Blogs from Santiago, Cape Verde, Africa

Dear All Greetings from Cape Verde, country number 76! And what an amazing country this seems to be. Cape Verde consists of a group of nine sizeable islands, and countless smaller ones, stretching out in a semi-circular archipelago in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. My impression so far is only of its main and largest island, Santiago, and based on this first impression, these are bleak, desolate and actually quite stunning islands surrounded by an ocean of impregnable blue. They are spectacular, and they have come as a very welcome relief from my travels in Africa. I have certainly enjoyed traveling in Senegal and The Gambia, they have offered new experiences and it has been pleasurable exploring a region of the world I’ve not yet set foot in, but in all honesty the two countries ... read more

21 February, 2012 Tarrafal, Cape Verde In all my years, I never saw that patched up green wooden door open Until tonight. Curiosity was going to make this a late evening. Indented into a wall of orange rock and unpainted mortar piled high enough to block from view all beyond it save for a lone palm with a diadem of blinking red, orange, yellow and green lights woven into its crown. There has never been anything notable on this quiet street in this quiet coastal village on the northern tip of Santiago island. That is until tonight as the door has swung open. Just below a single bulb over the door jamb reads a hand painted sign "5al Pedra & Cal" and from the surrounding shadows hard soles and heels scuff the cobblestoned streets making towards ... read more

Idiosyncrasies of unknown origin conjure against the possible football-culture binomial. It seems that in the modern western traveler cosmogony the world is divided in two groups separated by waterproof doors. On one side of this imaginary partition find place those brainless football lovers who eat meat, drink beer and listen to cheesy songs. Incapable of thinking to anything deeper than a corner kick, they sits just opposite from the liberal traveler who wear the kefiah, listens solely to ethnic music, eats tofu and has never served mess. And definitely doesn’t take any interest in football, bourgeois fetish for excellence. I usually fit better in the second group, but when big football events approach, I transform myself in one of those many slaves of the television whose only worry is about the possible lack of TV ... read more