Cape Verde Islands Travel
Tourism culture and History tour to Cape Verde island

Cape Verde Islands overview

The islands of the archipelago of Cape Verde is characterized by mountainous and barren, almost lunar, and a windswept coast. Its desert landscape shows a great beauty and serenity, and some of the islands have lush vegetation. There are good opportunities to practice scuba diving and hiking and a lot of quiet in which they lost. The Islanders are a melting pot of influences, African, Portuguese, Mediterranean and Latin resulting generated a typically Cape Verdean ethnicity. Organized tourism has gained a foothold, but Cape Verde is still independent and is kept intact

Cape verde best time to travel

The best time to visit Cape Verde covers the months of August to October, when the weather is nice, but the wind is blowing strongly throughout the year, so it is necessary to bring some warm clothes. The cold is the predominant note the rest of the year

Cape Verde Holidays


Sao Tiago (San tiago ) Cape Verde Holidays

The archipelago's main island, São Tiago, is home to the capital, Praia, one of the two cities in Cape Verde. Although not considered the most beautiful (this distinction is Mindelo), is a pleasant site, with its center perched on a rocky plateau known as silver. The town is surrounded by a more modern area which extends in three directions. The two beaches of the city, Sea and Beach Quebra-Canela is located west of the downtown area.
Cidade Velha (Old City), the first town on the island built by the Portuguese, is located about 10 km west of Praia. You can reach it from the capital and spend half a day. The actual ascent to the fort of São Felipe, offering fantastic views of Cidade Velha. About 20 km from Praia, inland lies the town of Sao Domingos, located in the agricultural valley closer to the city and has a number of craft shops. At the northern tip of São Tiago is situated the second largest population of the island, Tarrafal, famous for its beaches. To get to it there is a bus from Praia.

Sal - Cape Verde Holidays

This flat, desert island, where is the international airport, is one of the favorite destinations of the trips organized for Europeans who want to enjoy the tropics without mixing with the locals. The town of Santa Maria provides accommodation for tourist groups, is 18 km from Espargos, the most important town of the island. Those traveling on their own should contact Espargos, where it is easy to find a Pensão  (board) or a restaurant. There are daily flights between Sal and Praia, and it about twice a week leaving Salt passenger vessels that connect the two islands.

Sao Vicente (saint Vicente )- Cape Verde Holidays

São Vicente is the second largest island of Cape Verde. Hosts the most vibrant city in the country, Mindelo. It is likely that the vessels that pass through its port, the larger of the archipelago, influencing the enormous energy that holds the city. There are  plenty of bars and nightclubs, and its offer are the best restaurants in Cape Verde. The quaint colonial houses in most cases consist of two floors with balconies and shutters. Several daily flights linking Praia and Sal, is also covered in a ferry route

Santo Antao - Cape Verde Holidays

North of São Vicente Santo Antão appears, one of the most beautiful islands. Has the largest area of vegetation in the archipelago and is one of the few wooded areas. Inside, undulating and verdant, stresses above the villages of the island is a paradise for hikers. There are three weekly flights between Santo Antão and Mindelo (or São Vicente), city where you can connect with planes that are aimed at Praia. Also a ferry sailing between the island and Mindelo, the trip lasts about an hour in both directions, but even in this short stretch of the sea state may appear agitated.

Brava - Cape Verde Holidays

Brava, west of Fogo and only three hours by ferry, is the smallest of the inhabited islands. Mountainous landscape and offers a sublime and some of the best hiking trails of Cape Verde

Cape Verde activates

The many mountainous islands of Cape Verde provide good opportunities for hiking. One of the best places to do a short walk is located in the leafy hills of the interior of the island of Santo Antão. Between trips to highlight the ascent of the mountain Ribeira Grande, about 10 km south of the city of the same name, on the northeast coast, covering a full-time between the rise and the return). Brava and Sao Vicente also offer some excellent routes

Cape Verde History

Cape Verde's history is marked by three crucial facts: First, the arrival of the Portuguese when the islands were completely uninhabited, and secondly, the increasing fragility of the environment over the centuries, largely due to impact and excessive cultivation, and thirdly, their geographic location, as it is the African country most distant from their continent and closer to America. Not surprisingly, it has been developed according to different parameters for the rest of Africa.
In 1456, when Portuguese sailors first docked in Cape Verde, the islands were not inhabited but abundant vegetation. To contemplate at present, it is surprising to imagine that once were sufficiently broad to allow the Portuguese to return six years later to São Tiago and founded Ribeira Grande (now Cidade Velha). Immediately brought slaves from the coast of West Africa to undertake the thankless job. The islands became a point of call for slave ships to cover the journey from Europe to America.
Prosperity also led to undesirable effects such as the sacking by the English in 1586 Sir Francis Drake. Cape Verde continued in Portuguese hands and continued to prosper, but in 1747 the islands were the first of the droughts that have affected them since. The situation worsened with deforestation and excessive cultivation, which destroyed the vegetation that provided moisture. Three severe droughts in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries led to the death by starvation of over one hundred thousand people during this crisis, the Portuguese government only sent help. In the nineteenth century the decline of the lucrative slave trade meant another blow. The splendor of Cape Verde had vanished.
In 1832, Charles Darwin made a stopover in the islands, finding a dry and desert islands. During this period, many Cape Verdeans emigrated to New England, a popular destination because the abundant whales in the waters near Cape Verde, and in 1810 whalers from Massachusetts and Rhode Island, United States, they recruited a crew in the islands of Brava and Fogo.
In the late nineteenth century, with the emergence of the transatlantic, the position of the islands, crossed by several sea lanes in the Atlantic, made it an ideal location for resupplying ships fuel (imported coal), water and livestock. However, continued drought and the Portuguese government did not provide any aid. During the first half of the twentieth century, many thousands of people died of hunger.
Despite the abuse they suffered in their city by their lighter skin tone, the Cape Verdeans were easier than other Portuguese possessions. A small minority received education, Cape Verde was the first Portuguese colony with a school of higher education. At the time of independence, fourth of the population, compared to 5% in Portuguese Guinea (now Guinea-Bissau), was literate.
Education provided the knowledge of the struggles for emancipation on the continent and Cape Verdeans began a movement for independence with the natives of Guinea-Bissau. The Portuguese dictator Salazar was not prepared to lose their colonies, and that since the early sixties, the people of Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau fought in one of the longest wars of liberation in Africa.
In 1975 Cape Verde became independent from Portugal. However, the drought continued, one of which was to last almost twenty years. Although in the second half of the eighties enjoyed a more benign climate and produced two crops a year, and lasts a long drought in the nineties necessitated the urgent dispatch of food from outside. In 1991 the first elections were held multiparditistas; For the newly formed Movement for Democracy (MPD) achieved 70% of the votes and formed a new government under the leadership of Prime Minister Carlos Veiga and António Monteiro as president. Both were re-elected a year later in the first sponsored elections under the new constitution.
In the nineties the slow economic growth caused by drought led to the division of the MPD, and a tránsfuga founded a rival party. However, the MPD was able to once again win the general elections in 1995. In 1997, a very severe drought killed 80% of grain crops on the islands. A year later, Prime Minister Veiga survived a plane crash in which one of his bodyguards died.
In the recent parliamentary elections and elected a new prime minister and president, with a return to the left. The African Party for Independence (PAICV), which had ruled the country, is again in power

Cape Verde Culture

The influences of Portuguese culture are much more obvious that Africa, although this assertion is relativise on São Tiago, which has a large population of African origin. The majority of Cape Verdean Creole is, about a quarter of African descended.
The Portuguese is the official language but also speak Creole, a Portuguese Creole Africanized. Despite its small size, Cape Verde has produced a wealth of literature. The works written prior to independence focused on liberation and, in most cases, were written in Creole. After gaining freedom, the theme was broadened to address the mass migration caused by the Americans (who left Cape Verdeans in America) and racial discrimination. Some writers, such as Dambar Kaoberdiano, continue to use the Creole, others if Onesimo Oliveira, using the Portuguese, the dominant literary language.
Cape Verde has a wide variety of musical styles. One of the most popular is the rhythmic Funana, a dance popular in Praia and other cities. The morna is known as the national song, slow, minor key and melancholy, while the coladeira is a dynamic dance and music festival. The country's best known artist is Cesaria Evora, the barefoot diva, "which interprets the traditional sounds of the islands.
Capeverdean cuisine is mainly based on Portuguese cuisine, but with some local dishes. One of the most unusual and delicious cake is the devil inside with a mixture of fresh tuna, onions and tomatoes wrapped in a dough made with boiled potatoes and corn flour, very fried and served hot. Soups are also popular, one of the most common is the fish soup (fish stock), to which are added vegetables and spices, and thick with cassava flour. Other enlisted specialties such as bananas (bananas wrapped in a fried dough) and the breadth of conservation (a mixture made from sweet mango) are greatly appreciated.
About 80% of the population profess Roman Catholicism. In 1975, the year of independence, the church remained as the major landowner in the country. Land reform has reduced its possessions later, but still holds great power.

Cape Verde islands map