Some thoughts and observations from Praia on the Ihla de Santiago

Now that we've seen a little of how the people live here in the Cape Verdes, we're not too impressed. I've never seen such a dirty, unhygienic place in my life. No one uses rubbish bins; whole bags of rubbish are just thrown down by everyone, everywhere. What is worse though is that there seems to be no provision for sewage, the result being that people use any corner as a toilet. The whole place stinks of human excrement. Even out at anchor we can smell it. Needless to say, we are extremely careful not to eat anything prepared locally, preferring to feed ourselves aboard Merlin. We still have one tank full of water from the Canaries, which we are saving for the voyage to Brazil, to be sure we don't get ill at sea. This morning we explored a little island in the middle of the harbour and enjoyed it, mainly because being an island the local people hadn't been there and fouled it.

We took a bus ride last week across to visit the original settlement on this island. Crossing the island was like crossing the surface of the moon; absolutely barren. Dust and rock. The settlement was in the only fertile valley. We walked along the beach to eat our lunch, but the stench of shit was overpowering. In the end we sat on a rock below the tide mark to eat. Adam played with a few of the local kids amongst chickens, goats and pigs. The kids were nice, but had the habit of urinating where they stood, without removing any clothing. The way people live here makes me think of what is written in the history books about life in English cities hundreds of years ago. The people here are undoubtedly the poorest I've ever seen, but why they should be so dirty I don't understand. Hygiene is free!

To balance things up a little, there is a positive side. People are very friendly. On the same day out, we drank a beer in a little bar with our Brazilian friends. My friend Lucas chatted with a chap at the bar while our drinks were prepared and he insisted on paying for us. A generous gesture in a place of poverty. We regularly leave the dinghy on the beach and it has never been tampered with.

The only beggars here are immigrants from Africa who find themselves stuck here for one reason or another and unable to speak the language, they struggle.