We walked up to “the Plateau”, which is the historic old centre of Praia, and the site of Government House, many government ministries, and several embassies. On our way, we also passed some interesting street art, and a poem hanging on the wall of the Ministry of Finance.
The Plateau also houses the lovely Mercado Central, which has fantastic fresh fruit and vegetables.
Even walking down the main tourist drag, there are very few tourists. And we definitely stand out.
It is interesting to see the growing Chinese influence here. I had read about this taking place in other African countries. The Chinese come in building massive public works (roads, universities, etc.). This all looks great at first, and appeals to politicians, until you realize that they are saddling these countries with enormous debts. Even worse, they are apparently not even using local workers for the construction projects. Here in Praia we saw several small projects built with “Assistencia de China” and so far we’ve seen two huge ones: a grand hotel and casino complex going up on the waterfront, and a huge university complex outside of town.
We had a lovely lunch at 90 Bistro. It was fully up to the standards of quality and originality of good North American or European restaurants.
Then we decided to take a taxi to the lighthouse, which was a few km along the coast. Although it was listed as a prime tourist spot, the road out to it was narrow and bumpy. The driver asked if we’d like him to wait for us, and we decided that was a good idea. The wind was howling with such force that we could barely open the cab doors. We fought the wind to walk to the lighthouse, but there really wasn’t much to see. So, a three-minute windblown visit and back into the cab.
We explored a bit more in the old town, then came home for a nap. I tried to convince DH to go out with me to find some live music, but this is where it is difficult being married to a morning person. We weren’t hungry (still full from lunch), and we ended up just spending the evening in. At least I was able to hear live music from our room. I suppose if I’d been more adventurous or demanding I could have gone out on my own, or made it clear that I was going to, in which case he’d probably have come. He assures me that we will go see live music when we are in Mindelo, which is the cultural hub of the islands.
