The ship’s last port of call in Cape Verde was on the island of Fogo—the second to last in the chain as one travels clockwise from the northernmost islands. Fogo is fascinating and beautiful, with dramatic contrasts between the seasonally verdant hillsides to the ash and lava covered interiors of the calderas. There is no docking potential at the island, except for small boats or ships. So our trip ashore to meet the vans to take us around the island was aboard Zodiacs. The Explorer has a number of Zodiacs, which each accommodate about 13-14 people.
Our 1 ½ hour trip to the caldera took us to the village of Cha das Caldeiras, after landing in São Felipe. Climbing on cobblestone roads around the south eastern side of the island and then up into the interior provided excellent opportunities to glimpse agricultural methods, crops, construction projects (particularly new cobblestone roads and retaining walls), catchwater basins, and goat herders with their flocks. A young Peace Corp member joined us for the ride to the caldera, and he explained economic incentives that encourage farmers to switch to drip irrigation—the cost of purchasing water drops by 60% for those who do install drip systems. Fogo receives about 10” of rainfall a year, at most, so water conservation methods are essential for all aspects of island life.
As the group entered lands designated as national park, the scene changed dramatically. We found ourselves surrounded by volcanic landscape—aa (pronounced “ah ah”) lava (sharp and fractured flows), pahoehoe lava (smoother and more ropey formations), very small granular black rocks (ash), and enormous walls of what remains of the volcano and its cone. There have been numerous eruptions, which means there are many flows from various times before and since recorded history.
Cha das Caldeiras, which is within the park, is itself remarkable in its general isolation from the rest of the island’s inhabitants in its position in the interior of the caldera.
Not far away from the village center and against one of the crater walls, there is a small vineyard where there is access to underground water sources. The wine produced is surprisingly potable and the vineyard owners have opened a tasting room for tourists who come to see the spectacular scenery. This establishment, with its new and attractive architecture, immaculate bathrooms, and landscaped interior garden is a marked contrast to the rest of the village.
After our trip to Fogo, our final activity before heading out to sea was a late afternoon kayaking trip on the deep blue and gently swelling waters off the coast of Brava, the south-westernmost island in the chain.
Now on our second day at sea since departing land, there is less and less to report from outside the ship. Occasionally, sea birds have been spotted, and there was a single group of dolphins yesterday that were quickly outpaced by the ship. One starts to get a glimpse of what life at sea was like for mariners of eras past—a lot of time spent scanning the horizon and keeping vigil for something, perhaps anything, of interest.
Inside this modern and climate controlled vessel, however, life is quite different—with three or four talks a day by naturalists and the two seminar sessions each afternoon. Yesterday’s sessions focused on two readings about Cortes’ meeting with Montezuma, cacique of the Aztec empire. The first reading was from Cortes’ letter or report to the king, and the second was from accounts recorded around 1528 (seven years after the fall of the city) by Aztec priests and “wise men” who escaped the struggle and persecution.
Both of the selections lend themselves to serious investigation, as they describe strange and unexpected situations. Cortes’ account of the Aztec kingdom is almost unbelievable: a place far superior in order, engineering, and wealth to cities such as Seville, Salamanca, and Grenada in Spain. The seminar ruminated on whether this account was augmented for political purposes—perhaps to justify the ensuing decimation of this advanced culture. What would it have meant for the European explorers to allow a superior culture to continue after its “discovery” by a nation that thought itself above and beyond anything known to man?
Or perhaps Cortes’ report was embellished to ensure continued financial support from the court. What was most interesting for the seminars to consider is the parallelism between Cortes’ account of Montezuma’s greeting him as ‘one of them’ and the Aztecs’ account that they had indeed been awaiting the arrival of a people from the east, as foretold by their legends and wise men. What role did the belief in legends play in the undoing of the Aztec empire? And what is the process of assimilating something “new” into our general understanding of the world when we encounter an unknown place or people?
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