Fire

14 February 2017

First mate Jan: “We are finally there. We talked about it a lot for the past three years I have been on board and now during my last voyage in Cape Verde of this season we are on Fogo (Portuguese for fire). If you look at the map the island is more or less round and with clear weather, we can see it from Santiago and it looks like how a kid would draw a volcano. Two steep hills with a crater in the middle. We stood on the edge of crater today. 
We drove from São Filipe up via curvy road. I always tell our guests that we like Cape Verde because of its diversity: all islands are different. This island is a perfect example. The landscape is covered with older, younger, cultivated, non-cultivated and overgrown lava streams and completely different from the other islands. It quite a drive all the way up to the 2830-meter top. On our way was drive past lava streams of the eruptions in 1951, 1995 and 2014. 
Once we get higher the black streams in the landscapes get wider. All the way on the top the view is amazing. As far as the eye can see you see dark grey rocks in different shapes and sizes from sand to rocks as big as house. All spit out by the hole in the ground. The chauffeur tells us that a whole village of 20 houses is covered under the rocks after one of the eruptions. 
We walk around a bit and take in the view until we get hungry and we return to São Filipe for lunch. What a day, what a place!”