Your African cruise will take you to a group of ten small islands off the coast of North Africa called Cape Verde. These islands were uninhabited until Portuguese colonization in the fifteenth century. During the sixteenth century the islands became a hub for slave trade. As slave trading slowed few people came through the island until the nineteenth century when it regained popularity as a re-supplying center for ships. In the 1950's a movement toward independence from Portugal began to gain momentum. In June of 1975 the citizens of Cape Verde elected a National Assembly, which Portugal recognized as independent. Cape Verde hosted a one party governmental system until 1991 when it switched to a pluralistic democracy.
Nine of the ten islands of Cape Verde are inhabited. On your Cape Verde tour you will see Mount Fogo, an active volcano that lies on the island of Fogo. A small group of inhabitants live in the volcano's caldera and grow coffee on the its slopes. The islands Sal and Maio hold vast salt flats. Inhabitants of the other islands have developed sugar cane and banana plantations at the base of islands' mountains.
The climate of these islands is fairly moderate. Temperatures range from 75 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit. The islands are quite dry. The islands do have some scattered rain between August and October. These islands are very isolated so the animals that you see on your Cape Verde adventure cruise are likely endemic to the islands. Some of the endemic birds include, Alexander's Swift, Raso Lark, and The Cape Verde Warbler. The islands are also home to the Cape Verde Giant Gecko.
Cape Verde's culture is a unique fusion of rural Portugal and West African customs. This mixture comes out in all aspects of the culture from food, to dances and the popular activities on the islands.
Our agent Jessica was very helpful with the whole process and always responded in a timely way to all of our questions.
K Van
1 day ago
Chern was very patient snd helpful.
CaBaba
2 days ago
Cruse ship was great. Fantastic food and service. Cruise itinary got changed so not what we expected, but not an major issue. Japan portion was great. Drivers/guides arranged by 80 Days were great. Hotels were mostly ok. Did not know that most hotels outside of major cities do not allow shoes to be worn in the hotel. again a minor inconvenience. Overall a great trip. Adventure Life communications were timely and much appreciated as far as changes/requests.
Peter Goff
3 days ago
We were a group of three that initiated our research by independently searching for the best agency to help us in the somewhat complex experience of traveling to the Galapagos. We chose adventure life because they were the most responsive in the website provided the most comprehensive overview of the trip. Their reviews were also very good.
Adventure, life splits up its booking process in two parts. First Jeff, the booking agent helped us decide which experience best suited are interests. We chose a small 14 to 16 group sized yacht. Once the booking was made with Jeff, we were handed off to Coleene, who oversaw the complex process of assembling all of the necessary documents and making sure we had everything we needed to make the trip go smoothly. The adventure, life website, then becomes your personal place of reference for all things related to your trip from door to door. It’s a lot of information to assemble, especially for three travelers, but the website makes it easy and Colleen‘s gentle reminders kept us on track. In all, from the beginning, we had four months from the time we started our research till the time we departed. We felt that was, a good amount of preparation time and don’t think it would be wise to do it in less than four months. Mostly because I think you have more options with that amount of time. There were others on our trip that took six months and more from the time they started planning.
The trip itself was outstanding. We ended up on an excellent yacht (Galapagos Angel II) with a great group of guests that we were able to connect with and put together a really nice google photos album to share.
Jed
1 week ago
Mary was very helpful. Quick to reply with helpful information and closure on arrangements.