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Reviews from VirtualTourist Members
PETROL MUST BE PAID IN CASH !
by DAO
If you want to hire a car or jeep and drive around – you need cash! Despite putting VISA Electron symbols all over their signs, the fuel stations only take cash for fuel! I learned the hard way after fuelling my car and then offering a Visa card. I then had to run about 200 meters to an ATM to get the cash. The realy stupid thing is that I could still have bought a chocolate bar and a cold drink inside for considerably less using my Visa card. Bizarre!So get your cash together before you drive off!
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Domestic flights
by cachaseiro
Between the islands you will probaply end up using planes at least once since the ferrys are very iregular and it's also a very rough ride.Cape Verde does have a very well functioning domestic airline system though, even if it is not the cheapest.
Ferry Crossing part 3
by grets
As we neared Furna – the small port on Brava – the sea would get a lot calmer. I could again stand up and even take some photos. The welcoming committee didn’t look too friendly though: five armed policemen lined up facing the boat. Is this the entire police force in Brava? I could see the pick-ups and taxis arriving at the dock gates, but they were not allowed to enter the dock area until the police had done their inspections. I was am not sure what they were looking for – they didn’t open any boxes or bags, more of a cursory glance. They stayed in that position during the whole time we were at the dock. Kristiana carefully untangled herself from the downpipe and got ready to disembark. Unlike when we boarded the ferry at Fogo, where there was a nice gangplank, here you just stepped on the railings and jumped. I have never been any good at jumping. Despite a couple of burly local lads...
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Ferry Crossing part 2
by grets
The boat was small and obviously intended as a cargo ship – there were no seats anywhere. We clambered around the back of the lower deck and found a couple of packing cases to sit on. There were three Germans and a small baby goat on that deck, apart from a few sacks of rice, tins of tuna and a huge bag of onions. The locals were sitting on the next deck up, on top of the luggage, or balanced on the railings. I couldn’t understand why they would want to be up there when there were plenty of boxes to sit on down on the lower aft deck. Little did I know. The weather was sunny and we were looking forward to a pleasant crossing. In the harbour was a couple of sailing ships, and the whole scene was very idyllic. We left the harbour and immediately started to be shaken about by the waves. The calm waters of the harbour were replaced by angry waves topped with sparkling white horses, and the...
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Ferry Crossing part 1
by grets
Qualitur had arranged to pick us up from the Belavista at 14:00 to take us to the port for the 15:00 sailing to Brava (from Fogo). By 14:15 we decided that maybe they’d forgotten us, so decided to phone them. The mobile phones didn’t appear to work (although I’d been texting England regularly), so we asked the lady in the hotel to ring for us. A few minutes later a representative turned up in a taxi, appearing a little flustered. She made many phone calls during the short journey – we later found out that it was to the ferry company to ensure they didn’t leave without us. We were blissfully unaware of the situation at the time and just sat back and enjoyed the ride. From the approach road we could see a ship waiting to enter the port, so we weren’t unduly worried about the timing. The ship looked quite large and comfortable, and as it hadn’t even arrived yet, we would obviously not miss...
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TACV
by grets
There are two ways of getting to Cape Verde from the UK – charter flight with Thompson or via Lisbon with TAP (Air Portugal) and/or TACV, Cape Verde Airlines. We chose the latter, mainly because of the cost. TACV have a bad reputation for reliability, something we would become extremely glad of on our outward journey. We were able to check in on line for the first leg of the journey (from Heathrow to Lisbon on TAP) the day before our departure date, but for some reason TACV wasn’t able to issue boarding cards at that time. The situation was the same when we checked the luggage in at Heathrow, and we even tried again at the gate, but were still unable to print boarding cards. We left Heathrow 90 minutes late, which despite gaining some time on the flight, meant we arrived 15 minutes prior to the departure time for the next flight, an impossible task without a boarding card. We were...
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Boat to Santo Antao
by co48
During our visit to the Capeverdian islands, we also liked to visit Santo Antao. From Mindelo every day are 2 or 3 boats, departing to Santo Antao early in the morning.It was not easy to get the right information about getting tickets, allthough we tried to find out the day before at the port and the hotel.In the harbour we found out, that for the boat -we came for- we had to get the tickets in town. We had not enough time to go there, but we were lucky to catch another smaller boat for which one we could buy a ticket at the ticketoffice in the harbour.At the moment of boarding we saw there was also an third boat, which one looked really old !
Go around by plain
by co48
Most people arrive at the international near Espargos at Ilha do Sal. So we did.With small planes of TACV you can fly between most of the islands. Sometimes the planes fly in time, sometimes they are a little late.But from Santiago to Sal the plane once had a departure of three hours earlier. Because we didn't get the message, we missed that plane.
Cobble-stone "highways"
by stigel
Except for the island of Sal (which receives by far the most tourists) almost all of the roads in Cape Verde are cobble-stone. Some say it is the longests network of such roads in the world, one thing is for sure - it makes driving S L O W and noisy. Allow lots of time for excursions, especially if going by minibus. A road improvement program has been under way for a long time and things are slowly getting better!
Ferry Porto Novo-Mindelo
by sachara
When we left Santo Antao the busdriver drove us to the office in Porto Novo where we could buy the return tickets for the ferry to Mindelo.A Capverdian man was very helpfull to get the tikets for us.In the background of the port you can see the other island Sao Vicente.
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