Santo Antao
After a 600 mile, two-day downwind run from the Canaries, dawn greeted National Geographic Explorer as it entered the 10 mile-wide strait between the Cape Verde islands of Sao Vicente and Santo Antao. These are the westernmost of the group of islands that make up the Cape Verdean Windward chain of Cape Verde and the strait can often be fearsome with strong winds and high seas. But we docked without problem at Porto Novo, the largest town and only anchorage on Santo Antao, to begin our day’s activities: hike and return drive with picnic lunch or all-day drive with several stops and a mid-day meal at a small local hotel. Guides, mini-vans and two Peace Corps Volunteers met us on arrival.
Santo Antao rises 5000 feet out of the sea and its volcanic peak is the second highest mountain in the Cape Verde archipelago. Like Gomera in the Canaries, Santo Antao is full of remarkable contrasts with green vegetation of every tropical sort on the north side differing greatly from the arid and desert-like landscape of the south which is broken only by occasional acacia trees struggling for survival. Measuring 30 miles by 20 miles, Santo Antao has a series of mountain chains running from the northeast to the southwest and the deep ravines and valleys offer some of the most breathtaking vistas in the world. We split up into groups to follow our respective programs using the minivans. Clouds which covered the mountain tops promised rain which was eagerly awaited by the local population.
The hikers took a half-hour drive and then started a long descent into the valley of the Ribeira of Paul. Rain began falling in earnest and mists and clouds hindered distant views but the variety of flora and fauna was spectacular. The lower the hikers went, the more beautiful and profuse were the waterfalls which happen so rarely on the island. The Cape Verdean sparrow, endemic only to the islands, was identified and photographed. Remote villages were passed and hospitable Cape Verdeans gestured to the hikers to come into thatched huts to get out of the rain. Several streams had to be forded before the luncheon rendezvous point was reached. It was a great adventure.
We were then joined by a local town mayor and entertained by our Cape Verdean guide who gave a poetry reading of self written verse which extolled the virtues of Santo Antao. Our drive back to National Geographic Explorer in Porto Novo followed a narrow cobblestone road along the ridge line of the mountains with occasional drop offs of several hundred feet on both sides of the road.
By sunset, we were at sea again en route to Fogo.
