Fogo & Brava Islands, Cape Verde
In the early morning we anchored offshore of Fogo Island in the southern part of the Cape Verde archipelago. We rode Zodiacs ashore to the small port of São Felipe where we boarded local buses to explore the island. Unlike the heavily eroded and steep mountain slopes that we experienced yesterday on the Island of Santo Antão, Fogo’s volcanic slopes are younger and rise gently in the form of a classic volcanic cone. Fogo is the most active volcano of the Cape Verdes, with regular eruptions throughout the historic colonial period continuing to the present, most recently erupting in 1995. As we drove along the mountain’s verdant slopes, we passed terraced farmlands of corn, beans and bananas all green from recent rains. Fortunately, for us, today was dry and sunny as we ascended to the rim of the crater. For the local inhabitants, the recent rains have brought welcome water for their crops on this otherwise dry island that has a history of periodic droughts and resulting famine.
At the rim of the volcanic crater we suddenly encountered a very barren landscape of tumbled A’a lava. After pausing for photos, we drove out across the floor of the caldera, an area known as Chã das Caldeiras, among cinder cones and jagged lava rocks forming a strange lunar landscape. Within the crater is the small settlement of Portela, where the local people greeted us warmly as we arrived for a visit, and wandered the town’s one main street. Children laughed and played in the street, as the townsfolk were hauling fodder for their livestock, washing clothes or repairing their cobblestone streets.
Heading back down the slopes of the volcano, we returned to the ship for a late lunch, and got underway for the neighboring Island of Brava. Along the way, we were joined by a large group of pantropical spotted dolphins leaping all around the ship. At Brava, we went out by Zodiac or kayak along the island’s rugged southern coast, and some chose to swim and simply loll in the warm waters as red-billed tropicbirds flew to and fro, calling overhead.
