20241208 Seabourn Sojourn Grand Africa Cruise Day 13/96 - Mindelo, São Vicente, Cabo Verde

Grand Africa Cruise Trip Day 13/96 - Visit #3 to Mindelo, São Vicente, Cabo Verde

Cabo Verde, Cape Verde. What is the difference? Cape Verde is the English version of Cabo Verde. But, in October 2014, the Republic of Cape Verde officially changed its name to the Republic of Cabo Verde and Cabo Verde is the preferred name. I choose to say Cabo Verde.

Cabo Verde is an archipelago of 10 volcanic islands in the central Atlantic Ocean. The small country sits roughly 350 miles off the coast of Western Africa and is a member state of the African Union. Today is our third visit to Mindelo, and even though the tour description sounded a bit different from other tours that we have done, it was an exact duplicate of the first tour we did here. We drove up the 744-meter Green Mountain, stopped to walk in the Saraha sand the wind deposited here, walked on the beach, and visited a turtle rehab hospital. 

Here we go...

As we walked past the ship, it appeared that someone on the Bridge was having a fun day

We drove past the marina on our way out of town.

Along the way, we had to wait for a group of passing goats to clear the road

We drove up Monte Verde, or Green Mountain, a 744m peak overlooking Mindelo. The road up (and down) is rough, narrow, and steep. It is everything that a nervous person would hate. We had some of those on our bus and they faced inward as the look down was unnerving.

After a brief stop atop Monte Verde, we headed down the mountain toward a stop at some natural dunes formed by Sarahan sand blown here by the strong winds off the mainland.

The volcanic nature of the island is on display wherever you look

Our guide treated us to a sample of the local liquor - an 86-proof  grog distilled from sugar cane.

The awful taste was well-complimented by the fire in the back of our throats

We stopped for a few minutes to look at a local beach. Unfortunately, the turtles were not in season.

Those that know Arlona, know that she has to touch the water.

I could see what was coming - Arlona, obviously, did not, but she sure felt it

We continued to a small turtle hospital where injured turtles are rehabbed and released.

Two big ones...

...and two little ones

Every time we come here, Arlona looks for shells

Found some!

This is one of those places where you can just watch waves all day long

The rocky volcanic landscape makes for great breakers and nice sounds

From here, we headed back to Mindelo and our ship.

A farm with the lone working windmill on the island

The outskirts of Mindelo

There are murals all over the place

A mural of Cabo Verde's most famous singer, Cesária Évora - it is carved into the wall rather than being painted onto the wall

I think this sculpture is new as Google Lens couldn't identify it

Our Seabourn Sojourn

Captain Hamish Elliott, welcomed guests back to their home away from home

We had a nice lunch from The Colonnade, eating outside on the back of the ship. We continue to meet more interesting folks and today was no exception. Then, we returned to the suite to relax for the afternoon.

We went out as we were preparing to sail and took a couple of photos of the interesting landscape in the area.

The mountain looks like a face looking skyward

A Hershey's Kiss island or a poop emoji island?

We went up to the Observation Bar on Deck 10, where the bartender, Djan, shook and stirred simultaneously.

After hanging out for a while, we started heading to The Restaurant for dinner. Along the way, we met friends we made on the journey and ended up sharing a table and a couple of hours of conversation with them. It was a terrific evening.

We're sailing the short distance to Praia on Santiago Island for our second Cabo Verde visit tomorrow. While it won't be a new country for us, it will be a new port, so we're looking forward to seeing new things. We have a seven-hour excursion that we booked through GetYourGuide, an independent tour company that aggregates tours in cities all over the world. It should be fun.

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.