Praia, Cape Verde Islands

December 9^th, 2024

This was our second port in the Cape Verde Islands. Praia is the capital and largest city in Cape Verde and is on Santiago Island.

My first impression of Praia wasn’t that great

Not a pretty harbor. We also seemed to be having a great deal of trouble docking and the ship seemed to be bouncing up and down, but not getting any closer to the pier.

We later found out that the Crystal Symphony was taking up more space than they expected, so we had a very difficult time squeezing into the space that was left. I think that they should have moved the Symphony in order to allow us to dock easily, but instead they struggled to get us safely tied up to the dock.

Finally we stopped bouncing and were secure. Time to go ashore.

We had chosen a ship’s tour today, the Nature and Culture of Santiago.

On large cruise ships I am often quite exhausted by the time I get seated on the coach. First you have to fight your way through the masses in the theater to get to the desk where you are given your tour number. Then you have to find a seat in the theater. Then you wait patiently for the next half hour for your tour number to be called, meanwhile people are clambering over you to find a seat or join their tour.

Finally your number is called. You push your way through the crowd to get to the staircase and do battle with those already on the stairs to slowly make your way to the gangway. You queue up to get your cruise card scanned, and the person in front of you can’t find theirs, or didn’t remember to bring it with them.

Once off the ship you are then faced with numerous busses, none of which seem to have your number, and you walk up and down the pier until you eventually find your bus. By this time the only seats left are right at the back of the bus, and you fight your way there and collapse exhausted into a very narrow seat. I then wonder, is this all worthwhile?

Not so on the Sojourn. You enter the Grand Salon and go straight to the desk to get your bus number. It is easy to find a seat in the Salon, but you don’t really have to find one because your number is called just as you sit down. You easily negotiate the stairs to the gangway, there is no queue to scan your cruise card, and at the foot of the gangway there is the cruise director Nick showing you where your bus is, and you simply climb on board. No stress at all, phew!

We settled in and off we went with our very enthusiastic guide, Apollo, showing us our itinerary for the day.

We drove through the lush countryside. It was quite a contrast to the barren hillsides of yesterday.

Our first stop was at the women’s cooperative pottery in Fonte Lima village.

We then drove through beautiful scenery to the town of Assomada and paid a visit to the market.

There were live chickens running around, seemingly unaware that there were dead chickens in a bucket right next to them. I found this distressing.

The market was interesting, with a wide range of products for sale.

We didn’t buy anything. It would have been quite antisocial to bring a fish back on the bus, although they did look like they would be very tasty.

The scenery on our way to the Botanic Garden was interesting.

Our first stop in our walk through the Botanic Garden was at the baobab tree. I had not expected to see one here.

We strolled through the garden, which was pleasant enough, but not spectacular.

When we returned to the bus Apollo had some dates to show us

He later fed the dates to a monkey which was tied to a tree on the side of the road.

Why the poor monkey spent its life tied to a tree by the side of a busy road was a mystery to me, but it did make me sad.

We continued our way around the island.

Our next stop was at the large kapok tree near the village of Boa Entrada. The tree is said to be over 600 years old, and is the largest tree in the Cape Verde Islands.

It was a long walk down the valley to get a closeup and personal look at the tree.

But it was worth the walk. The tree is totally amazing, and Apollo encouraged us to climb it with him. None of us joined him. I was saving my energy for uphill walk back to the bus.

Off we set to the Serra Malagueta Park where we had a picnic lunch.

I thought that would be the end of the tour, but wait, there’s more. No, we were not heading back to the ship but we were on our way to the Barragem de Poilao dam.

There were way too many spiders there for my liking

And the railings had certainly seen better days. I doubt they would have any support if you chose to lean against them.

Back on the road again we stopped briefly to photograph a kingfisher, and then drove south towards Praia on the coast road.

We stopped at a pretty fishing village.

known for its street art

Hey, look – there is a banana and duct tape!

At our final stop we got to have a treat of coconut meat and coconut juice.

We continued along the coast road

Apollo introduced us to his playlist of local music. The music was great, the sort that makes you want to get up and dance.

Apollo was having a good time dancing by himself and was encouraging us to join him.

I did consider it; however, the bus was going very fast, and the road was bumpy with tight turns. Knowing me, if I was dancing, I would probably fall and break something. That would lead to my missing the Abba sail away. I just couldn’t do this. So, I sat still and enjoyed the music.

We returned to the ship in good time for the Abba sail away thank goodness. It didn’t disappoint and I had a great time.

Except we didn’t sail away. We had to wait until the Crystal Symphony left first. It had been quite the challenge docking the Sojourn this morning, and the captain decided that no way was he going to face the same issue leaving the port. So once the Symphony departed, we could let go our lines and sail away in the general direction of the Ivory Coast.

We had a lovely dinner in the Colonnade with one of the conversationalists, Terry Greenberg and his wife Yoko. Terry has quite the unusual background, and we enjoyed listening to his travels across Asia in his youth.

Then we went to see Steve Stevens. I think it must be very difficult to be a successful comedian on a cruise ship, you don’t want to be too offensive, but you do need to be entertaining and being a bit edgy does help. Steve does a great job. He is a very funny man, and I managed to stay awake for his whole show. That is unusual for me. Yes, it was another great day. Cape Verde has been a success.