially in the United States and Portugal, considerably outnumbering the inhabitants on the islands. Cape Verde is a member state of the African Union. Cape Verde’s official language is Portuguese. It is the language of instruction and government. It is also used in newspapers, television, and radio. The recognized national language is Cape Verdean Creole, which is spoken by the vast majority of the population.
References: Wikipedia.org found under https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Verde
