The first question Alex genuinely asked the guide, “Why is the country called Cape Verde?”. By that time, we have only been to Sao Vicente and Sal but we honestly didn’t see any green land. Well, my friends, Santo Antao got all the verde in Cabo Verde. And if you like hiking, this is the place where you would probably want to spend more time on your visit to Cape Verde.
Today I will share the answers to questions we had when planning this trip plus a summary of our one-day visit to Santo Antao.
Q1. How do you get to Santo Antao?
You can only arrive at Santo Antao by ferry, a 30-min trip from Mindelo to Porto Novo. There used to be an airport but it was closed during the 1990s due to an accident.
Q2. Where do you buy tickets for the ferry?
In https://www.cvinterilhas.cv/home you can buy them online and just show your ticket in PDF on your phone (no need to print). The cost of the one-way ticket is 8 Euro per person and it was a 30-minute trip.
Q3. Do you need a guide for Santo Antao?
Carolina, our guardian angel from Mindelo, said we would need one. She made a call and booked the tour for us. The price was 70 Euro for two, the tour was from 8 am to 4 pm, and we had the guide - Evandro - all for ourselves and he picked us up at the port. It is perfectly possible to visit the island by yourself. We definitely recommend to rent a car.
Q4. How is the weather in Santo Antao?
During March-April I found it less windy than Mindelo, probably due to all the mountains. Some areas were more chilly than others but in general, it was sunny and comfortable, around 20ºC. You're fine with a light jacket.
Q5. What to visit on a day trip to Santo Antao?
So, here is the summary of what we did during our visit.
Porto Novo, this is the entrance to Santo Antao. Where the ferry arrived and where we began the road trip. As soon as you disembark, there are lots of people waiting outside to offer you tours, alugeres (collective taxis), and the local cheese from Santo Antao.
As soon as we got out, we saw Evandro our guide. He was waiting for us with a sign “Casa Comba”, the name of our hotel in Mindelo. Which by the way, we later found out he was Carolina's relative, such a warm family. He smiled and greeted us, took us under a tree away from the bustle, and opened a big map of Santo Antao. He drew the route he suggested for the day and that included the main sights from the Eastside: Ribeira Grande, Paul, Porto Novo, and a visit to a distillery.
We were super excited but we were also hungry since we didn’t have breakfast assuming it would be part of the tour, but it wasn’t. Nevertheless, Evandro kindly took us to a supermarket that had 3 tables at the back and a couple of local people having cake and coffee. We ordered a sandwich and had coffee from Santo Antao which is also produced there, and we were ready to explore! As we say in Mexico, “Panza llena, corazón contento” (full belly happy heart).
We took the cobbled stone road, which consists of 36 kilometers all hand-made! It took them more than 10 years to finish the work. The road had many curves and seemed difficult to drive due to the narrow lane. But Evandro knew exactly where to stop for us to take pictures, or to walk and reach him later. In one of our walks, I noticed a really good smell, like chamomile. Well, it was a flower called “Cravo”, I can still remember the smell.
We noticed that half of the island zone we visited was dry, and the other part was green. On our way to Ribeira Grande, we got breathtaking views, outstanding landscapes of huge mountains, canyons, gorges, and valleys. The pictures were taken with my humble Samsung phone speak for themselves.
We learned that Santo Antao has plantations that produce sugar cane, corn, sweet potato, banana, mangoes, papaya, and more. Evandro told us that since Santo Antao is one of the islands with suitable conditions for crop growing, the production is consumed domestically within Cape Verde.
We also learned that most of the agricultural fields belonged to few Portuguese families. And when they died or left the island, they inherited those territories to the Capeverdian families that helped them.
Once we got to Ribeira Grande, we found colonial buildings, a big church, and a small center. It was a quick stop.
The next stop was Ponta do Sol, where the old airport was. And due to that, it remained as a tourist village with B&Bs and hotels. It was completely alone, we could only see the fishermen enjoying themselves in the ocean and the guys building a dock. You could tell Ponta do Sol tried a few years ago, but it's hard to tell if has tourism potential.
The next stop was Paúl, Evandro’s hometown. Here we ate at a modern restaurant facing the ocean.
Restaurant Veleiro II, food was not very special but it was clean, comfortable and the view was very inspiring.
After lunch, we visited a local distillery "Beth D'Kinha" which by the way had an amazing view towards the green fields. Here we learned about their production process and even tasted a couple of different versions of the grogue, the typical drink of Cape Verde. The process is completely manual and handcrafted. You can see it in the pictures below:
Evandro also took us through what looked like a local road to have a closer look at “Dedo de Deus” a special peak of Santo Antao.
We saw typical little stone houses with thatched roofs in the valley, Evandro explained that each little house is a room for a family: One for the parents, one for the children, and another one for the kitchen. Each year, they change the materials of the roof. Can you imagine such hard work? I think sometimes we take things like having a permanent roof, for granted…
And that was the end of our tour! I hope our experience inspired you on what to visit in Santo Antao. And if you’ve already visited and want to add more insights into this summary please go ahead and contribute in the comment section!
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