Inside the volcano
The Islands of Cabo Verde have a lot of similarities to their very popular northern sisters, the Canary islands. One of the Canary Islands is Tenerife with the volcano Teide at an elevation of 3.715 m. The counterpart of the Cabo Verde Islands is the volcano Pico de Fogo.
Pico de Fogo
The Cabo Verde Islands sit on top of a volcanic hotspot. While the African plate moves towards the east over the hotspot, new islands were born in the west. Pico de Fogo is the youngest and most active volcano of the islands.
The church of Sao Filipe
Sobradas in the main street of Sao Filipe
Only some of the house were renovated
Fogo consists of a single volcano, the island is nearly round with about 25 km in diameter. Pico do Fogo is an active stratovolcano which rises to 2,829 m. The large summit caldera (about 10 kilometers in the north–south direction and 7 kilometers in the east–west direction) is not located in the center of the island, but towards its northeastern corner. The crater rim is known as Bordeira. After the east flank of the volcano slid down towards the ocean the caldera is open to the east, where lava can flow down to the sea.
There are only few cars on Fogo
Interesting enough, when the Portuguese discovered the islands in 1656 they were completely uninhabited. This changed quckly since they were an ideal stopover point on the route around Africa and to South America. Today about 35.000 souls live on the island of Fogo. It got its name because the eruptions of the volcano could serve as a navigation point for the vessels sailing along the african coast. Today the mountain's slopes are used to grow coffee, while its lava is used as building material. In the caldera is a small village, Chã das Caldeiras, Their main produce is wine. Like on the canary islands the grapes grow in individual depressions in the ash of the caldera. The wine is called Manecom and the information leaflet we got from the Cabo Verde tourist information strongly recommends to take a bottle of wine and a package of coffee home after our visit, because they are the best of the world.
The view from the roof top terrace of Fatima
A flight of 40 min in a little plane brings us from the Island of Sao Vincent to the capital Praia on the island of Santiago and surprisingly smooth and without problems after a changeover of 30 min on another flight of 30 min to Sao Filipe, the main town on the island of Fogo.
The town sits on the edge of a cliff above a black beach. At the end of each of the quiet descending streets shines the blue sea and at the horizon the next little island of Brava. There are very few cars on the island and pedestrians only come out at sunset. Colorful flowering Bougainvilleas stretch their branches across the walls along the cobbled streets. With the pastel colored, balconied houses Sao Filipe has a strong colonial atmosphere. The town was the residence of the aristocrats, the rich owners of the productive agricultural land on the island. Their magnificent country houses, sobradas, still mark the center of the little town of about 8000 people. They are surrounded by the modest dwellings of the former servants.
At the time the number of places to stay were limited. We find a room in the Pensão Fátima. They charge 2000 cabo verdian escudos per night, that is 10$ for each of us. For that we not only get a room, but also access to a roof top terrace from where we can enjoy the sunset behind the neighboring island of Brava with a sundowner.
The lower side of the main square is occupied by the prison. It enjoys the best view across the ocean to the neighboring island of Brava, Behind the bars tightly pact faces shout at the passer-by. Hands stretch out from between the bars for a gift.
The building to the right is the prison
There are no real beaches on Fogo. The sandy strip at the base of the cliff below Sao Filipe is far too dangerous for swimming. 20 km outside town is the Ponta de Salina, a natural arch at the end of an old lava field stretching down into the sea. We flag down one of the rare cars and the driver drops us at the intersection with the main road. At the time the place was used to beach the little fishing boats.
The cemetery close by is called cimetiére marin, but many of the dead buried here died at such an advanced age that they probably were not victims of the sea but ended their lives in a bed. The narrow channels between the solidified lava flows offered enough protection for swimming. There is nobody except us.
The cimetiére marin
The biggest attraction on Fogo is to climb the volcano. The next day we took a collective taxi with a couple of other tourists to the village of Chã das Caldeiras in the caldera. Our guidebook recommends to report at the only bar of the village, where they distribute rooms for visitors in the private homes. The bar would be recognizable from far away by the loud music of the rock band which plays there all day. And that is how it was. After arrival in the village we followed the sound of the band and found the simple pub. In the pub they looked for somebody who had space for us. Eventually we shared a little stone house with another couple. The house had one room with an entrance door and a door to a little courtyard with a high stone wall around it. In the courtyard was a little kitchen corner where the owners prepared dinner and breakfast for us. The room was divided into two sleeping compartments by suspending fabric from a rope. There were no windows in the room. Even at night and with the door open it was hot and sticky but for one night it would do. The owners of the house slept somewhere else.
The road into the caldera
The table soccer in front of the bar
Water is very scarce in the caldera. For washing and brushing our teeth we received a bowl with about a liter of the precious liquid for the two of us. At daytime a generator provides for some electricity in the village. At night there was no light and so we had a candle light dinner. We had the famous local wine for dinner. They should rather sell it as vinegar. However, there also was beer from the pub.
Our house in Chã das Caldeiras
There was no toilet in our compound. Holes in the lava floor surrounding the house doubled as toilets and stable for goats and cattle. If you had to go outside at night you had to search for an empty hole for your business with a torch.
Only few plants had time to grow after the eruption of 1995
In 1680 there was a violent eruption of the main cone of the volcano, causing mass emigration from the island. The most recent eruptions occurred in 1951, 1995 and 2014. The strongest of these eruptions was in 1951. Although everything in the interior of the caldera is highly in danger of being destroyed people kept coming back to live in the center of the volcano.
Craters in the caldera
The 1995 eruption began on the night of 2nd to 3rd of April. The eruption was preceded by earthquakes which gradually increased in magnitude and frequency. A particularly strong one was reported four hours before the eruption began. After midnight fissures opened on the flank of the volcano which looked as if the cone had "been cut by a knife." Strombolian activity threw out volcanic bombs and a lava flow cut off the road to the village. Those 1,300 people living inside the caldera fled during the night. No one was killed.
The newly planted wine
During the day of April 3rd, the island was obscured by a thick cloud of dark ash that reached 2.5 to 5 kilometers high. Lava bombs of diameters of up to 4 meters were ejected as far as 500 meters from the vents. On April 4th, lava fountains reached 400 meters high beneath a cloud of ash about 2 kilometers high. A new cone that was open to the southwest formed and fed a growing lava flow. On April 5th, the new lava flow reached the western caldera wall and destroyed about five houses and the main water reservoir.
Kids living in the caldera
After the eruption of 1995 the authorities did not want residents to go back and live in the caldera. However, although replacement homes were provided people did not obey, went back and built new houses. The road was repaired. 14 years later there was little evidence of the eruption although there was little vegetation in the caldera. Young grapevine was planted in holes dug into the recently deposited ash. In the sharp edged depressions in the lava fast growing plants served as fodder for goats. For the visitor, the whole caldera floor looked like a huge maze, an adventure park of a jumble of solidified lava, volcanic bombs, ash fields and recent craters with deposits of sulfur.
The rim of the caldera is at 1,600 m altitude but inside the cone rises to 2,829 meters above sea level. The climb up to the top of the main cone is best done at night since the humidity solidifies the ash fields forming the flank of the cone. At daytime the loose ash makes climbing very difficult. We get a guide who picks us up in the middle of the night to lead us up the cone in the light of the stars supported by torches. As planned we arrive at the rim of the cone‘s crater at sunrise. It is bitter cold up there but the ground is suspiciously warm.
Vents on the slope of the volcano
The view is breathtaking. The lower parts of the island and the sea are covered in fog. Below is the interior of the crater. Besides some fumaroles and yellow spots of sulfur deposition there is little evidence of activity. But the rising lava has built vents standing in a row like chimneys of a trolls house. From above is also visible that the northeastern part of the caldera is open to the sea. After the fog clears away we can see the village of Mosteiros at the coast below the volcano. Our next destination.
On the summit of the cone
The crater of the cone
Leaping down from the summit
The way down is easy. The warmed up ash fields behave like soft snow and we can jump down the flank of the mountain in big leaps. Each leap leaves a cloud of dust. We are back at our house for breakfast.
The hike down to Mosteiros
The coast at Mosteiros and the path down
Then we walk across the caldera floor to the flank of the island above Mosteiros. As soon as we leave the caldera we are in the middle of vegetation again. It gets lusher the more we descend. The stable political situation in Cabo Verde has attracted foreign aid. Different countries of the EU support individual islands. Fogo is the task of Germany and they have started digging wells for irrigation.
Dusk at the beach in Mosteiros
In 1999 Rosario and Leonor Rodrigues ran the pleasant Pensáo Restaurante Cristina & Irmáos in Mosteiros. The terrace overlooks the sea and the fishing boats beached on the black sand. The lovely little village has no more than a couple of short streets. At the time Mosteiros was the end of the road. The circular road around the island was not finished. To go back to Sao Filipe you had to drive around three quarters of the island. There is no public transport but Rosario and Leonor find somebody who has to go to Sao Filipe the next morning and can give us a lift.
Farm house and terraced fields
I always long for going to the end of the road. For the Sotavento group of islands of Cabo Verde that is the little island of Brava. At sunset each evening it lures deceptively close across the water from our roof top terrace in Sao Filipe. Even though it is so close the ferry to the other side runs irregularly. Strong winds and bad weather can stop the service altogether for days. So unfortunately we cannot go. But we have made some new friends who take the ferry and we join them on their way to the port and wave them out.
Boats waiting for cargo
Passengers being ferried to the boat to Brava
Building material being loaded for Brava
Although they have built an entire new port close to Sao Filipe and the ferry is not very big it cannot berth inside the high wavebreakers. Like we have observed before in San Antao (corona story number 21) the loading and unloading of cargo and passengers has to be done with rowing boats. The sea is very calm today and the boats are loaded to a degree that every unexpected wave would spill over the doll board and sink the boat. But they know what they are doing and even stacks of wooden planks are transported cross on the boats.
We, unfortunately, have to leave on one of the little planes for Praia, the capital of Cabo Verde, on the island of Santiago.
The Fogo volcano returned to activity in 2014. The population of Chã das Caldeiras, which against all odds had risen to around 1,000 souls again after 1995, spent the night outside their houses due to strong earthquakes. After initial resistance they followed the orders of evacuation when the eruptions began. The 2014 eruption was even stronger than the one of 1995 and on November 23rd, 2014 the village of Portela in the Chã das Caldeiras was covered by a lava stream and completely destroyed. After 77 days of activity the eruption stopped on February 8th, 2015. 75% of the buildings in Chã das Caldeiras were destroyed. The bar and the house where we stayed in 1999 were covered by lava.
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