Tarde Mardi Gras

FYI: "tarde" means "late."

So today was our last full day in Cabo Verde, AND Carnival Tuesday (aka Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday...). Carnival is a big deal in Cabo Verde, though not on THIS island. But that's OK because I LUVS ME A CARNIVAL.

Our original plans were to see the 15th-century Ciudad Velha (Old City) settlement, a UNESCO Heritage Site about 20 minutes outside Praia. It's Cape Verde's oldest settlement, and the oldest European settlement in the tropics. There is a ton of slave and colonization history, but it's also insanely difficult to get to unless you pay a taxi driver an obscene amount of cash to take you there. So the lazy me won out over the history nerd me, and we opted for lunch and Carnival in Praia's Plateau neighborhood.

We climbed the staircase up to the Plateau for (hopefully) the last time. To access the Plateau, you must scale one of several steep flights of stone stairs straight up, and Praia has cheerfully painted all the stairs in rainbow colors in an attempt to charm me out of noticing the hellscape climb. (Please note that I am not fooled by this trickery. Screw those rainbows. I see you, Praia.) But it was definitely worth it- we found a tiny restaurant near the main square that offered a fantastic roasted chicken lunch special. With roasted potatoes, salad, and hibiscus juices, our total bill was barely €11. And luckily there was an ice cream shop next door to take my remaining cash, while also teaching me that Algodón Doce (Cotton Candy) is a shockingly delicious flavor.

We walked around Praia's old colonial streets, now government buildings and museums. It's a gorgeous setting atop the Plateau, surrounded by the ocean. But it's also hell-hot without any shade, so we stopped in the leafy town square to share a bottle of Cape Verde wine, and get out of the sun for a while.

Nobody we spoke to knew WHEN in "the afternoon" the Carnival parade was supposed to start: We were told 4pm, 5pm, AND 6pm. So we decided "afternoon" meant 4pm, and headed down the Plateau stairs to the main street hosting the parade, and staked out our curb real estate around 3:30pm. We bought Strela beers and popcorn from street vendors, and listened to the samba music playing in the streets. And waited.

We noticed that we were the only ones there. The viewing bleachers and the sidewalks were completely empty (at least the line for beers was very short).

We continued waiting...and still nothing by 5pm. At 6pm, the sidewalks began to fill with locals with costumed children in tow (Spiderman, unicorns, and ladybugs were very popular). But by 6:30 even the locals were getting restless. A bit before 7pm, dancers and floats FINALLY began to move down the street. The parade was led by the Carnival Queen and King, followed by a confusing float consisting of the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, Reykjavik's (Iceland) Cathedral, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa; and flocks of sequined, marching children, who, I am not gonna lie, looked like they'd rather be anywhere but in this parade.

And then, just twenty minutes later, everything stopped.

Thirty minutes later, the parade resumed (only barely before the locals revolted); more floats, more forced child participation, another King and Queen. It was hilarious, and exactly fit my expectations of what this Carnival would be. I will say, however, that Santiago Island's Carnival is less of a "Carnival," and more of a neighborhood event that the locals seem to endure rather than actually "enjoy."

We headed back to our Airbnb at 9pm, and stopped for one last drink on the beach before our departure early tomorrow morning. On our Airbnb's street was a beach bar in that particular style I've deemed "Euro-Douche": Overpriced cocktails, Thai-inspired bamboo and white linen seating (including beds!), random Euro-techno music, and those giant outdoor white "lamps." We ordered pontche and I enjoyed my drink on one of the beds. I am VERY cool. (This is the fiction I choose to tell myself.)

Tomorrow we depart on an 8am flight back to Europe, for a single night in Lisbon before continuing on to Barcelona.Lue lisää