Sorry this is a day late. I've been struggling with my equilibrium, balance and motion sickness which just got pushed over the limit yesterday and exhausted me. Two sea days now, fingers crossed for a restful recovery. Here goes.
Unlike Captain Birger Vorland, we'd been to Cape Verde before. Now you aren't supposed to call it that anymore, it is only to be called Cabo Verde. It is still the chain of 10 islands off the coast of Senegal. So, we'd only been to Praia on Santiago island before. Today we anchored off Porto Novo on Santo Anato island. We arrived as predicted in the dark before sunrise. The captain waited until after sunrise to drop anchor. We were in a good swell and wondered, with others, why there'd been no talk of passing this port if there were swells. It turned out the dock ashore was well protected as well as having a floating dock. Not so much at the ship but that is another story.
Pasted below is our day's tour description.
EXCURSION $129
A GLIMPSE OF PARADISE
Explore the island of Santo Antão on this
full-day outing. Drive along the coastal road to Paul Valley, and go for a
30-minute walk through the lush valley. Visit a local distillery and taste the
grogue, then go to Ponta del Sol for lunch. Enjoy free time before continuing
to Ribeira da Torre.
LEVEL
MODERATE
WALKING TYPE
MEDIUM
DURATION
7½ HOURS
Meet your guide at the pier, board the minibus,
and drive along the new coastal road before heading inland to Paul Valley. The
panoramic views are beautiful on this remote tropical island, with craggy
mountainous peaks rimming the top of a volcanic crater. Arrive at Paul Valley
and take off on a 30-minute walk in this unique landscape.
Head to a nearby distillery next, and enjoy a
tasting of grogue, the local spirit of Cape Verde. This potent rum liqueur is
made from sugar canes pressed in a special trapiches. Learn about the
production while sipping the sweet elixir.
Off to the village Ponta de Sol next, on the
northern tip of the island. Enjoy a traditional lunch at a local restaurant,
then satisfy your sweet tooth with a pastry from a local baker. Drive to
Ribeira da Torre next, one of the prettiest spots on the island. Enjoy some
free time to explore and take some photos.
Afterward, enjoy a beautiful drive along the
coast back to the ship at the pier.
This excursion is not wheelchair accessible.
Guests must be in good physical condition and able to walk unassisted. Guests
should wear casual clothing, a hat, sunglasses, and sunscreen, and wear flat,
comfortable shoes. Guests can expect to walk for 30 minutes over flat and
uneven terrain. The order of sights visited may vary.
Things went a little differently than described, they went a little sideways. It was still a day of spectacular landscapes. Our particular tour had about a half dozen or more large vans. Our one guide and no escort covered vans number 8 and 9. Our van number 8 had 7 passengers and a driver and the guide. Van 9 stayed with us for the guide and had 6 passengers and a driver. Our 2 vehicles left first and drove to a high point out of town before stopping for introductions and a map viewing with tour outline. I swore I heard him say he'd have us back to the dock at 7 pm. The last tender was 5:30 pm. I asked Clay, who didn't hear that but agreed it was a 7 hour tour. No one else reacted except when he talked about a "climb" for the 30 minute walk. There were 4 people in the front half of our van that had personally reserved seats for handicapped passengers and I think he got the idea pretty quick that this crowd wasn't climbing much less even walking. As the day went on, there was balking at even getting out for photo ops. If it wasn't lunch or a toilet, don't bother me prevailed in our van. Anyway, at one of the view stops, the guide pointed out the ridge top opposite and pointed out it was in cloud and as it was where he'd planned to climb we'd have to cancel it. A small cheer arose from the party in the other van. Clay & I were the only 2 from our van who were outside and listening to him.So we were on what must have been the longest, snakiest cobblestone road in the history of construction! All but about a 15 kilometer section along the coast was cobblestoned, with that one short section "new road" paved and with 2 tunnels. There was no sign of civilization or even a living plant or animal along that stretch which begs the question of the new road. When we stopped to see the rock quarry where all the cobblestones came from the guide told us each cobble in the road cost 1 Euro. The road itself was mindboggling from the scale of the project to the engineering of it. We'd been mentally factoring the lifetimes the project must have spanned. Now we're thinking of billions of cobbles and it must be the most expensive road ever built.
So we drove for hours on this rough, twisty, narrow and dramatic road. When it got past noon and our 2nd toilet stop with no mention of grogue or lunch (and we'd recently headed in the opposite direction from our lunch town) I insisted to Clay for the 3 or 4th time that the guide thought he was returning us at 7 pm otherwise he couldn't complete the tour. Clay agreed to ask him privately. When Clay asked him, he took out his itinerary printout (which I didn't see) and insisted it said, end at 7. We assured him the ship was scheduled to sail at 6 and all aboard was 5:30 pm with the last tender. Clay told him to get his phone out and call someone to check. I went to stand in line at the toilet and Clay soon joined me. The others were grumbling about how they needed lunch. Clay told them about the guide's misunderstanding. One woman angrily told us that we were wrong and it didn't matter when we got back anyway because Crystal would not leave without us aboard. Huh? The guide came into the small shop then where he agreed there was a misunderstanding and rounded up everyone to argue that they all needed to pay for using the single toilet. We drove hard and fast after that for the remainder of the day which ended at 5pm. We drove straight backtracking to Ponta del Sol. We arrived at a new harbor front hotel restaurant where all the rest of the van's had already eaten and they brought out a last 2 pans of fish and chicken before busing the tables and buffet as we finished the leftovers alone. Fifteen minutes after we got there, they started shutting down. If we hadn't said something when we did, I guess we'd have arrived too late for lunch at all. We speedily raced back up the Paul Valley about half way to our 2nd toilet stop (the guide said he'd been on the way to a coffee farm when he pulled over at the shop for a requested toilet break) where we'd earlier passed the Grogue factory/shop/tasting room. We got an abbreviated tour and tasting and then raced at highest speed with no more stops to the port. It was a long strange day. We were too distracted by the amazing landscapes to worry much. It was cold in the morning crossing the mountains at altitude in the clouds and warm and sunny on the coast in the afternoon. The north side of the island is in severe drought without rain for 3 years!
In other news, Reflections says each passenger will be reimbursed to shipboard account $25 for unused port charges at Ascension Island. In our long and varied cruising history, we have missed more than a few ports but never have we had a reimbursement for the port fees/taxes before. So, another first.
Lastly, it seemed like a long day but in fact it was only 23 hours! We had our first time change in the forward direction. We didn't like it. Good we've been traveling mostly westward until now so we had all extra hours and not lost hours. It is mostly eastward traveling for the remainder of the cruise.
Which brings me to the last piece of mail we got yesterday. Our disembarkation travel documents. The letter was dated March 27, so I guess they held it a couple of days before delivering it. Our luggage tags are blue 5. That means we are to be in the Galaxy Lounge at least 15 minutes prior to 10 am on April 8 in Monte Carlo. Our luggage has to be outside our cabin between 8 and 11 pm on April 7. I guess they think as long as we've been embedded in these cabins that we should have lots of notice of preparing for our departure.
Photos
