Cabo Verde: Best laid plans
Our trip was planned with a friend, and they were originally scheduled to fly back to the mainland before us. When their return flight was cancelled and rebooked a few days later, we adjusted our plans so that they could continue to travel with us.
Before leaving Dakar, we reached out to the Urban Praia Maria Aparthotel and upgraded from a studio to a family room with a sofa bed so that we could all stay together. We also arranged separate airport pickups for our friend early in the morning and for us at the end of the day.
And then, suddenly, the tranquility of our day came to an end with a message from our friend. They had arrived at the airport in Praia but no one was there to meet them. Quickly logging in to our booking app, we discovered a message had come in an hour previously from the hotel's local staff confirming my arrival later - but no mention of our friend. We tried calling several times but got no answer. We tried messaging on the app. Crickets. For more than three hours.
In the meantime, our friend needed somewhere to go. And we were starting to wonder if this hotel even existed. They seemed to have ended their relationship with the booking app sometime after we had made our reservations. The phone just rang. And rang. So our friend reached out to another hotel and secured a room for the night. And we tried to come up with a plan B in case this hotel did not turn out to be legitimate.
As morning rolled into afternoon, we tried to enjoy our last few hours at La Fora and then travelled to the airport to queue for our flight.
One of the bright spots of the day was spotting a family who had been staying at the lodge. They had a little girl who was quite cute, and we had enjoyed a couple interactions with them - most recently when their daughter had been eyeing the bag of cookies on our table before dinner the night before, and we had gifted her with the last one on the condition that she finish her supper.
This little girl didn't speak English, and I don't speak German beyond some basic phrases, but we enjoyed making faces and silly gestures at each other, creating a game of drinking our water as quickly as possible. When we boarded, it turned out that she was sitting right in front of us. I heard a quiet conversation between her and her mother, then she peeked between the seats and gasped in delight, waving. Her mom explained that she had just asked "Where is that lady? Is she on the plane?" I got lots of grins and waves through the flight and at the airport on the other side.
The flight was delayed, as there was a passenger who seemed ill. Their problems were multiplied when someone dropped a hardshell carryon suitcase onto them while trying to put it into the overhead bin. After much attention from the flight attendants, and the pilot, it seemed that a decision was made to continue their journey and we took off. They were met by an ambulance when we landed.
Collecting our baggage, we walked out into the arrivals lounge and discovered that there was no one waiting for us. At least this time someone responded to our messages on WhatsApp! We were told that a driver had been sent but that "they left". They ordered us another car and requested a photo of where we were at the airport to help the driver find us. Then we waited another 10-15 minutes.
At last, we were picked up and on our way to what we hoped would be a decent hotel after all of the hiccups we'd experienced.
And the hotel was real. The staff member working the night shift was very apologetic about our friend's plight and told us they would see what they could do in terms of a discount or some other benefits to make up for it. And very kindly lugged our bags up the three flights of stairs to our room.
The room was basic, as we'd expected for the price. But it wasn't ready for us. The staff member noticed that there was no toilet paper and no towels, and dashed off to get them while we unpacked. After checking the kitchen facilities, we walked over to a local pharmacy and then to the grocery store to get some things for supper and tomorrow's breakfast.
On returning, we discovered that the frozen pizza my daughter had chosen wasn't going to work for us. The oven wouldn't light. The staff member tried it, then called someone to try to walk the through it, again with no luck. He apologized. Again. And we reassured him that we knew all of this had not been his fault. And made some peanut butter sandwiches.
We'd also been chatting with them on the hotel's Whats App. They had reached out to head office to ask about a discount and the best they could do was a delayed checkout by two hours on our last day - when we would leave early and our friend would remain until evening - and $10 off the of three nights, which left our friend out of pocket for their alternate hotel. But it turned out that they may have got the best of this deal.
When time came to sleep, we noticed that the bed had no blankets, only a sheet. The mattress was hard and uncomfortable. And a man had a screaming argument outside our bedroom window, on his telephone, from about 11 p.m. to 2:30 a.m.
In the morning, as we prepared to leave on our tour, the staff member at the front desk insisted on being paid in full. And then revealed that the credit card machine was broken. We did not have enough cash on hand (something that COULD have been solved if they had told us about the broken machine the night before when we had arranged to pay the next day!). So our tour guide had to quickly drive us to the bank and back to the hotel - while the other tour participants languished in a van by their cruise ship. And then the staff member insisted on counting the cash with my daughter present, which we realize was for our own protection as well as to confirm we hadn't tried to pull a fast one but again - tour waiting!
I wish I could say things got better over the rest of our stay. And at least screaming man did not make another appearance. But they didn't make up the bed for our friend despite a few reminders. Half of the shower door was missing so it was hard not to get water all over the place. The staff dug through my daughter's bags when we were out. The TV turned out to be broken. And when it came time for our friend to checkout they didn't want to honour the late check out.
Thank goodness our tours were good.
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