Travelin' Road Show: 05/24/14

Saturday May 24th Mindelo, Cape Verde

Interesting statue in town

Typical Mindelo street

Local vegetable market

Eels in the fish market

We docked at 8.00 am and wandered into town at a about 9.00. A beautiful sunny day with just enough breeze to stop us roasting. The walk into town was about 15 minutes. It is a very compact town and has a distinctly European flavour, (Portuguese) with small streets and delicious wafts of freshly baked bread. Wandering around enjoying the ambiance of the town we found old churches, markets and cobbled streets. We visited the fish market and saw many varieties of fish and shellfish that we didn't recognize, including big basins of huge muscles from conch shells. In a small park we found free WiFi and spent some time checking emails etc and a quick skype to our friends in UK who were online, but reception was too weak to actually hold a sensible conversation! Exchanged some US dollars at a hotel and used the money to buy some wine for our room. Grocery store had a neat system...put your bags in a locker at the front take your key and go shopping...then get your bag out as you leave the store. We re-boarded the ship and spent the rest of the afternoon sunning and reading and enjoying a cold beer.

These come out of huge conch shells

While we enjoyed our time in Mindelo, it is not a place we would consider going for a longer vacation. It is quite remote and there really are not too many things to see on the island. Having said that it was a pleasant port to visit, and it did feel much safer than the previous West African ports.

Conch -- waiting to be emptied

YUK!!!

In the fish market

The ship is constantly running out of many things and there is a distinctly mutinous atmosphere brewing as they continue to run out of wines, spinach, bok choy, prunes (oh no!!!! Disaster!!!) and there are no longer any decent beers (other than Guinness) on board! There are no sliced pears and we suspect that All Bran supplies are teetering on the endangered list!! There are many grumbly rumblings among the passengers (not just the result of too many prunes). To top it off... No entertainment in the theatre tonight other than a movie which is also scheduled for the stateroom TV tomorrow!

PLEASE!! I love fish!!!

Hanging out with a statue downtown

Famous navigator who came here

Great bas relief on wall of nightclub

This is the longest cruise that we have taken and on the smallest ship we have ever sailed on... There are advantages and disadvantages. The entertainment isn't as varied as on the bigger ships and the general population is a little older. However it also has a much more personal feel to it as you get to know the crew and many of the passengers better due to the length of cruise and the size of the ship. (Only 600+ passengers vs 2000+ on the bigger ships) and you get to ports the bigger ships cannot consider. We have been joined at our dinner table by an Australian couple and their daughter. We seem to always have a good laugh and thoroughly enjoy their company. They have cruised more than we have and are currently on a contract working in Shanghai for a few years, so we have lots to talk about and more than a few laughs along the way. Our next port of call after a couple of days at sea will be Tenerife in the Canary Islands, where we spent our honeymoon .... almost 43 years ago... Time flies when you are having fun!