Cape Verde

My colleagues and I spent relaxing days in the island of Sal, Cape Verde. We were flying there in the beginning of the first decade of the years 2000. One way flights to Angola, straight from Texas, were too long so Cape Verde was used as a stop for refueling, catering and crew changes. At the time, the plane was not yet modified to do the 16 hour flights in one shot. Cape Verde islands, strategically located in the mid-Atlantic Ocean about 450 kilometers (300 mi.) off the west coast of Africa, provided a great break for us. We used to stay two weeks each month there, flying turns to Luanda, Angola. The island of Sal is level and very dry. At the time, few new hotels were built by the beach, but there were not hoards of tourists around, as in other popular destinations we traveled to. We spent many days just taking in sun, bothered by flies at the pool, or slapped by sand carried around by winds on the near-by beach. We used to bring canned foods with us from home, and a lot of bottled water – as the food was not so great (or safe) there, and often both the food and water were contaminated. Many people suffered from an upset stomach or diarrhea because of something they have eaten or drank, and that is no fun at all. Internet was also hard to connect to back then and a phone call to the US was awfully expensive. So we were disconnected from our normal lives and lived like were in an Robinson Crusoe type of vacation, dieting and loosing weight (not always by choice), but looking good, slim and tanned afterwards. Many nights the discos in the village were open and we danced to the rythm of the ’80s,often until daybreak. Sometimes drinking would make otherwise proper people behave as nuts, and the stories were told again and again until they would become twisted, and turned to ridicule, as everyone wanted the “fun” piece of the “news”. What else is there to do in such an island? LOL