Cape Verde

Cape Verde

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Carnaval

This is one of the few moments in my life when the number of things that I have to say are too impossibly numbered to say them. I've spent the past week on the island of Sao Nicolau in celebration of Carnaval, and after the dust has settled, I feel that I may need convincing that it happened at all. Everything about the past two weeks makes me think I couldn't possibly have been living my own life. When I booked my tickets two months ago to come to the northern island that we've endearingly nicknamed "man island," both for the *ahem* suggestive shape of the island and the fact that female volunteers are not sent there, I had a totally different vacation in mind. The only way I think I can feasibly write this is as a journal entry. Too many facts and thoughts to sort through, so do with it what you will.

The trip started with either a fizzle or a bang, depending on how you look at it. Coming from Fogo is difficult. We made it from Fogo to Praia, Praia to Sal, and then due to plane malfunctions that I'd rather not think about, we found ourselves stuck on the island that offers three things: salt, windsurfing and resorts. The airline had no choice but to get us rooms for a night, which included a fantastic free dinner with Portuguese wine, white sand beaches and a chance to explore the nightlife of the most Westernized island of this archipelago. After dinner and wine, we caught cabs to go to Santa Maria, which is the focal point of the nightlife and also the site of the most extraordinary stretch of white sand beach that I've seen in a long time, if ever. The night was an adventure that is too strange to explain, suffice it to say that we passed it by bar-hopping, befriending Italians in their gelato store, snapping photos outside of a dance club that is pirate themed, and stumbling back to sleep for a few hours before getting up to catch the flight. Luckily the flight was delayed and we were able to go back to Santa Maria beach to explore the beach, which is a hot spot for windsurfers. Definitely worth the delay, but we were ready to get to Sao Nic.





Our flight put us in Sao Nicolau in the mid-afternoon, but somehow in the brief skip of a flight the airline had managed to lose my bag. Just mine. It was the second time it's happened and I was partially convinced that it was stolen, so I stayed at the airport with a friend and drank enough to get belligerent before giving up and ensuring that we had extracted a promise that the airline would call me with updates. The next few days were comprised of two days of preemptive Carnaval, a day of rest, and then Carnaval proper. This is a difficult thing to do for days in a row, although I wasn't aware of that until afterward when all I wanted was the simple promise of not having to move. This was the first year that girls from PCCV had costumes made. I had ordered one, but given our delay in Sal I was unable to get it altered and didn't end up dressing with the girls. I also didn't have baggage, so I shamelessly borrowed sequined skirts and used a quirky Christmas bow as a brooch.

That night and the following consisted of parades, firework attacks, dragons, Optimus Prime, canary feathers, power cuts, dance clubs, tables thrown by angry Portuguese tourists, goat skins, Pirate beers, cheese runs, Freedom dog, pontxe and a multitude of things that wouldn't make sense even if I tried. So I'll try to sum it up in a few pictures instead:























Once Carnaval was over, we had one more day in Sao Nic. A handful of those who were left packed daybags and boarded a Hiace towards Taraffal, the beach-town where Nelson, a third-year volunteer, is living and teaching. It was beautiful, and we were able to see at least two, maybe three islands in succession in the distance over the ocean as the sun was setting. We played bocce ball and made some epic chili for dinner, which was the perfect way to wind down.







The last day we stopped for lunch in Cachaco, another PC site, that had gorgeous views and Dragoeira pontxe (dangerous) which is really only grog mixed with sap from the Dragoeira tree, which for all intents and purposes is fairly isolated to Sao Nicolau. We didn't have time to climb Monti Gordo unfortunately, but maybe next year.












So now it's back to real life, and I'm finding it a process to resettle into the normalcy that has been uprooted. A lot has changed, life won't be the same that it was before, which is both exciting and scary. But that's why I'm here, after all.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Zuk the night away

One of my favorites, enjoy: