A day in Mindelo

Last night we slept with complete knock outs as you can imagine after a trip with sleep phases of max. 2 hrs each. Even if you have your "sleep shift" of 4 hours, you wake up after 2hrs usually. If you're lucky you then get another hour of sleep. So we slept good last night. Amazingly enough that we did not wake up after 2 hrs.

In the morning we wanted to do our immigration and went to the big harbour office. On the way there we passed the ferry - landing station (for the ARMAS) and witnessed the de-loading of such a ferry. Many, many cars came down with fruits and vegetables. Many people were waiting at the street to see if they find work or get their share of the products which had just arrived. At the same time the local women sat down at the street to directly sell their new products (together with home grown products which they brought from the field). It was so interesting to watch the market style life there. Watch the people, the behaviours etc. You can see some pictures of a typical car (pick-up type) full of products for sale. But we had to go on to the immigration. So around the corner in the big harbour, on the back side of the passenger terminal, there were even more crowds of people. I couldn't help but get the feeling of hundreds of years ago when Cape Verde was THE central slave exchange station. When I saw all those people waiting at the secured gates, putting their hands and arms through the gates it gave this strange sight to me. Poor people with such a history. It was a scene you would not see in Europe anymore but which I had read in books of two cenuries ago, when trader ships and cargo ships came into the harbours and led to some chaotic, but loveable and lifely business trading, buzzing atmosphere. Goods and people being transported, young people looking for a job, everybody moving around, looking for something. Some for their goods, some for the customs police to declare their goods, some just board or deboard the ships. It all melts into one interesting atmosphere I had never seen before because I have never been in a place where people depend on the cargo by ships. In all this we tried to find someone for our immigration. But the office was closed. Afterhaving waited for half an hour one police men (from customs police) finally came up to us telling us that theimmigration office remains closed today cause the people are doing their immigration duties at the airport. If we're lucky someone might be here in the harbour office on monday. Now is not a (sailing) Tourist season, so the office seems to be closed a lot. We thanked the guy and took off.We wanted to go into town to see if we can find a ship chandler store, where we could get some parts for the boat, we needed a new rope. So we alked up and down the streets and I found it quite spooky. Few people on the streets,not many stores and most of them closed I again felt set back a centruy into an old wild west town with colonial style buildings, streets made of stones laid by hand (most streets do have asphalt in the middle, but remainders of old times are still there). We saw one store which was like a Wild West General Store. All interior made of oak wood, shelves up high to the ceiling (like in our old pharmacies), an old lady behind the counter wh would sell to you all you need - from pots and pans to body cream and food. Just the guns were missing.

Then there is their version of the "Casa rosada" (which you originally find in Buenos Aires, Evitas home), seems to be the government palace. Beautiful and not very big (see picture). On a side street we found a store of "ALDI" - astonished to see they have a dependance here - right across from a van selling Hamburgers - only that it was closed today. This ALDI here seems to be a wholesale store, focused on frozen food. What a coincidence it was named ALDI (one of the biggestlow budget supermarkets in Germany).

On the street a guy passed us who had a dog which looked as if it were a crossing with a pig. It had the nose of a pig. Marcus and I said the same thing at the same time.

When you look at the pictures you will see a photo which says "PIZZA". I took it because if you look closely at the place, you will see that this is a Pizza-truck cemented in to be a little house. Too funny. THey just took some stones to fill up the gaps e.g. at the tires and done, house constructed.

In the pictures your will also see some oldtimer cars. Interestingly they all have bright coulours and must have been painted recently. Ford, Opel, Mercedes and VW bug. All in great shape, upholstery etc. looked like new, especially in the mercedes. I also saw a bright red Renault 5 in perfect condition.

If you look at the houses you will often see them only half finished. New color on the front, pure stone on the side. Well, here people often build their homes in phases. So you never know when your nieghbour will add another floor to his house. And it would be a real waste of money and paint to finish the house on all sides ant then your neighbour builds up.

One funny picture I find is the house of the Realtor (Immobiliaria) (with a roof missing) right next to unfinished house with pure stone wall.

We also found a music school. A cute building. Most impressive is te painting on the wall besides it which shows black musicians, looks to me like Jazz type of big band or cuban style.

Right behing the pink government house was a very run down building. Beautiful architecture, I don't know if anyone still uses it, but it said to be a Pre-School. I also add a picture of a school (escola).

We had dinner at a different local restaurant, where again there was life music (I think you don't find a place without life music, but I enjoy it very much). We had grilled fish, very good. On the way home just before the entrance to the marina we hear some meldoy coming out of the water. We stood still and found the waves playing on the stones and shells of the littel beach as if playing on a Xylophon. Never ever had we heard seomthing like this before. Wingdings sound similar, too - the things you hang up and make music in the wind.

So I hope you got a little impression of life here. It is a different world from a long time ago. And yet you find many modern buildings and artefacts that bring you right back to our time.