Discovering Cabo Verde

Disclaimer: this post was originally written in August 2019.

I was recently told that I was very lucky to travel for work, because it allowed me to get to know new countries. It is true that I am “lucky” to travel for work, but to that statement I replied that I had never discovered a new country thanks to work. For business, I had always travelled to countries I already knew.

However, that is not 100% true if we swap “countries” for “places”. When I worked at the Societe Generale bank in France (between 2006 and 2008... oh God, almost 20 years have already passed?! How?!), I went to Grenoble and Bordeaux in France (two areas of the country I didn’t yet know) and to Mannheim in Germany. So yes, I had in fact had those opportunities for discovery.

When the opportunity came up to go to Cabo Verde, beyond it being a very exciting professional project, I realised that it would also be the first time I would discover a new country through work.

The journey is short from Lisbon to the city of Praia: just 4 hours. The outbound flight is at night: we left Lisbon around 9pm and landed at about 11pm (there is a two-hour time difference).

Praia is the capital of Cabo Verde, which is an African country in Macaronesia, the name given to this group of islands in the North Atlantic (that includes Madeira, the Azores and the Canary Islands). Cabo Verde is an archipelago of 10 islands, and the city of Praia is located on the island of Santiago. That island alone has half of the country’s resident population, around 250,000 people. There are more Cabo Verdeans living around the world outside Cabo Verde than within it, due to a very strong diaspora, a consequence of the lack of infrastructure for studying and working in the country. There are islands that are more tourist-oriented to visit than Santiago, such as Sal and Boavista. However, companies and their headquarters are based on the island of Santiago.

A curiosity: a few years ago, the Government of Cabo Verde asked that the country’s name no longer be translated into English. As such, we can no longer say Cape Verde in English; it is always Cabo Verde. I think it is worth praising them for creating this rule to protect their country as an entity and as a brand. When I think about this, I realise how lucky we are that “Angola” is not frequently translated into other languages.

I arrived at the hotel around midnight and the following day I had a full day of work, during which we did an exhaustive visit around Praia to see the points of sale and offices of my company there.

At lunchtime, I went to my first restaurant in Praia, Chef Teresa. The service was very attentive and the food was excellent: I ordered what I wanted as my first fresh tuna steak, my colleagues shared an octopus rice, and we had desserts, which were too much, as the portions were very generous and really not necessary. I recommend the place which, despite being small, is beautifully decorated.

We went back to work and, at the end of the day, we went for a walk to Cidade Velha. This town is coastal and has a fortress that is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Nearby, we went to Hotel Vulcão, which has artificial pools and sits opposite a kind of natural pool with strong waves and clear water.

In the village (which is very cute), there is a historic church in ruins and a square where, in the past, the sale and transport of enslaved people to Brazil took place. We stopped at a very well-known local beach tavern to try a local snack, fried moray eel with a crisp Strela Kriola beer. It was very good!

After that meal, I was not hungry but as I wasn’t on my own and… in the evening we went out for dinner with the work group. When they asked me whether I wanted to go somewhere fancy or to a local favourite, I chose the local option, which was an outdoor tavern in the city of Praia.

I confess I didn’t even note down the name, and the photos came out very dark… We ordered fish skewers and mine was a tuna belly one. I had never eaten tuna belly before; it’s firmer than the steak, but very flavourful. This is where I tried cheese and wine from Fogo Island (Cabo Verde). I loved it!

The following day, another day of work, we took on the adventure of crossing the island of Santiago, travelling from south to north via the centre. The journey, which took between 90 and 120 minutes, really reminded me of when I crossed the island of Gran Canaria from south to north.

The island’s climate is quite arid (I was told it hadn’t rained for two years!) and mountainous. Halfway across the island, there are valleys and hills, monoliths and mountains. At the top of the mountain, there are trees and scenery that could belong to any northern country.

We saw some tourists hiking and climbing. In the centre of the island, we visited the small town of Assomada, which is quite lively, but it was just a passing stop for us.

In the north of the island, we arrived in paradise. More precisely, we arrived in Tarrafal. I had already heard about this place because it once had a concentration camp during the Portuguese dictatorship, but Tarrafal is so much more than that: it is a little paradise on earth, surrounded by a small mountain and a beautiful bay of clear, blue water. It was really my professionalism that prevailed. If I had been on a leisure trip, I would have gone straight into the water without thinking twice (confession: I was actually wearing my swimsuit under my work clothes, but I didn’t do it).

As I was leaving the beach, I ran into Susana, a former blogger who had since created the consultancy Bless in Lisbon. We met two years ago, when I went to a conference on feminism in Lisbon. There she was, eating “a croquette”, when someone came up to me and said, “Are you Jessica? I used to read your blog.” Susana has an energy I can’t even begin to describe. I was unbelievably happy to meet her ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD!

We had lunch at a restaurant called Alcatraz (which feels like rather poor taste, right there next to Tarrafal?) and the food was excellent. My colleagues went all in on a seafood rice, while I stuck to my perennial and wonderful grilled tuna steak. From there we went back to the hotel and continued working from there.

In the evening we went to an Italian restaurant. I really didn’t feel like it, I wanted to eat something local, but the majority wins! And since I was already tired of animal protein, I opted for ravioli with tomato sauce.

The following day, I worked from the hotel in the morning and then went for lunch with the team at the Beramar restaurant. This time, I had prawns and octopus as starters and, instead of choosing tuna again for lunch, I went for sawfish, very well served and well seasoned.

In the afternoon, I did an interview at a local radio station (which was very funny, as Cabo Verdeans speak Creole, so the interview was in Creole and I replied in Portuguese!) and gave a presentation about one of my company’s projects at an event. I was a bit nervous, as someone else was supposed to do this presentation and fell ill, so it ended up being me, but it went well.

The next day was very calm: I stayed at the hotel working, only going out for lunch with a colleague at Poeta Lounge (more cheese from Fogo Island and more local octopus. All wonderful!!!). At the end of the day, I went to a conference with my company. After the conference, I stopped by the hotel to pick up my bags and headed to the airport to catch my flight back to Lisbon.

As for the flights, I really didn’t like the aircraft on the outbound journey at all. I was in business class, but there was nothing “business” about it. I’ve already told you I have an issue with TAP’s executive class. But on the return flight… MY OH MY! Now this was it. I flew on a brand-new A321 Neo LR (long range), with fabulous décor and loads of technology for passengers. I was actually sad the flight only lasted 4 hours (it felt endless on the way out, and far too short on the way back. I wonder why?), because even though I had dinner and started watching a series (Sharp Objects), I fell asleep as soon as we took off and right after finishing my meal. That’s how comfortable it was. It was wonderful! TAP completely redeemed itself for me.

To sum up the trip, I spent four wonderful and very full days in Cabo Verde. I liked the country, its diversity, the people, the landscape(s), the food (I ATE SO MUCH FISH OMG!), my local team… and I felt sad that, as an African woman, I had only discovered Cabo Verde at age 32.

From the conferences I attended, the people I met, and the projects I saw taking shape, I felt an enormous pride in seeing a people facing so much adversity being so modern and so forward-looking. I only wish Angola would follow a similar path one day. Who knows!

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