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Cabo Verde: Hiking the Calabaceira

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 Our time in Cabo Verde was drawing to a close, and we had one more adventure to complete. Bu Country Tours had engaged a driver and a local guide to take us on a trek down the Calabaceira valley to Cidade Velha - the original Portuguese settlement on the island. Leaving the city, we drove to a small cliff-top settlement overlooking a lush, green valley and clambered down a rocky trail to some small farms at the trailhead. We passed abandoned buildings from the earliest settlement and active farms where valley residents grew bananas, mangos and other fruit and raised livestock.  Tramping along on the dusty stone, we enjoyed views of beautiful trees and deep blue sky, and spotted a brave Grey Headed Kingfisher who obligingly posed for my camera. Halfway along our trek we came to an enormous baobab tree, its trunks woven together to create a cave-like space large enough to fit all of us. I had read that Charles Darwin visited this very tree on his travels to Cabo Verde in 1832, ...
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Cabo Verde: Going bananas

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Exhausted after a terrible sleep, we hurried to get ready for our tour. Today's adventure was a visit to a  banana plantation with Bu Country Tours . Our driver arrived just as we were asking the front desk to hold the key for our friend who would arrive later in the morning. They then demanded payment - in cash - and refused to wait until we returned from our tour despite the driver explaining in Portuguese that he was running late. With no choice, the driver offered to take us to a bank and we climbed into the car and zipped through the streets, got the cash we needed and zoomed back. Throughout this madcap adventure,  the driver was taking calls from the tour company and the bus driver asking why he was so late. He didn't want them to leave without us, so he told them traffic was bad and arranged to meet them at a new pickup location. Thankfully, we arrived there first, but we still felt like "those people" who make everyone wait. Leaving Praia behind, we drove up ...
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