The adventure continues . . .

Monday March 5th

>We spent the day mostly hanging out and buying tickets for our evening boat ride. That and visiting the incredible grocery store, which was just nice to walk around in and admire things (although we had nowhere to cook, it was nice to imagine being able to cook).

>The afternoon brought about quite the translating affair, when we had an argument over how much the bill was going to be. After staying at a pretty crappy hotel, they wanted to charge us extra for each person (which they had told us on the phone they would not be doing) and more than the amount agreed to on the phone. It took a lot of work and a lot of help from the nice guy at the desk, but we finally managed to get them to the price posted and not charge us for extra people stuffed into a room. It made things a great deal cheaper, and taught me that you really have to stand up for what you think you deserve. It felt ludicrous to be ignored as a customer, and that they felt like they could just charge us more because we were Americans. It's funny coming from Senegal where you bargain for just about everything, even over small amounts. I wonder how I'll deal with that back in the states . . .

>After our triumph over the hotel bill we went out to some delicious Chinese food! For some reason or another there are a ton of Chinese in Cabo Verde, and they all own shops, which all sell the exact same things- cheap clothes, random objects, shoes, bags, dishes. It's very odd to walk by five stores that literally all have the same merchandise. I shopped, but couldn't find anything that suited/fit me. Everything here is just far too tiny! They are like Brazilians in their sense of clothing sizes- the smaller the better. Anyways, dinner was awesome, and we had quite the time ordering Chinese food in Portuguese. It was a very fun dinner and another way in which Cabo Verde has a huge mix of cultures.

>We had to head back to the hotel, where we had left our bags for the day. Despite the arguments, they let us keep our bags there, which was amazing of them, considering that they saw us as a huge hassle. We swung our bags on and hopped into cabs, and were on our way to the port, eager to get on our boat. In no time we learned how travel within Cabo Verde really works. In reality, you hang out for a while, look at your mode of transportation, occasionally putting your backpack on in hopes of getting on. Instead you watch as they try to ease livestock into the cargo of the ship, people mill around, and no one seems bothered by the fact that you were supposed to get on the boat at 11pm, but don't until aroun midnight. But that was fine, because it just meant that we were really ready to fall asleep by the time that we were actually on. The inside of the boat had a lot of benches with tables, so we each grabbed a bench, and fell asleep as quickly as possible. Easier said than done because a few of the passengers decided to watch TV during a good portion of the trip. Regardless, I got a little bit of shuteye and was all ready for the adventures awaiting us on Fogo.

Tuesday, March 6th

>It was wonderful waking up to the island of Fogo after a somewhat turbulent ride between the islands. We got in early, around 8am, but there were plenty of cab drivers there waiting for us to take us up to the town! We immediately asked for cafe, and were taken to a great restaurant which has a view right to the ocean, with a huge balcony and great views, where we proceeded to set up shop for a few hours. We didn't really have anywhere to go, so we used the restaurant both for the food (some delicious Cachupa, a breakfast of eggs and beans, it's better than it sounds) as well as the bathroom for a place to change and get ready for our day.

>Around 11 or 12 we left the restaurant in favor of the beach and found exactly what we were in search of- a black sand beach! Since Fogo is a volcanic island, the sand there is all black. It was hot and sparkly and a lot of fun, and practically deserted. It was a slight trek to get down to the beach, so the closest that people got was from the cliff high above. We did have some spectators (being six females on the beach) but were left alone for the duration of our time, which was a great change from being in Senegal, where no matter what beach you are on, people will come by and try to talk to you and sell you things. At our nice beach (I won't call it little, not by any means) we had plenty of calm for reading, writing and playing in the waves.

>Once we realized that we couldn't stay forever, and still wanted to get to the base of the volcano, we packed ourselves up, and headed back towards town in search of a ride up to the inside of the crater. Much to our total surprise, we met a lot of English speaking people, all of whom come from Massachusetts. Apparently there are a lot of Cabo Verdians who come from the US back to Cabo Verde and set up a comfortable life for themselves back on the islands. They have communities in the US, mainly in Mass and Rhode Island. It was a total shock, but very helpful to all of us to get our help in English. Not to say that it isn't a cultural experience to try to communicate in the local language, but sometimes your own language speeds things up a lot more.

>Silly me for thinking that things would be sped up at all by doing it in English. We were still on Cabo Verde where things move at a slow pace, so we chilled at Tiago's Ice Cream shop (which only had one flavor since they boats were taking their sweet time with their shipment from the US) while we got things set up for a car ride. Eventually we had a car, loaded up our bags, and began the long and windy road up to the town of Cha (pronounced Chan) where the base of the volcano is. You have to get there in order to hike because you are supposed to start your hike early in the day, at around 6am, so its better to stay there rather than try to get a ride up to the top that early.

>Once in Cha we met up with Tiago's sister in law Carmen (or Zu, depending on who you talk to). Up in Cha, everyone is related to everyone, and they all have relatives that live in the main town on Fogo, Sao Filipe. This has a lot to do with the fact that the men in Cha take as many wives as they want. Tito, Carmen's father, was on his seventh wife, who was 22, to his seventy odd years. Tito has around 29 children, or thereabouts. Another interesting factor is that there was a French tourist a few years ago (not sure how many) we impregnated quite a few of the women, and as a result a lot of the younger gereration has blond hair, but not straight, caramel and not black skin, and hazel eyes. It's really quite striking.

>We managed to learn this, because shortly after meeting up with Carmen, we came across Sam, a recent college graduate who is in the Peace Corps in Cha. He was very shocked (and pleased) to have six American girls show up on his doorstep, and proceeded to be a very good friend and a helpful informant for the rest of our stay.

>Carmen help to set us up in a nice local Auberge, where we got a great deal that included breakfast, and we would be able to get good meals there at a good price. Just our kind of place! We dropped our bags and headed out with Carmen to her father's house, to meet him and taste some wine. In addition to a volcano there is vineyard space up in Cha where they grow and make their own wine, which is very delicious, very strong (14% I believe) and very good. We also got a taste of the amazing homemade goat cheese, which was to become a good friend and diet staple over the next few days.

>Satisfied after that good tasting, we went back to our Auberge, walking under the most amazing stars I have ever seen. There is no nighttime electricity in Cha, unless the generator is on, so the stars at night are so phenomenal you can't even find the constellations there are so many of them! We couldn't stay out for long though, since we had to have dinner and head to bed early in order to save up energy for the hike ahead of us.

The story of the hike and more, soon to come . . .