Cabo Verde
If you are unfamiliar with Praia, Cabo Verde, you are not alone. From my journal, 4/19/2025: “I had never heard of Praia when this voyage was being planned, and today I am going there!” Located on the south coast of the island of Santiago, Praia is the capital city of Cabo Verde, an independent African country consisting of 10 volcanic islands.
Cabo Verde lies in the Atlantic Ocean 320 nautical miles (370 miles) offshore from Senegal, the westernmost nation of mainland Africa. Despite its diminutive size and remote location, Cabo Verde has played some outsized roles in human history. For one, Cabo Verde was for centuries the first stop for slave ships leaving Africa bound for Brazil, the Caribbean, and the United States. That didn’t end until 1876.
Built-in street shade!
Cabo Verde (that’s pronounced “kab(u) vaiɾd” if you’re wondering) is also a cradle for hurricanes. As our guide told us, “We make them here.” Every year, the predominant trade winds shift as Earth’s axis tilts toward a new season, and weather fronts begin to clash along the Equator. The rotating tropical depressions we see on the Weather Channel tend to develop near Cabo Verde and build into hurricanes on their way across the Atlantic, often wreaking havoc on the western hemisphere.
Pillory Square structure used to make examples of people taken as slaves...
“Banana Street” in Cidade Velha
Fun Fact #1: If you stitched the islands together, they would total 1,557 square miles, about the size of Rhode Island. But if you flattened all the mountainous, volcanic terrain, it would be about the size of New England! [Source: Stephen Cunha, geographer and NatGeo educator]
Mother’s Day services in Cidade Velha
Portuguese explorers discovered and colonized the (uninhabited) islands in the 15th century. Cabo Verde was a colony of Portugal until it gained full independence on July 5, 1975. After some growing pains, the people of Cabo Verde established a stable, representative, multi-party democracy in the early 1990s. There is a president who is the head of state and a prime minister (appointed by an elected National Assembly) who is the head of government. The president is elected by popular vote for a five-year term, renewable once. Cabo Verde (population 595,000) is part of the 55-member African Union.
Djandjan showing produce at the market on Fogo
Fun fact #2: “In October 2013 the government requested that the Portuguese version of the country’s name, Cabo Verde, be used as the ...official name when it was rendered in other languages; previously, the ...country’s official name had varied by language—such as the widely used English translation, Cape Verde. [Source: https://www.britannica.com/place/Cabo-Verde]
A historic government house on Fogo
We visited two Cabo Verde islands. Our stop in the capital city of Praia included visits to historic buildings, followed by a bus trip around the island. A must-see stop was Cidade Velha, the “old city,” which was the first colonial town built in the tropics by Europeans (15th cen). The cobblestoned slave marketplace, Pillory Square, still includes a 16th century marble pillar that figured harshly in the treatment of enslaved people. It was chilling to see, even in the relative peace of their Mother’s Day morning. Events happening up at the church were more light-hearted, and included lots of very cute kids dressed up for the occasion.
Look at the immensity of the volcano!
We then steamed overnight to nearby Fogo, which is still recovering from a volcanic eruption in 2014. Tectonic activity below Cabo Verde has for many millennia moved these islands across volcanic ocean-floor features called “tectonic hot spots.” While the oldest islands have had enough time to move along, now nearly eroding away, Fogo offered ample evidence of fresh volcanic activity.
A house overrun by lava...
Our guide was the loquacious Djandjan (pronounced “John-John”), who sported a robust Boston accent. (The diaspora of Cabo Verdeans sometimes exceeds the local population, and he had returned after several decades in New England.) The island is, actually, one giant volcano with a crater whose radius is 22 miles across and a half mile deep. In fact, only two-thirds of the volcano is showing; two thirds is submerged. It is crazy-big.
The edge of the lava flow...
When it erupted in 2014, lava from Fogo took out the village of Portela, and we were able to see where the lava flow ended. It was vivid! The soil, though, is nutrient rich, so people are planting and rebuilding again—and we were able to taste some delicious products from their local vineyards. Djandjan told us that the island is the hottest in the country because it is still hovering above the tectonic hot spot. We also learned that volcanic “ash” is not light and flaky, but instead more like tiny pebbly material that is very heavy and gritty!
This shows the re-start of a vineyard on Fogo
Grafting a peach tree
One fascinating element that occurred in many places we visited on this journey (Cabo Verde plus the Canary Islands, Madeira, and the Azores) was what happens when moist ocean air bumps into land. Again, from my journal: “Clouds, creeping over the high points, stay close, like a panther on the prowl. It’s beautiful.” Stay tuned for more!
[Note: joining me on this trip was my brother. If it interests you to read his “take” on the journey, see his website at sheepdogguides.com/tr/atlan25/atl-itin0.htm]
