Cabo Verde

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We left Brazil on the 20th and then headed north. We had 5 days at sea. During this time we continued with the quizzes, having moderate success and I kept going to choir rehearsals. In between there was food, drinks and music. However, 2 significant events took place. On the 23rd the whole ship celebrated St George's Day. Our trivia that day was around famous Georges while it was formal night with very British food.The concert was celebrating famous British artists such as the Beatles and David Bowie. The dancers and singers were very good. On the 25th, they held a special service for Anzac Day, not at dawn, but they did it very well. Most of the senior members of the crew attended and the resident vicar conducted a respectful ceremony. They even gave out Anzac biscuits as we left. The trivia that day was themed around Australia and NZ which we should have won but the table of Aussies and Kiwis just pipped us.
We arrived in Cape Verde yesterday morning, very early. We only had a short while there, leaving at 2pm. My glasses had snapped and were being held together with sticky tape so it was my mission to try and get them fixed. A shuttle bus took us from the ship to the waterfront in Mindelo. We found an optical store and I enquired about repairing my glasses. The lady told me they couldn't do it but gave me directions to another place that could.We wandered around the streets for a while until we found it. They had no English but understood what I needed. I waited about half an hour while they disappeared into the basement. Finally a man came back and in halting English explained that because they were titanium, they couldn't be soldered.However, he suggested I could buy new frames to fit the lenses and he would put them in. This we gratefully accepted. Fletcher was shown by the man's brother to the nearest ATM as their credit card machine would not take mine. After another 30 minutes or so I had a new pair of glasses!!
After that we had a wander along the streets and back to the waterfront. Most of the buildings were well kept and the people were very friendly. There was a street market, literally on the footpath with freshly cooked fish and vegetables were displayed. We stopped at a bar for a cold beer and there they did not want our cash, we had to use a card!
Then it was a short walk to the shuttle bus. On boarding I bought a T shirt a street seller was peddling. So a happy end to a successful visit.

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