Cape Verde April 2014 - Part III: Santiago - Tarrafal, Serra Malagueta and back to Praia

// To the first post on Cape Verde //
// To the second post on Cape Verde //

Tarrafal

After an adventurous day driving across the whole island, we arrived in Tarrafal. Finding a hotel was not easy at all although Tarrafal is the only real spot for tourists in Santiago. But Easter is one of the really busy weekends, rich people from Praia come and spend some days on the beach - partying. This meant that we were really happy to find a hotel room at all, and we didn't care much that it was windowless (!!). No match for our balcony with a view back in Rui Vaz, but then again - we'd spend most of the time outside the room anyway. That evening though, going to the beach was somewhat out of the question, the noisy party crowd really ruined this for us. But we walked around the town for a while, looking for a place for dinner. We ended up at Maracuja (where we ate one more time during our stay in Tarrafal, the choice of restaurants is not huge and we really, really liked it there!) - I had a fantastic piece of tuna, equally great crêpe for dessert, and the atmosphere was very nice. After a good night's sleep despite the AC (windowless room strikes back), we were up for a bit of discovering Tarrafal. We went to the market to buy papayas and talked to some of the merchants who often come from mainland Africa and speak French. I also bought jewellery made of cocoa nuts, horn and mother of pearl, and met a little girl who sat under a table and rubbed my bare leg (she was curious about its colour) - we had a really nice morning.

Tarrafal

Street art in Tarrafal.

In the afternoon we went to visit the Concentration Camp just outside Tarrafal. It was built by the portuguese dictator Salazar back in the thirties to keep political prisoners behind bars - and far away from Portugal, most of them being opponents to his regime. The camp was closed in 1954, but re-opened in 1961 to imprison activists who worked against the colonial rule in Cape Verde, Angola and Guinea (today Guinea-Bissau). It's a sad, depressing place, and at the same time a symbol for the history of this country - owing Europe its very existence, but also having a long and depressing history as a colony and place for slave trade.

Concentration Camp in Tarrafal.

The pebble beach close to the Concentration Camp.

Talking about the fight against colonialism in Cape Verde, one name needs to be written down (standing for all the others who fought at his side): Amílcar Cabral. Born in Guinea-Bissau to Cape Verdean parents, he later went to Portugal for education. As a student in Lisbon, he founded movements agains the dictatorship as well as portuguese colonialism, and when he returned to Africa in the 1950s, he became one of the leaders of the independence movements in Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau and Angola. The war for independence made it necessary for Cabral to become a guerilla leader, besides he was a writer an political thinker. Amílcar Cabral was murdered in 1973 and didn't see the independence he fought for. Cape Verde finally became independent in 1975.

The mural shows Amílcar Cabral and a quote by him, it says (more or less): "I swore to myself that I have to give my life, all my energy, all my courage, all my ability I may have as a man, until the day I die in the service of my people, Guinea and Cape Verde. Serving the cause of humanity, to give my contribution, to the extent possible, for the life of man become best in the world. This is it, my work."

Tarrafal served as starting point for two day trips, on one of them we visited the Poilon. The Poilon is a huge and very, very old kapok tree, some say it's the oldest tree in Cape Verde. To get there, we parked our car besides a little church on top of the valley, and for some reason I can't seem to understand anymore, we decided not to change our shoes and not to take extra water. Maybe one of our guidebooks said it was an easy walk. So we visited the Poilon wearing Sneakers and only carrying two small water bottles instead of the full camelbaks we had in the car. There's not exactly a signposted way to the Poilon, you have to find your path down into the valley on your own or asking locals (which we did, twice, more or less successfully). The descent took us through a very poor village. This was the first time in Cape Verde we really met people living in such difficult circumstances. We felt completely out of place when we ended up in one of the huts' backyards, asking a woman for the way to the Poilon. She showed us through another backyard and towards the end of the village, where a dirt road led to the Poilon. Small children ran after us, yelling "money, money!". Arriving at the Poilon felt like a huge relief: this incredible tree has seen so much and still stands in its valley, towering above all the other trees, peaceful and mighty. We needed a break, ate something and took some photos before climbing up towards the village again. That it would have been better to wear trekking shoes became clear right when we started the descent, and now we realized that we didn't bring enough water. So the way back to our car was really exhausting. We met a group of women and children from the poor village, wearing their nicest clothes and shoes, we guessed they were on their way to the church, after all it was Easter week. When we arrived in the churchyard, we were suddenly surrounded by hundreds of people, waiting for the service. We were by far the whitest people, we must have looked weary, were soaked with sweat and certainly didn't wear clothes fit for church. Oh well. We crossed the yard as quickly as possible, arrived back at the car and were really happy about the water we had there. Surely not one of our best moments. But the Poilon was definitely worth it.

...find the Poilon...

...yes, it's huge.

The other day trip brought us to Serra Malagueta national park. It is situated on a plateau, offering great views and many possibilities for hiking. We really enjoyed our day there.

On our last evening in Tarrafal, we enjoyed the (finally!) less crowded beach, went swimming and later for dinner in a really great italian restaurant, the "Alto Mira". The pizza was fantastic, the atmosphere in the romantic courtyard totally took us by surprise. A beautiful place for a last evening on a confusing but also fascinating island...

Our last day on Santiago was dedicated to driving back to Praia, this time taking the road along the east coast of the island. "Road" is a flexible concept in Cape Verde, as you might have guessed. The road from Praia to Assomada and Tarrafal is mostly paved, as is the coast road. For all the other streets on Santiago, you'll find everything from cobblestones (more or less well-kept) to dirt roads (more or less covered in potholes). When we visited the northernmost point of Santiago, Ponta Moreia, even our 4x4 car struggled, although this might just have been my amateur perspective, Monsieur (aka "the driver") seemed to have enjoyed it a lot. Much to our surprise, we actually encountered an Aluguer mini bus out there, a group of fishermen had rented it for a weekend trip. I have no idea how they managed to drive the Aluguer there without ending up stuck in a pothole.

Ponta Moreia

On the road.

These experiences led to us asking ourselves about the history of paved roads and tarmac - in Europe. How long have our roads been tarmaced? Wikipedia says tarmac has been patented in 1901, but actually, roads have been paved with tar in Baghdad as far back as the 8th century AD. Well, the Cape Verdean version of pavement most often requires a skilled driver and a sturdy car. The coast road back to Praia, however, is of the more comfortable sort. We really enjoyed this journey, it took us through jungle-like valleys and to incredibly beautiful beaches, until we arrived back in the capital in time to bring back the car.

East coast Santiago

Pedra Badejo

We had enough time to visit the plateau once more, and I noted another Cape Verde question for later research: what is the reason why so many chinese people live on Santiago? Almost everywhere we took a break to drink or eat something, the small grocery stores were owned by chinese families, and, as our hosts in Praia told us, the parliament building and even the presidential palace have been built by the chinese. I know that China is investing in many african countries, but so far I thought this is about natural resources. Cape Verde, however, doesn't have any of those, the islands are small and really not very interesting in terms of economical profit. So: what is it that brings the chinese people there? I found the answer in this article, more about the business relations between the two countries can be found here. Turns out it all started with politics - China didn't want Cape Verde to recognize Taiwan as an independent country, and so it set about "convincing" them... hard to say if the benefits are bigger than the (moral) difficulties originating from this double edged relationship.

And here's the last picture I took in Praia before leaving for the airport - it was a really beautiful afternoon, and the city is one of the most interesting places I've been to so far, although at the same time one of the most challenging.