From North America to South America, making a detour to Cape Verde Islands.
On June 2019 I was for a few days in Chicago and had planned a quite exotic return to Buenos Aires, that would take me five days to complete. With several separate flight tickets that I bought on the internet, I created an itinerary not expensive at all and very interesting. In the next map it is shown the route of the trip, with a reference of each leg. I spent three days in the islands of Cape Verde and here, in this site, there is a brief overview of Praia, that is its capital and of an ancient town located also on the main Island of Santiago, that is called Cidade Velha.
The most attractive part of the city of Praia is the one called “Plateau”, that is precisely a plateau of approx. 700 m long and 300 m wide, that is raised about 150 m over the rest of the city that expands over the coast. In the “Plateau” are the municipal buildings, the cathedral and the governmental palace, dating from the time when Cape Verde was a colony of Portugal, situation that ended in 1974.
Itinerary:
1) Chicago – Boston with United Airlines in an Airbus A-320. 2) Boston – Ponta Delgada (Azores) with Hifty in an Airbus A-340-300. This was a very ancient chartered plane, painted all in white and with a license plate from Malta Island. In this flight, I spent the first night. 3) Ponta Delgada (Azores) – Praia (Cape Verde) with Air Azores in an Airbus A-321. In Praia I spent two nights . 4) Praia – Ilha do Sal with Binter Cape Verde in a turboprop airplane ATR-42. 5) Ilha do Sal – Recife with Cape Verde Airlines in a Boeing 757-200. Afterward, I spent one night in Recife. 6) Recife – Belo Horizonte with Azul in an Airbus A-320. 7) Belo Horizonte – Buenos Aires with Azul in an Airbus A-320.
All the flights were remarkably on time. The weather was good and it just rained (a lot) during the day I was in Recife. I traveled just with my hand luggage, because the suitcase I had in Chicago was carried to Buenos Aires by my son.
CIDADE VELHA
The Portuguese reached the Cape Verde Islands around the year 1455. It was the furthest region they ventured to, because of the belief that further south “the earth ends”. The interest for new conquests made Islands of Cape Verde a good base to start from there with new trips around Africa to reach India.
Cidade Velha was the first Portuguese town on the main Island of Santiago. The village was attacked by Francis Drake in the Century XVII and afterward by the Frenchs in the Century XVIII, practically destroying the lower part of the city and leaving the cathedral in ruins. Over the hill, behind the city, there is an impressive defensive fortress that is today well maintained and, in the coastal part of the village, the original houses are gradually being restored. The fortress has a perfect view over the sea and, on its back, there is an enormous slash in the earth (the Ribeira Grande) that protected the fort and the village from land attacks.
