Cabo Verde, where is that?

Not many people know where Cabo Verde is. When I told my friends that we are moving to Cabo Verde, they all asked the same question: Where is that? 

To be completely honest, I just recently learned where it was. Thanks to Mr. Google, everything is just a click away.

Cabo Verde is a country located in the Atlantic ocean, west of the west coast of Africa. It has ten islands and it was a former Portuguese colony. The official language spoken is Portuguese and the daily conversation is carried out in Creole.

For a brief moment, I hesitated. What will I do there? I don't speak Portuguese. I love my job and my friends here in Canada. Moving? Again? Gosh!
I took a glance of the pictures provided by Mr. Google and I gasped with admiration of the blue turquoise beaches.
Why would I say no to a new adventure? An exciting life of the unknown?

Long story short, here we are.
We settled in nicely in the island of Sal, named because of the salt mining back in the old days. Unfortunately it was mentioned as the least attractive island of all islands in Cabo Verde. Trip Advisor said to skip Sal and better go to other islands instead. The beaches are beautiful. More beautiful that the pictures provided by Mr. Google. But that's it. The rest is pretty basic. Really nothing special here but the sun, beautiful beaches, abundant fresh fish and good weather all year round.

The weather is pretty similar to Indonesia, minus the humid. Sun, sun, sun. Sal is the sunniest island of all with 360 days of sunshine in a year. Because it's flat, it barely rains in the island; which means, it's also pretty dry. Brown is the colour of Sal. When we got here in May, it was really windy. Apparently we got the wind from the Sahara desert. It was so windy sometimes it was painful to go to the beach. The wind blew the sand and it hit you like thousand small mosquito bites.

After a month or so, we get to know some shops and restaurants. Fresh fruits and vegetables are difficult here. They have to get it from the other island. Things that available varied and there is no such thing as one stop shopping here in Sal. You have to get to know what each store has. Creating one meal might means a few trips to different stores. Each time we go out, it seems we find new store with new things in it. The other day we found a little Italian shop that sells Parmagiano, and we were so happy like little kids that we had spaghetti with Parmagiano cheese. Amazing how in this place we find happiness in simple things.

Have I mentioned that the streets have no names? Yeah! That's why it's difficult to memorize where the stores are sometimes, along with what they have. Still, I look at this as an adventure.and I have the perfect man to share this experience with. The most important thing in life is to be with the person you love; and I plan to make the best out of it.

Santa Maria Beach

Fishermen's boats

A typical day at the wharf