Friday 18 June 2010

Driving around Cape Verde ...


Driving around Cape Verde, if you haven't rented a car or have decided not to get a cab, can be quite a trying and tiring adventure ... but it also gives you some insight into what most Cape Verdians have to endure all day long ..., day ... after day ..., month after month ...

You can either get a ride on a "carrinha de caixa aberta" ... or if you are lucky enough on a Hiace ... , but what is more is the amount of time it can take you to actually go from one place to the other, because these drivers will only start the ride when the transportation vehicles are full of passengers, which can easily mean endless minutes driving around the squares,  stopping over at key places and even some backyard streets, whilst calling out for passengers ...
And then depending on the elapsed time, they speed drive along those routes towards the final destination, which is the only thing defined, together with the fare ...


Where they may have to stop to drop off passengers is freely  included in the "adventure" ...

What you experience whilst waiting is sometimes more than the eyes can take ... the whole bustling around the "stranded" vehicles waiting for the passengers ... is a cheerful  one...

Women walking back and forth ... selling all sorts of goods ...





Sucupira (photos taken from inside the Hiace which was to take me to Calheta de São Miguel).



Driving around Cape Verde can be a test to one's patience... and  one's endurance ... the patience we so easily lose in Europe, when the bus is delayed... and the endurance many of us will hardly have ...

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