Praia is on the island of Santiago, one of the nine islands that make up Cape Verdi. Diogo Gomes discovered Cape Verdi in 1460. Portuguese is the main language spoken here and the currency they use is Escudo which trades at about 100 to 1 to the US dollar. We enjoyed a great day here back in April 2014, see the back blog for those details, but back then we went straight for a fantastic taxi tour, today we explored the wonderful heart of this city. We jumped on the shuttle at just after ten and were dropped off at a great vista view point close to the city centre on the Plateau. From here you can easily walk to the pedestrian street a few blocks away or and this is the beauty of Praia and how well organized and friendly they are, they have an organizer there that could guide you to a taxi tour. Now don’t miss understand this, they are very friendly and not, in your face pushy, they will show you what they can offer you and then the price is actually very reasonable for the taxi tour. I can’t say how much it is today but back in 2014 it was $50 USD per couple and about 5 or 6 hours. The bonus at the end was that there was no price readjustments, we saw a lot and had a great driver.
For us today, we chatted with the organizer and let him know that we had previously done their taxi tour and were looking forward to visiting the core of the city today, no problem, enjoy. Off we went first visiting the statue of the Gomes who, as mentioned earlier, discovered Cape Verdi, then a walk by of the president palace before visiting the main park and then strolling the four block long pedestrian street. Within the first block we came upon the Municipal Market which are always very interesting to visit. Kate and Albert brought along some washable markers and HAL chocolates to give to children, this was very fun as their eyes lit up when they were able to choose the colour of the marker. Once all the markers were gone it was time to hand out the chocolates. Kate was on the look out for children with their parents to make that giving these out were okay, lots of fun watching the interactions.
Once we came to the end of the pedestrian street we went left for a block and down several steps to another local market, Sucupira Market, this market had everything that one needs for everyday living, socks, shorts, t shirts to a fish market area and many fruits, vegetables and spices. Yes, baskets and many souvenirs. This open air, under the trees market, went on for about a one block to two block area, if not more. This was a great way to spend a Saturday.
We then went back a slightly different way to the pedestrian street and took a moment to hear some local music before heading back to the shuttle bus and then to the ship. Again, a nice relaxing day here in Praia.
Some pics of the day, hope you enjoy…
Quote of the day, “Blessed are the curious for they shall have adventures.” - Lovelle Drachman
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