Santo Antão

This island does not look like São Vicente: The mountains look younger and more jagged, but most noticable is the more plentiful vegetation. The south side isn't the verdant one, but as soon as the road from Porto Novo to Ribeira Grande, climbed up a bit from sea level the difference was obvious.

This road is well used, as the main town on the island is Ribeira Grande and the man port is in Porto Novo. But it seems like people drive sensibly, and the traffic was by no means heavy by my standards.

Santo Antão Views from the main road from Porto Novo to Ribeira Grande

At Porto Novo, we met with our trekking guide Joao, who otherwise lives and works on Sal. He was born on Santo Antão and his mother lives in the village Corda (last photo above), where we of course stopped by for a short visit.

The road down from the highest point, about 1200 m, does not follow the route I'd have thought most sensible; Down the sides of one of the valleys and then on to the coast, instead it kept the ridges almost all the way to Ribeira Grande, where it decended the mountainside. This is probably because the valley floors turn into actual rivers when it rains.

What was most stunning coming over to that side was that for the first time I saw any part of Cape Verde which could actually be called green. And sure enough, this is where most food produced in Cape Verde is coming from. Too bad it's not enough and food has to be imported from other parts of the world.

Cha des Pedras

We stayed one night in a hotel at Ribeira Grande, then it was off trekking. First towards the southwest in Cha des Pedras, "Land of Stones", on the floor of a valley. The road here was a gravel road, like on all dry riverbeds, but later in the day when it left the floor it was set in stones.

When it rained in September the road had been washed away. Two days after it had been restored in working order it rained again...

It was in Cha des Pedras I saw the first running water in the open in Cape Verde. The source was a well with a wind-driven pump and the water flowed in a small channel built into the side of the valley. There were a lot of irrigation channels like this in this part of Santo Antão.

Treking from one village, to another in another valley

North Santo Antão landscapes

Another measure having to do with water management are the high concrete wall built in the valleys. They're often 2 m or more high, but that's still not enough to keep the water from overflowing when it rains, but it does help in getting the water into the ground and the soil from being washed away.

Canyon in Cha de Igreija

During this trekking part of the vacation we stayed in homes of people renting rooms and beds and making dinner and breakfast for us. I'd been prepared for "primitive conditions", but I think the only hardship was that we were a dozen people who had to share a bathroom. And there wasn't electricity 24h a day, but so what?

In the days we trekked from village to another, in another valley. We soon found out that starting early is a good idea, in spite of not having to carry our luggage with us; It was every day taken by car to where we were going. And a good thing that was, as it was rather hot and steep walking.

Cruzinha da Garça

One of the crops growing there was sugar canes and one of the agricultural products grog and punch, which I thought were Swedish words, but apparently they're of Cape Verdian origin. The grog isn't much like Swedish grog, it's just distilled alcohol and tastes rather awful. Punch is made by mixing grog with sugar made from the cane's flower and actually is rather similiar to Swedish punch.

As a finale of this stage stage of the trekking we followed the trail along the coast, from Cruzinha da Garça to Fontainhas, where we were to have lunch and be met by the car.

The trail along the coast, west of Ponta do Sol

The trail is most of the 8 km built on the side of the cliff by building up to a level surface by placing stones on top of each other creating a flat surface and a wall towards the sea. The trail undulates up and down and sometimes decends to almost sea level in order to cross ravines.

Along most of the trail, human habitation is mostly non-existent, a small farm and a small fishing village is about all. Near the Fontainhas end the trail stops being easy to walk, as it first decends to the village Corvu, where you can see the ubiquous soccer field from above, then climbs up a hill, far down you can see the village Fontainhas.

Fontainhas

As flat ground is scarce here, Fontainhas is built on a slope, a ridge and over an overhang. A rather spectacular location, to say the least.

We weren't expected, but we could have lunch anyway. At just the right time, I thought. The drive from Fontainhas to Ponta do Sol (very aptly named, I might add, as the cliff had kept us in shadow all the walk, but the point was out of the shade) also went along the side of the cliff, but much higher up.

Paúl

The next town we stayed in was Paúl, on the north east coast. A very nice place indeed, with a character of its own.

Me

The car we travelled with on Santo Antão

The rest of the grouped walked down from the Cova Crater, to the village Passagem. I didn't think my knees would stand for that kind of treatment, so I followed the car with the luggage to Paúl and then up to Passagem to meet the others.

Ribeira Grande

These photos show how Ribeira Grande is situated on both sides of the wide dry river. The town is undergoing an expansion, as can be seen from the houses being built. The last photo shows some animal pens on the side of valley.

Next part: Boa Vista

Last updated 1998 Jan 21 by Urban Fredriksson