Cabo Verde: Going bananas

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 into the mountains - beautifully sculpted against the cloudy sky.

Our first stop was to be a local's home in Orgãos to taste traditional cuzcus and fidijós, and because there was a cruise ship in the harbour there were multiple tours coming through and it was packed. Mama Luisa - our hostess - was continuously demonstrating while a team of women helped with the cooking, cleanup and provision of coffee and tea.

We watched as she mixed cornflour, powdered potatoes, water, sugar and cinnamon into a dough that was loosely packed into a terracotta binde and set over boiling water to steam, and as the first batch of tourists left, the next batch of fidijós - banana fritters - came out of the fryer.

We noticed a man with his film camera on a tripod who wasn't leaving, and it turned out that he was not a hardcore travel vlogger but a journalist for the evening news. As we enjoyed some delicate green tea and nibbled fidijós his attention turned to us and we did our best to visibly enjoy the food with minimal awkwardness.

Meanwhile, the warm scent of sugar and cinnamon began to waft through the air. The cuzcus was ready and served up with fresh butter!

 

As we enjoyed our second breakfast our guide, Samba, let us know that there was a traditional music demonstration waiting for us across the street. We were the first to arrive, and the musicians seemed to feel they had to entertain us immediately, launching into Sodade, a song originally performed by Cabo Verdean legend Caesaria Evora that we had heard every day of our trip. I love the song, but it felt a bit awkward to be an audience of two!

At last, the rest of the group wandered in and the musicians continued to perform while I was enticed onto the dance floor along with some of the other women in our tour. We were all equally clumsy with the line dance moves but embraced a moment of fun. Unfortunately, our efforts were captured for the evening news so everyone in Praia could view our graceless plodding.

Waiting back at the van for Samba to wrap up his media interview, a pepper plant caught the eye of one of the men and we learned that it was a hot pepper used in local cuisine. I was the only one who accepted the offer of a taste - I've been braver than normal on this trip - and it was in fact very hot. My teeth felt like they were burning while my tongue and lips went completely numb. I begged a Tuk cracker from my daughter to absorb some of the spice, but we completed a few kilometres of travel before my mouth returned to normal.

Our next stop was a banana plantation, and we pulled over at the side of the road to slip into the trees, walking along the edges of a concrete irrigation trough. 

It soon became apparent that everyone in our group was not comfortable in nature and our unorthodox trail. One woman was finding it a bit of a struggle to keep her balance, constantly grabbing onto leaves and branches that she unknowingly let fly into our faces. I had to grab her arm once to stop her from grabbing wood wrapped in barbed wire with protruding nails. 

The walk was fascinating, with banana trees intermingling with a huge variety fruits - mangoes, papayas, breadfruit, passionfruit - all nestled under tall coconut palms. Birdsong mingled with the sound of the gas generators used to pump water, and Samba explained the expectations of each season and agricultural techniques used to keep the crops healthy.

Slipping back out of the trees, we walked along a quiet road toward where we had left the van, watching for local women who might have coconuts and bananas to purchase.

We zipped back to Praia, arranging with our guide and driver to drop us off at the Sucupira market where we reconnected with our friend and decided to check out the adjacent mall's food court for lunch. Nearly abandoned, it turned out to have limited options available. A "Chinese" restaurant offered burgers and fries, and the first pizza place we approached told us that they didn't have the ingredients needed to make the pizzas on their menu. 

Approaching an "Italian" restaurant we asked about getting a vegetarian pizza without cheese due to my food allergies. The man at the counter looked at us like we had landed from another planet with outlandish demands, then put his head into the kitchen to ask. The answer was no. We asked why they couldn't just make the pizza and not sprinkle on the cheese. He put his head into the kitchen, and then the cook's head popped out the door. He too looked at us like we had three heads. We explained our request and he said that fine, he would make it for us, but it wouldn't taste good. He was not wrong.

I ate as much as I could of my potato, carrot, zucchini and corn thin crust "pizza" while my daughter and her friend split some cheesy-basil goodness. We checked out some of the shops in the mall, amusing ourselves with some of the souvenirs - like a handknit wool bikini featuring the Cabo Verde flag - and some badly translated labels.

Then we wandered into the labyrinthine market, getting a bit lost in all of the textile shops.

 

Growing tired, we returned to our hotel where we enjoyed takeout from Tambake, the vegan restaurant located next door and an evening of Olympic figure skating on an iPad as - no surprise at this point - the TV didn't work.  Oh well. Go Canada go!