The day before Christmas Eve

For the first time in a long while, I was woken up by the sun, that shined though the curtains of my hotel room. My plans for the day was to go on a hike that I had found on google the day before.

After meeting my friends at 8am, in front of the church, we decided to head back to my hotel to have some breakfast. The breakfast was really something out of the ordinary with scrambled eggs, toast, fruits, coffee and home made passion fruit juce, it was delicous. Then we took off on our adventure with an aluguer, and the trip was a real experience. And during the carride, I had the most breath taking view ever! After an hour we had arrived at the Paul valley and we could spot Cidade das pombas, our final destination right by the shoreline. Now the hike could begin, it started with a tricky path from the crater up towards the steep green mountain. When we finally reached the top, we could see all the way down to our starting destination, it was really high up and the trail was really steep. The trail was full of terrass cultivation where there grew bananas, papayas, avocadoes, coco palms, suger cane and corn. This place is one of the few places on the island which is suitable for agriculture, and most of the island´s fruit and vegetable exports come from here. It´s fascinating how different the climate is on the island, in some places you can find pine tree forests and even deserts, it all depends on where you are.

It was so beautiful, wherever I looked the nature was truly unbelievable. I hope that I never forget that amazing view. When we went by a picturesque farmer village there were selling small red fruits that I had never seen before. I think they were called ferechas and they were so delicious, it tasted like cactus and strawberry, we bought a bag for 200 escudos, which is 20 kr.

We ate lunch at a resturant in Cidade das Pombas called Casa Maracuja. It was located at a rooftop and the interior was inspired by passion fruit so the walls and funiture was painted in a bright yellow colour. From there we had a gorgeous view over the village and the amazing nature. We ordered some tuna sandwiches and homemade icecream, it was so good! But then, unfortunataly we had to hurry back home, since the alugiers are pretty unpredictable we needed to be on the safe side.

The hike was pretty intense and we all felt a pain in our knees in the aluguer on our way home to Porto Novo. There we took the ferry home to Sao Vicente.

We spent the evening at the boat and everyone were excited about the day that was literally around the corner: Christmas. But at the same time many of us were more homesick than ever and just wished we were home celebrating Christmas with them.

Ellen Blixt