We were told that the tourism infrastructure here is limited and we did prepare ourselves for this by taking our time and not rushing to get off the ship at the 8:00 clearance time. To our pleasant surprise as we left the ship at just after 9 that the shuttle service to town was not only operating but was with many buses, we were expecting long and hot line ups. We jumped right on the shuttle as it was right at the gangway and as we departed it in the centre of town, Alberto, an english speaking representative was able to orient us with the city as well as direct us to taxis offering tours. Carol Anne and Storm were already into these discussions as we came by and they asked if we would like to join them. In short and at the end of the day we had a wonderful six hour tour offered by our 29 year old taxi driver, Chalana for about 25 US each ($100 in total). He was excellent as he spoke some English and seemed to know roads on this island like the back of his hand, I am not talking about just the roads here but where each pothole was and which cobblestone path to follow. Each time he heard Jan's camera click he slowed down or stopped or in some cases reversed so she could get the picture she wanted. Carol Anne mentioned about visiting a market in Assomada, no problem. Chalana took us from Praia along a very picturesque inland road the extent of the island to Tarrafal, a fishing and resort town about 35 kilometers away, he then returned us along a most beautiful coastal road to the Old town of Cidade Velha, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We had a just a great day here and maybe we just got lucky but we think their tourism infrastructure is just fine.
One funny story as we were getting out of the taxi to pay, you may remember the nightmare taxi drivers in Salalah, Omen last year, well we thought we were going to get into this same discussion when we gave Chalana the $100 in small bills (BTW- Carol Anne and Storm also had the same type of experience in Salalah as they were there on the cruise with us), so Storm and I braced each other as Chalana said that this money was no good by saying, no, no, no this will not work I need 2 50 (remember his English was not that good). We said no we agreed to $100, what do you mean, this is all you are going to get. He said, no this will not work I need 2 50's. And this went back an forth for a minute until we all realized that what he was saying was that he needed two, fifty dollar bills as the US currency here causes him problems at the bank in that he must pay a commission for each bill he exchanges. We adjusted the number of bills the best we could and gave him a tip big enough to cover the commission exchange problem. We had a bit of a laugh about it and mentioned that the cartel of taxi drivers drivers in Salalah have ruined it for all taxi driver, perhaps if we have a few more positive experiences like this one the Salalah one will eventually go away from our minds.
Hope you enjoy our pictures of the day...
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