Antarctic Cruise Day 12/40 - Mindelo, São Vicente Island - is it Cape Verde or Cabo Verde?

Antarctic Cruise Day 12 / 40 - Mindelo, São Vicente Island, Cape (Cabo) Verde Islands

Trip day: 12 / 40

Port days: 6
Sea days: 5
Countries: 3
Continents: 2
Ports: 3

Today, we find ourselves on São Vicente Island in the city of Mindelo, in the Republic of Cabo Verde.  Astute readers of our blog might notice that I called this place "Cape Verde" on the world cruise.  Since then, I've done some research and found this.

Since 2013, the government decided that the Portuguese Cabo Verde would henceforth be used for official purposes, and requests that the rest of the world respects this name change.

So, while most of the English-speaking world called it Cape Verde, they want to be called Cabo Verde, so I will do just that.

As we walked around, we ran into Valbona from our world cruise.  She was a terrific member of the shore excursion team on the world cruise and is now the Expedition Program Coordinator on the Polaris.

At breakfast, we caught up with two more of our wonderful crew from our world cruise, Merial and Bojan.

As we approached, we passed another cruise ship that was also inbound.

This morning, we did a little wildlife watching on the bow.  There were a bunch of shearwaters flying around, so I took the opportunity to take some photos.

Got the partial landing gear down

We encountered a flock of around 500 shearwaters

This one found some lunch - see the next several photos as well

We knew we were getting close as the pilot came aboard.

They also hung the local colors.  Cruise ships always fly the flag of the local country.

Our excursion this afternoon was a 4x4 tour around the island.  We were hopeful, but it turned out to be mostly the same as the bus tour we took the last time we were here, but with a much worse ride.

Here are some photos from the day.

It was a lot more green than our last visit - It turns out that the guide’s information that no rain had fallen in eight years was wrong – they get rain every couple of years and had rain this spring

Our fleet of 4x4s

At one point, one road was washed out and we had to turn around

A farming village

They said that 90-foot deep wells can provide fresh water

We drove down to a volcanic beach

Arlona - doing her water-touching thing

Arlona spotted this cool blow hole

We stopped at a local place for a local beer

We then walked to a turtle rehabilitation center that treats injured turtles.

All this sand is Sahara sand that blew over from the African mainland

Sahara sand and Arlona's hand

Thanks for the photo, Ardy!

An etched mural of famed Cape Verdean singer Cesária Évora

A mountain that resembles a man's face looking up

Our Viking Polaris

We arrived back at our ship despite the condition of our ride's "tires".

Seeing this reminded me of the flat tire scene from the movie, A Christmas Story:
My old man's spare tires were actually only tires in the academic sense. They were round, they had once been made of rubber...

When we got back to the Polaris, the culinary team had this waiting for us.

That's a fine-looking tuna

The local fishermen were bringing them up from the hold - thanks Andre for this photo!

We enjoyed another fine dinner at the World Cafe.

That's veal

We headed to our favorite spot in the Explorers’ Bar to listen to music, enjoy conversation, and work on the blog.  This photo is from a couple days ago, but you get the idea.  I’m writing the blog and Arlona is working on a photo book from our world cruise.

Thanks for the photo, Ardy!

While the tour wasn't perfect, we still had a great day.  We have now sailed and will be at sea for the next eleven days on the way to Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands.  So, for the second time this year, farewell, Cabo Verde.  It's been fun.