Fogo rose steeply from the ocean, poking through the clouds ... approaching it after such a "frightful" boat trip was like reaching heaven on earth.
São Filipe was a cosy cobblestoned town with beautiful "sobrados" - classic Portuguese colonial architecture two storey houses, many of which had been restored ... (even though the ones which were falling apart still impacted the visitors) ... a few squares and esplanades ... bouganvillaea everywhere ... a promenade adorned with several busts of Portuguese governors of the island lining the cliff tops from which it was possible to gaze down to the black volcanic sands below of the town beach ...
A "papier maché " looking church - the late 19th century Nossa Senhora de Conceição church ... standing proudly as the centre of town activities ...
I visited the cemetry for whites, quite unusual in this part of Africa though understandably accepted on this island where the position of whites, coloured and blacks was clearly defined like nowhere else in Cape Verde. I then toured the island up to Monte Velha forested hills which are said to have more than 87 endemic species, five of which are exclusively found in Fogo.
I was impressed with the mountain slopes closer to the Volcano and the village of Chã de Caldeiras, where coffee is grown and where the lava is used as building material. Sat down with one of the many Montronds (descendants of the excentric French Duke who made Fogo his home in the 1870s) drinking the Manecon wine produced in this area and whose vines are said to have also been brought by him . Most of the volcano crater can trace their ancestry to this peculiarly fecund Duke.
I was mesmerised by the landscape views ... and the more I "absorbed" it all, the more I felt I was in a "heavenly paradise" ...
Most days were spent around the town of São Filipe, though on the last day prior to flying back to Praia I decided to go to the Ponta da Salina beach with its basalt rock formations and an ocean swimming pool surrounded by cliffs with a natural gateway ...
I didn't know then that three years later I would be going back to another corner of the island where I spent 6 days working along with the village women before participating in the well known festivities of Bandeira in São Filipe ...
Fogo will forever be in my heart because of the many interesting people I met and the acquaintances and friends I made, amongst whom was the deceased doctor and writer Teixeira de Sousa, whose books on the island I eagerly read ...
These photos have made me slightly nostalgic ... though that's not the image I want to keep of the island and my stay there ...
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