Sometimes even Paris is less than perfect. It's cold and dreary in December and January, so we decided to go to someplace warm and sunny during the Christmas holidays. The closest such spot was the CapeVerde Islands, 280 miles off the coast of Senegal, a 5.5 hour plane ride from Paris. We booked a spot in a resort called RIU Hotel Touareg. We had both come down with bad chest colds, and we just managed to get ourselves packed and to the plane.
When we first arrived, we saw a lot of desert, hills with dry erosion. The small town of Rabil, near the airport (with 1 unlighted runway) was clearly not prosperous.
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| Town of Rabil |
Eventually we saw this place in the distance:
We checked in, and I took this shot from our hotel room:
The resort carefully created a oasis in the desert near the ocean (the Atlantic). It was warm, sunny and an easy spot to do nothing at. I spent the first day in bed recovering from my cold. After that, we spent our time, at the pool, having meals, wandering around the complex and walking on the beach.
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| Chuck at lunch |
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| The adults only salt water pool |
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| Main hotel pool |
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| One of 4 dining halls |
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| Looking out to the ocean (note the waves) |
We were not supposed to go in the ocean because the sea was really rough, but we did anyway. Below is a shot of just how much surf there was.
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| Waves breaking on the beach |
We spent one day out with a tour group in a pair of 4x4 trucks to see some remote parts of the island. The tour was given in German by our host Frank. Other than us, the rest of the tour group were Germans. However, we could understand most of what Frank said, and our fellow travels were kind enough to speak English when German failed. First we visited a pottery school in Rabil.
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| entrance to the school |
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| forms for making pottery |
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| Vases |
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| lots of little turtles |
The school uses an outdoor wood fired kiln, and makes items from pre-molded forms from clay around the town. They paint bisqued pieces with acrylic paints as they do not have the means to create glazes and fire them.
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| Candy in Desert |
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| Valley near Rabil |
Next we visited the Desert of Viana. Boa Vista gets only 10 cm of rain a year (about 4 inches), so much of it is parched. Some sections are large dune areas, in the interior or near the beach, due to wind patterns. However, there is a valley where there is some green retained from the rains.
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| Chuck in Desert |
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| View of the desert of Viana |
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dunes of the Beach of Chaves
We also visited the long coastline of Santa Monica, which has many wonderful views.
The local fauna on the left is a sand crab. Most are small, but this fellow is big and edible!
Our day ended with a lovely lunch in another very small town. The food was wonderful, not expensive but our standards, but more so by local ones. Our host made the whole visit fascinating and as was his motto: no stress! Below are Chuck and fellow travelers at lunch, and our host Frank.
On the last day of our stay, I took this parting photo from our room in the early morning:
All in all it was a restful and sunny way to spend a week!
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When we first arrived, we saw a lot of desert, hills with dry erosion. The small town of Rabil, near the airport (with 1 unlighted runway) was clearly not prosperous.
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