Drum Roll...the vote is in! Sounds of cheering .... Today we took a poll and asked World Cruisers in suite 1009 which tour of the WC was the worst tour of 2010...... the vote is in!This is a pause to build excitement for the readers .... all 6 of you.....
MINDELO!
MINDELO WINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You heard it here first. I was so excited about this island and our visit after reading about the island the night before we docked. If I ever do a cruise like this again, I have to do more research. This year it was a last minute, depending on health, issues if we would actually be here. David wants to give it a try again next year.
Back to Mindelo: We had a choice of 3 tours for this super large port at an island, one being pay $400 and do a private tour. Let's see ...no charge or pay a LOT of money. Most cruisers went on this"A Taste of the Island' tour so we rented 15 buses. They were lined up and waiting for us. Since we docked early, the buses were ready, and the tour guides was ready to set the tours off early. As soon as each bus fills, we can start the tour! Of course, this excites us World Cruisers immensely. David and I were on Bus 1.(we cheer!) What they fail to tell you is that people will take 10 tickets and go up to the tour guide and trade them for bus seats so that they can be with their friends .... Bus #1 people leave the ship first and go to the front of the bus line to take their seats on Bus 1. Our bus is in the front of the line blocking all others behind us on a narrow pier. Anticipation is high to see this beautiful island. We piled in our 12 passenger bus, took a seat, and we waited. We waited some more. We watched Bus 2 narrowly slide on passed us, Bus 3 bye-bye, Bus 4 gone ... filled and happy, ... and we waited. We were waiting for 3 more people till our bus was ready to go. We wait some more. Can't we leave them I think to myself.....and ask it outloud.... I am becoming a rebel. It seems they hand out the Bus tickets whether everyone is there or not. Thirty minutes passed and the people we all waited for mosied our way, slowly climed the bus stairs, and took the last open seats. Not a care in the world. Bus #1 filled. "Kill" .... I said to myself. No air conditioning...sitting in the sun .... Why give bus assignments if you are not ready to head out the door. ???
We are all counted, ready to go and the tour guide decided this would be a gret time to introduce myself etc. to talk. Let's just sit here a bit. We quickly understand she will not talk while the bus is in motion, so we wait politely. We can understand about 25% of what she says. Her accent was such no one understood her. We are used to this. We glean what we can while we pass the sites. No problem. Then the back of the bus said they could not hear, her voice too soft...so she went to the back of the bus and started all over again. We wait for the second introduction. Here is where I start banging my head against the bus window. She would talk at my seat in the front, walk back two seats and start all over again. Whatever I did not or did hear while she stood next to me, I now had a sceond chance to hear or not hear again what she said two seats down. (small bus).
At every stop, we got out, look, got back in and she counted. We all count with here and agree all are present. (All 12) She says a few words. Then she stands and smiles in the front waiting for something, nobody knew what. We looked at each other, rolled our eyes, we recount numbers to ourselves, until someone on the bus would say "Are we done here? Anything else?" She smiles say No and stands again. "Can we go?" "Oh, yeah" was her brilliant response so THEN and only then does she ever signal the bus driver to go so we can drive another 2 blocks. Ground Hog day at every stop ... "Let's go! Can we go?"
When you only have 5 hours in a port, you want to see it. We stopped a few blocks from where we were so we could see our boat. We all got out to take pictures of our boat as if no one knows what it looks like. We crossed the street where we had a little shop to look into. Here is where the bus driver takes off and leaves us there..... So again we wait. We lost our tour guide, our bus, and 25% of the people on our bus. Many of us waited, Then I saw David about 2 blocks ahead, standing in the street looking around. I started to walk toward him. I see the bus heading our way, on the opposite side of the street, toward the people waiting at the curb. The bus stopped for us, David and I got on, and we circled the town waving Good-bye to the people waiting at the frst drop off point. This was the most fun thing we did all day. So we did our u turn, took a curb with us, picked up the rest of the Tour from Hell cruisers. We went two blocks where David and I were picked up and the guide wanted us to do another photo op...another picture of our ship. Same picture, two blocks down. No one wanted to leave the bus. We got her to say "GO". Then we go to the top of the 'hill' where the bus driver makes a wrong turn. He backs up and then misses the turn into the hill and has to back up again. When he goes into the gate, he blocks the other buses from leaving. Here at the top of the hill, we have another 20 minutes to take more pictures of our ship. When we are ready to leave, again we wait for the same late people to be late again. All here! "Let's go!" the people on the bus begin to chant but wait ...our guide wants to say something, so again we wait as politely as we can.
It became the routine. This was our tour ... all 5 hours of it. Bus #1 became Bus #15. Everything in town was closed so when we stopped at the Markets or in town, no one was there, nothing was open, but no matter, let's wait and look at the emptiness here. It seems this was a Sunday and Saturday was a holiday and there was a funeral in town. Everyone in town goes to funerals. I can understand all of it. But with each stop, we just sat ... and waited.... for what? The next to last stop was a beach where we just got dropped off to stand in the sun for 45 minutes. I parked myself on a stone wall and took pictures of people on the beach. Our tour guide never told us about history of the island or anything. We were the last to leave and the last in. Our 4 hour tour seemed like a 3 day tour. I was exhausted. By the time we got back, people on the other tours were changed and at the pool in their bathing suits having eaten their lunch..
So what did I learn....nothing. I did see the island as we drove on cobble stone roads. We saw the town which is clean and colorful and empty. No one's fault we got here on a Sunday. Most of the island felt like a moon landing ... barren...dry. All dirt, all sand, no water. It hasn't rained here in 2 years. Water and electricity are scarce. Everything has to be brought in. Nothing grows here. It is hauntingly eerily beautiful here, volcanic with deforested mountains and stiff peaks. I shutter to think the whole earth could look like this with the way man takes care of things. Our guide said when it does rain the whole island turns green. I have to admit we did not see the island we read about. That is a shame. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/cape-verde
They have their own currency here. Lori, are you reading? I won't say what I am bringing you back from this island ... It is a SURPRISE! You coin collector, you.
Ah yes, four glorious sea days ahead. I have 3 suitcases packed now ..... to the brim, ready to be shipped home. They will be collecting suitcases all week so when we dock in Ft Lauderdale we just have to claim them on the dock, go through customs, and give them to the shipping company. We won't see them again till Tucson.
Barbados next! Do I see Florida??????????????? I am not even going to think about it. I will miss this cruise when it is over.
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