São Vincente is the island that Mindelo Port and city calls its home. It is not lush, and is only green for a couple of its wetter months.
Today was the day to explore the island via small bus on one of the included tours put on by the ARC. A lot of the roads are cobblestone which I thought was an interesting feature from the ‘continent’ coming from this affro/carribean island that gained its independence from Portugal in 1975. Water is very scarce and for the island to survive, the larger towns are supplied by desalinators close to Mindelo. If you are not as lucky and are inland, then you would have a small ‘windmill’ that pumped fresh water from the volcanic soil for irrigation and household use. Poverty is seen everywhere though the locals I spoke to seem to be happy and very proud of their heritage, traditions and country. The average salary for those that do have jobs is 130 euros/month.
The bus trip around the island revealed: Large sand dunes that were being constantly replenished from the Sahara desert across the ocean over 500 miles away, a large shrimp farm, a few wind turbines, beautiful clean beaches with seaweed that didn’t smell and was so clean you could toss on a salad and eat, the ‘expensive’ part of the island (by their standards) where UB40 played a concert in 2018, a very high peak with gnarly twisting roads to get to where you could see everything on the island.
My favorite was the peak of the old volcanic cone that created the island as you could see the finish line for leg 1, as well as a number of other island forming the Cape Verde chain.
A small shack at the top of the peak, dimly lit, and served by a hermit, was reported to provide for a few euros some of the best tasting coffee in the known universe.
This evening was a mixer put on by ARC+ that had strong lemon punches and varieties of local food nibbles accompanied by a local band and dancers.
It’s good to be part of an event that supports and pumps money into under served economies like this.
Tomorrow is an early day with 0615 muster and a ferry to another island to explore.
Stay tuned 
