December 11, 2022, Mindelo, Ilha De São Vicente, Cabo Verde

As written in our blog back in 2014: First discovered in the 1450’s. Sao Vicente was uninhabited until the 18th century, when the Portuguese built a colony here, which grew as a provisioning station for ships crossing the Atlantic for the slave trade. After a hundred year drought devastated the island with most of its inhabitants dying or immigrating, the British formed a colony here in Mindelo in the 19th century and used it as a coal station at the height of the steam ship era. Today the population speaks a local Creole language which combines Portuguese with several African languages and makes their living by fishing and in the tourist trade. Mindelo retains the influences of the past, from its Portuguese architecture to the British afternoon tea.

As noted we visited here for two days in 2014 and enjoyed the city highlights on the first day and then an extensive taxi tour on our day 2. Again and similar to Praia, the city is well organized for tourists where a prior tour arrangement is really not necessary. Both at the gate and where the shuttle drops you off there are representatives from tour and taxi companies that offer reasonably price half and full day tours. With us now in the final stretch of this amazing African journey, we just spent a relaxing Sunday here in Mindelo.

We left the ship at about 10am and were off the shuttle 15 minutes later, drop off was close to the replica Belem Tower is. A few camera clicks later and we headed to the closed Municipal Market (for some pics) and then to the local church. Jan had a bag of lightly used clothes for donation, she wrote a note on the HAL bag and left them in a corner pew. We then strolled past the People’s  Palace on our way to really the highlight of the day, the National Centre for Arts, Crafts and Design ( De Art Tradicional).

The collection of the National Centre for Art, Crafts and Design (CNAD) and its history bear witness to the path taken and the results achieved by the now extinct National Craft Centre (CNA) since the 1990’s. Having been the first cultural institution created in Cape Verde after its independence, the CNA served as the basis for the construction of the craftsmanship’s network and of the visual and aesthetic identity in Cape Verde, characteristics that still play a fundamental role in leveraging the future and in the creation of new national languages. The CNAD is located on the heart of Mindelo and in one of the oldest buildings in the city. Known as Casa Senador Vera Cruz (house of the former senator), this house served as his residence but when they needed a high school, he offered the city a part of his home. It was also used as military headquarters, recreative club, radio station before the now CNAD project, originally created in 1976. Then in 2019 the CNAD started the rehabilitation of the century old Casa and the construction of the new cultural facility, designed by scratch by Ramos Castellano Arquitectos. The architecture of this new building is defined by its metal facade. Harmoniously composed of colourful drumheads, it represents the social, cultural and symbolic context that the metallic barrels brings to the islands, loaded with goods and stores of the vast Cape Verdean diaspora spread worldwide. We saw some these barrels first hand on visiting the market in our previous port. The plasticity and poetics of this building go even further: in the diversified palette of colours that compose it, lies an encoded musical score by musician and composer, Vasco Martins. Each lid colour represents a note and thus the score. I’m sure this is available online somewhere. At a entry fee of 5 Euro, this viewing is well worth it and although many of the descriptions are not in English the staff there are ready and willing to interpret these. Plan on a good hour here and watch the opening times, closes between 12:30 and 3pm.

Finishing our loop today we continued to the beach to dip our toes in the water for the last time  here in Africa. We were back at the ship by about 1:00pm. We had a fabulous sail away this afternoon with complimentary wine and cheese party on the aft pool deck. From 4-5:30 the Ocean Bar played and the wine flowed as we pulled in our lines for the last time, to the tune from Toto, appropriately, Africa. We had about 750 guests enjoying the festivities. We are now five days at sea before we visit our last port, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Time to start thinking about luggage.

Pics of our day and sail away, hope you enjoy.

Quote of the day, “Travel is not reward for working, it’s education for living.” - Unknown 

First other cruise ship we have seen in months.



















The church where Jan made her donation.











Jan explaining how Canadians and different than Americans.