My Journey Across West Africa Pt. 5: Cape Verde

This is the continuation of the ‘My Journey across West Africa’ episodes. To read previous episodes, click on the columnist name above.

Dear Readers,

The narration of my journey across West Africa continues.

Journal entry – start

Date: 20/11/11

Time: 8:13 AM.

Location: Praia, Cape Verde

I was right. Cape Verde is the only place to find agreeable things!

There is some pleasure to be experienced here.

This is a different world. It’s colorful and refreshing here. The beaches are beautiful, the condition; a little better, the women; surprising beauty, the atmosphere; wonderful.

Entry conclusion

The climate, people, environment and most things are of different disposition here.

Journal entry – end

Commentary

It seems as if I have been traveling all this while just to come to Cape Verde. I have rambled and walked the mainland continent, and in relief, Cape Verde offers me its breeze and exotic women to gaze upon. It was truly a different world under my circumstances. The atmosphere was peaceful, and the beaches; quiet. I have traveled about 4500km through Ivory Coast, Mali, Sierra Leone, Guinea, to the coasts of Senegal, and finally into the Atlantic Ocean

I did not renounce my optimism in spite of the difficult conditions existing on the mainland continent.

I will continue from where the narration ended in the previous episode.

I arrived in Kalifourou around 4:00PM on 17/11/11 after the never-ending journey in a bush taxi from Conakry to the northwestern border with Senegal. It took over 24h to cover this distance.

I changed bus from Kalifourou to Dakar around 4:30PM. It’s about 600km from Kalifourou to Dakar but, as usual, it is always twice the estimated average amount of time required to cover the distance. Distance estimations on maps are not always true at this part of the world. We left Kalifourou around 4:30PM and arrived in Dakar around 5:00AM the following day. We came through Medina Gonasse, Tambacounda, Maleme, Koussanar, Kaffrine, Kaolack, Mbour to Dakar.

Something interesting occurred when we came through the immigration checkpoint at Medina Gonasse that evening. There was a mandatory exercise where everyone is supposed to show their passport or ID and Yellow Vaccination Card. There were different nationalities in the bus so it was quite a crowd in the cue. As soon as I handed over my Yellow Vaccination Card which bears ‘Ministry of Health – Ghana’ on the cover, the attending immigration officer looked at it and said to me, “Oh! Former President Kufour”…go go go!! He did not flip through the card and did not check my passport either. It had no ‘Former President Kufour’ written on it either. Why did he do that? Does he know something I don’t? I was the only person that got through the checkpoint easy with no hassle and not having my identification checked at all. I don’t understand why he allowed me an easy pass without any scrutiny, but to have used the word ‘Former’ indicates he’s not politically ignorant. He ought to have related the ‘Ministry of Health - Ghana’ inscription to something at that moment. The incident caught my attention so I speculated on it for a while whilst en route to Dakar.

I will write less and allow the photos do much of the talking today.

According to a trip report on Lonelyplanet, it is possible to get a lift aboard yachts or pay a fee to catch boat from the CVD area in Dakar to Cape Verde. It was a game of luck, and I happened not to be lucky. The only yacht that could have offered me a lift to the islands left the previous day. I spent the rest of the morning in downtown Dakar looking for a good deal on flights to the island. TACV was the only airline operating from Dakar to the island at that time and happened to have a flight leaving at 11:00AM the same morning. It was around 9:30AM so I headed to the airport quickly. To my surprise the flight was canceled and rescheduled to the following day before I arrived. The travel agent probably knew and still sold me the ticket. The airline refused to provide me with accommodation because I wasn’t transiting in Dakar, and as they claimed, I bought my ticket after they officially canceled the flight so it was up to me to find my own accommodation. I couldn’t challenge this decision because TACV didn’t look like a well organized airline.

The level of development in Dakar is astounding. The downtown is filled with high rise buildings and nice streets. I lodged in a hotel about 2km from the airport and spent almost the entire day resting and watching the Senegalese wrestling (laamb) on television. It’s such an amusing sport. It was a relief to enjoy the luxury of television watching obese men wearing charms trying to wrestle each other to the ground.

You find all manner of people at Yoff Airport. “Do you have 1000 Euro cash in your pocket?…If you don’t them go deport you oo…I go rent you some if you want…” This is a rant you would hear from the crowd of money changers at Yoff Airport if you are a mainlander heading to Cape Verde. It was funny. To curb the influx of immigrants from the mainland, Cape Verde immigration demands travelers mostly from the mainland continent to have nothing less than 1000 Euro cash on them to indicate they are true holiday makers and not migrating. That is a lot of money to have in your pocket, and I expect every immigration official to understand that. This didn’t bother me at all.

I arrived at the airport early. Two Cape Verdean women pleaded if I could do them favor and deliver their load, which were three sealed boxes, to someone at the Praia Airport since I seem to have less weight. “Are you kidding me? Check-in three boxes in my name to a foreign airport for you? Yes, how does that sound? You are so silly.” I questioned, whilst brushing them off at the same time.

It was a smooth flight. It was about 1h 45m to Praia. I wasn’t questioned about any 1000 Euro or anything at the checkpoints. They only flipped through my passport, looked into my face and handed it over to me after stamping. It was smooth and easy. The guys at the airport were friendly and welcoming. No one used the Kotoka mantra ‘give me something’ on me.

Praia is the southern and the largest city of the island Santiago. It’s also the capital of Cape Verde. The sight of the city was breathtaking. The smell of Atlantic Ocean was refreshing, and the sound; peaceful. The breeze blows through your hair, penetrates your lips to fill your mouth to full and widens your cheeks for a smile. I suspect cheeks were made for this purpose. I felt so alive and forgot all my worries.

Don’t spend too much time and money crossing the Atlantic to Europe or North America to holiday. If you are a guy with classy taste and enjoys gazing upon exotic women, Cape Verde is your ultimate holiday spot. All you have to do is get to Dakar and connect to the islands.

I arrived in Praia around 1:00PM and spent the rest of the day walking around the city and markets. Something was lacking, however; I could only form few words in Portuguese. How do I communicate with the exotic women? The fruit venders? The people were so lovely, especially the women.

I arrived on the island on Saturday. My plans were to join boat from Praia to Sal, or Boa Vista, but the boats were already gone before I arrived. The boats move few times in a week so I had no choice but to remain on Santiago. I was on a tight budget so I couldn’t afford to fly to the other islands. I spent three days in Cape Verde. I stayed at Albuquerque Square and spent most of my time in Praia. I also visited Santa Cruz municipality and few towns in between.

My favorite activity was walking along the volcanic beaches in Praia. I spent the second day having fun with the locals on the beach and walking to the Lighthouse at the southernmost part of Santiago. It seems tourist do not visit them much so they were surprised to see me around. You might as well just stay home if your plan is to avoid the locals when you travel abroad. I visited almost every spot in Praia and made my own memories.

I also visited Pedro Badejo in the Santa Cruz municipality. It was a beautiful town. The mountains and countryside were peaceful and breathtaking.

After some hardware problems with the TACV airplane, I finally made it back on the mainland continent after the third day. Returning from Cape Verde felt just like when I was heading out of the Elubo border; very active.

Next Episode

It features the surprising experience in Dakar and the push to south.

To see the photos, go to:

http://www.modernghana.com/news/420835/1/my-journey-across-west-africa-pt-5-cape.html