Praia, Santiago, Cape Verde
The opening pages of Charles Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle are a pretty accurate account of what we saw and did today. He came ashore here in January 1832, most eagerly we must assume, since Captain Fitzroy had not allowed him ashore in Madeira, he had been quarantined at Tenerife and had been continually seasick since leaving Plymouth. He describes the arid landscape around Praia and the swathe of green that meets the sea at Ribeira Grande. Like us he looked down from the fort on the remains of the old city - still known as Cidade Velha - noting the remains of the old cathedral and marveling at the apparent oasis of the valley below. We inspected the fort, its size a testimony to the wealth in slaves that was being protected in the city below. For this old city was the first European city anywhere in the tropical world, a place from whence slaves, obtained on the adjacent mainland of Africa and seasoned on the Cape Verde Islands, were transported to the plantations of the New World.
There were no inhabitants on the archipelago when the Portuguese first sighted them in 1460, the year of the Infante Enrique's death. Better known in the English-speaking world as Henry the Navigator, he had sponsored expedition after expedition along the coast of west Africa, voyages that would culminate gloriously by the end of the fifteenth century in the Portuguese establishing a sea route around the Cape of Good Hope to the Indian sub-continent. By the end of the following century the island had attracted a raid by the English privateer Francis Drake who surprised the garrison of the fort above Cidade Velha by attacking it from the rear, after landing his men on the strand from which Praia takes its name.
Proudly independent since 1974, the country survives its arid climate with ingenious water collection units making the most of occasional rainstorms and by a massive program of afforestation. We had visited the produce market in the morning and were impressed by the freshness and variety of the fruits and vegetables on sale. Our birders had set off in pursuit of the endemic Cape Verde Purple Heron, a rare brown bird that breeds in a single tree. It had left the tree for the duration of their visit unfortunately but could be found in the Post Office adorning a new issue of the country's colorful stamps.
The opening pages of Charles Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle are a pretty accurate account of what we saw and did today. He came ashore here in January 1832, most eagerly we must assume, since Captain Fitzroy had not allowed him ashore in Madeira, he had been quarantined at Tenerife and had been continually seasick since leaving Plymouth. He describes the arid landscape around Praia and the swathe of green that meets the sea at Ribeira Grande. Like us he looked down from the fort on the remains of the old city - still known as Cidade Velha - noting the remains of the old cathedral and marveling at the apparent oasis of the valley below. We inspected the fort, its size a testimony to the wealth in slaves that was being protected in the city below. For this old city was the first European city anywhere in the tropical world, a place from whence slaves, obtained on the adjacent mainland of Africa and seasoned on the Cape Verde Islands, were transported to the plantations of the New World.
There were no inhabitants on the archipelago when the Portuguese first sighted them in 1460, the year of the Infante Enrique's death. Better known in the English-speaking world as Henry the Navigator, he had sponsored expedition after expedition along the coast of west Africa, voyages that would culminate gloriously by the end of the fifteenth century in the Portuguese establishing a sea route around the Cape of Good Hope to the Indian sub-continent. By the end of the following century the island had attracted a raid by the English privateer Francis Drake who surprised the garrison of the fort above Cidade Velha by attacking it from the rear, after landing his men on the strand from which Praia takes its name.
Proudly independent since 1974, the country survives its arid climate with ingenious water collection units making the most of occasional rainstorms and by a massive program of afforestation. We had visited the produce market in the morning and were impressed by the freshness and variety of the fruits and vegetables on sale. Our birders had set off in pursuit of the endemic Cape Verde Purple Heron, a rare brown bird that breeds in a single tree. It had left the tree for the duration of their visit unfortunately but could be found in the Post Office adorning a new issue of the country's colorful stamps.
