Last day in Boa Vista

Time went by fast. Today is our last day in Boa Vista. Actually we wanted to leave today but there is NO wind at all. So we will go ashore and fill up our fridge with fresh vegetables and fruits (so I can continue to work on Marcus' vitamin poisening ;-)) and leave tomorrow morning, heading for a Fogo with a stop over at a reef about 18nm from here, where Marcus can go diving and I can go snorkeling.
We had a great time here and met wonderful people. Our super, australian neighbours, Roger and Sasha had invited us for a marvelous dinner last night onto their boat Ednbal (THANK YOU GUYS!!!) and left early this morning heading for Sal. Such loveloy people. They have been on their boat for the last 6 years already and got lots of great stories, I put the link to their website into my linklist.
On saturday we had rented an "Aluguer" (car with driver) who drove us cross country through sand and over bad, stony "road" to the typical tourist sites, which are all beautiful: the beach at Costa boa esperanza, where you see the wreck of the ship "santa maria" on the beach (it has been ther for over 40 years), then to the Sahara-off spring desert "Desierto Viana" inbetween red volcano mountains and the famous bach "Santa Monica", which just has beautiful coloured ocean, gresat waves and about one million crabs on the beach. I really enjoy this island and could stay here and on the spots for a long time waiting for the right light to take pictures. Unfortunately we did not have that much time, since the driver was always waiting for us. Being the most easterly island Boavista is closest to the Sahara and thus can freely import fresh Sahara sand. It all comes from the east. They tried to build a wall on the east coast to prtect the town of Sal Rei but without succcess. The sand follows its own rules and wanders around the way it likes. But the basic material of the island is still volcano, which gives a beautiful mixture, the white really stands out against the red. Surprisingly as we drove around this desert island you see palm oasis. So there must be water sometimes. And the longer we travelled the more goats we found hanging out in the desert, some even walking through the sand (see in one of the pictures). Also we saw 3 cows and 3 donkeys, somewhere in the middle of nowhere.

To me this island is by nature very colourful. The changing coulours of the water in all dimensions of blue and turcoise, red - white - black sand, green trees and palm trees, black&white goats and cows, brown/black inhabitants and white tourists, colourful art....A peacful place I will not forget so fast.
Enjoy the last photo gallery from here.

Desert Viana

Caravan of 3 goats in the desert

The lonely goat

 "Desierto Viana"

Micha and the bird in the desert Viana

Marcus at Playa Santa Monica

Ilha de Sal Rei

 View from Ilha de Sal Rei to the Bay where our boat is

 Sunset over Ilha Sal Rei

Alita in our first beautiful sunset

The two mast boat "Chaumane" in the sunset. I had already seen it in Las Palmas.

For more pictures klick here:  http://sailing.smichah.de/#10.0

Have a wonderful week everyone.