Africa Expedition Cruise...part 2

Before I start on the second part of this blog, I want to speak a bit about the ship, Silver Wind, and show you a few photos.  This is one of Silversea's older ships, but it is very well maintained and with a maximum of 250 guests, it is a perfect size for an expedition sailing like this.  There were plenty of Zodiac boats when we left the ship that way and the expedition staff to guest ratio was quite high. Many of the staff knew me by name within a few days.  For me, having such a varied expedition team was a highlight of the trip---I learned so much from their expertise from birds to geology to textiles, with plenty of other subjects in between.   The only complication I noticed on board was minor and that was with sourcing food.  The logistics of doing business in Western Africa is challenging and the chef communicated that many items that they were expecting to pick up in ports were not available, so substitutions were made.  It wasn't a huge deal, but many of us were excited when berries were available on the breakfast buffet towards the end of the trip (instead of just being available via room service or the main restaurant).  I would obviously prioritize seeing this area of the world over having a bowl of blueberries with breakfast :) 

After leaving Senegal, we had a couple of days at sea before reaching the Cape Verde
islands (sometimes called Cabo Verde Islands). We only had port stop here---we visited
Porto Novo on this island of Santo Antão. Each island of the chain is quite different
and there are 9 Cabo Verde Islands that have people living on them. The Portuguese
took over the islands in the 1400’s and brought slaves to the islands years later, so the
culture is a blend of both European and African cultures.
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We chose to hike once again and were really surprised by how quickly the geography
and terrain changed just in the short 40 minute drive up to the hiking path in the Paul
Valley (the top photo is from the Paul Valley).  

​The cobblestone streets continue up the mountain and are a listed UNESCO site. 

We went through ocean climate into a drier forest into more desert landscape
before entering a pine forest. The Cape Verde islands are losing a lot of their population
and there were times that we felt like we had the island almost to ourselves. There are
some expats moving to Cabo Verde islands for the tranquility and the natural beauty,
but that is only on select islands.

We headed to the Canary Islands next and made stops on Gran Canaria as well as
Lanzarote. When we arrived in Gran Canaria, it was the first time we encountered a
large cruise port on this trip. We were lucky enough to be the only cruise ship in port
the day we visited, but it was strange to see such a modern building and to have started
to get closer to that European feeling instead of the feeling of being in Africa. We had a
nice hike and then visited the small town of Firgas to explore and have a local lunch.
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Lanzarote is a smaller island and we really enjoyed walking along the pathways near
the dormant volcanoes. They have figured out a way to grow crops in the volcanic soil
(including wine grapes---there are several wineries on the island) by building up a circle
mound near the plant. This helps trap the small amount of moisture available when
they get the small amount of rain or a morning dew.

​Our journey closed out with two stops in Morocco. The first stop was in Agadir which is
a thriving community with the hustle and bustle feel of a large city. We went for a visit to
a woman's cooperative that had established itself as a leader in argon oil products--the
facility was USDA organic certified as well as fair trade certified. The cooperative gives
women in the community an outlet to learn skills and earn a living. They welcomed us
with open arms and gave us a tour of their facility. After the tour we went upstairs and
the women performed some local songs for us and we sampled products made as part
of the cooperative, including an amazing almond butter that is mixed with honey and
argon oil. That was one souvenir we couldn't pass up.

That afternoon I decided to take a break from the group excursion and I went to a hammam---I tried to pick a location that was just a little bit touristy but still held on to its authentic roots. After a two hour massage and one hour hammam I felt like a new person. For those of you that aren’t familiar, a hammam is a bathing ritual that began thousands of years ago. You are in a steam room and someone bathes you---but it is like no bath you’ve ever had. It starts with a full body exfoliation which makes your skin feel as soft as a baby but isn’t particularly a comfortable experience (it takes off a lot of dead skin). The next step uses argon oil soap or black African soap to wash you thoroughly (including your hair) and then you are rinsed and sometimes given a clay mask. The bathing rooms are women or men only and the therapists are the same sex (for example, women working in the women steam rooms). I was happy to relax for a bit before heading back to the ship.

The last stop of the cruise was in Safi Morocco. This was a smaller city and
unfortunately was recently in the news due to flash flooding that killed many people in
the market. We saw the reconstruction happening and the city will rebuild. The area of
the city selling pottery was at a higher elevation and was not impacted by the flooding--I
have always loved Moroccan ceramics and it was hard not to buy everything from the
vendors in this area.
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As we sailed into Lisbon at the end of the cruise it was hard to imagine how quickly the
20 days had gone past. Going on a cruise is really the only way to see this area of the
world as it is difficult to fly or take any other form of transportation to go to each of these
countries even though they're located right next to one another. I loved this experience
and would love to plan your next cruise----an expedition sailing or other small ship
journey.