Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about 1,557 square miles. These islands lie between 320 and 460 nautical miles west of Cap-Vert, the westernmost point of continental Africa. The Cape Verde islands form part of the Macaronesia ecoregion, along with the Azores, the Canary Islands, Madeira and the Savage Isles.

I opted for the “Santiago Island Drive” tour. Lots of winding roads up to a “plateau” city. Many of the houses are built right into the nearly vertical hillsides.

Then down a very steep, narrow, cobblestone road to see Cabo Verde’s oldest tree – a huge ceiba tree. To get up beside it required going up a few flights of stairs without any handrails so I stayed below it. The only photo I could take was looking directly at the sun. There was a vegetable garden across the road from the tree.

We then stopped in the small town for a comfort stop and a walk around town.

We then had a few minutes to walk through the market. I love markets and wish we had more time but was able to grab some shots of the produce and fish and meats.

We then backtracked to town getting back for a very late lunch.

Some more history from Wikipedia:

The Cape Verde archipelago was uninhabited until the 15th century, when Portuguese explorers discovered and colonized the islands, thus establishing the first European settlement in the tropics. Because the Cape Verde islands were conveniently located to play a role in the Atlantic slave trade, Cape Verde became economically prosperous during the 16th and 17th centuries, attracting merchants, privateers, and pirates. It declined economically in the 19th century after the suppression of the Atlantic slave trade by the British Empire, and many of its inhabitants emigrated during that period. However, Cape Verde gradually recovered economically by becoming an important commercial center and useful stopover point along major shipping routes. Cape Verde became independent in 1975.

Since the early 1990s, Cape Verde has been a stable representative democracy and has remained one of the most developed and democratic countries in Africa. Lacking natural resources, its developing economy is mostly service-oriented, with a growing focus on tourism and foreign investment. Its population of around 596,000 (as of 2022) is of mostly of Sub-Saharan African and minor European heritage, and predominantly Catholic, reflecting the legacy of Portuguese rule. A sizeable Cape Verdean diaspora community exists across the world, especially in the United States and Portugal, considerably outnumbering the inhabitants on the islands.

Almost twice as many Cape Verdeans live abroad (nearly one million) than in the country itself. The islands have a long history of emigration and Cape Verdeans are highly dispersed worldwide, from Macau to Haiti and Argentina to Sweden. The diaspora may be much larger than official statistics indicate, as, until independence in 1975, Cape Verdean immigrants had Portuguese passports.

The majority of Cape Verdeans live in the United States and Western Europe, with the former hosting the largest overseas population at 500,000. Most Cape Verdeans in the U.S. are concentrated in New England, particularly the cities of Boston and New Bedford in Massachusetts, and Providence, Rhode Island; Brockton, Massachusetts has the largest community of any American city (18,832).

Cape Verdeans have been migrating to Massachusetts since the 1840s, but most of the current population arrived in the 1970s. They are now one of the top ten immigrant groups in Boston, and the largest hailing from Africa. The first wave of Cape Verdean immigrants came to Massachusetts to work in the whaling industry. When whaling declined, they moved into maritime jobs, seasonal agricultural work (like picking cranberries), and factory work.