Fogo, Cape Verde Islands
Today we spent most of the day traveling by van up the 6000’ flank of Fogo, the active volcanic island of the Cape Verde archipelago. Fogo has been active for the entire period of European occupation, at least since 1500 and has erupted more or less every fifty years since then. Older lavas attest to its activity long before the historic period. This year the island is incredibly lush, a great difference from its usual dry appearance. The Cape Verde Islands have a long and tragic history of famine caused by crop failure, always due to failure of the rains. The rainy season in Cape Verde is controlled by the migration of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone which barely makes it as far north as the islands at its northernmost position. This year it began to rain on the islands in July, and continued to rain almost continuously until this week. This has produced a very rich harvest of beans and corn, the stables of the Cape Verdean diet.
The volcano itself is a most impressive sight and we are able to drive right down into the caldera and across the caldera floor to a little village called Cha das Caldeiras, where a few hardy souls carve out a subsistence surrounded by fresh lava flows and blowing piles of cinders. The last eruption was in 1995 and that lava is very fresh and delighted the several professional geologists who are sailing on National Geographic Endeavour on this voyage.
The people of the islands, and especially the people of Fogo, are delightful as well. They are a people with a proud heritage who have been tested by their living conditions, but who carry on with hope and joy about the world and about their beautiful islands. We are always greeted by smiles and waves and almost everyone has a friend or relative living in the United States in the large Cape Verdean communities of southeastern New England.
Today we spent most of the day traveling by van up the 6000’ flank of Fogo, the active volcanic island of the Cape Verde archipelago. Fogo has been active for the entire period of European occupation, at least since 1500 and has erupted more or less every fifty years since then. Older lavas attest to its activity long before the historic period. This year the island is incredibly lush, a great difference from its usual dry appearance. The Cape Verde Islands have a long and tragic history of famine caused by crop failure, always due to failure of the rains. The rainy season in Cape Verde is controlled by the migration of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone which barely makes it as far north as the islands at its northernmost position. This year it began to rain on the islands in July, and continued to rain almost continuously until this week. This has produced a very rich harvest of beans and corn, the stables of the Cape Verdean diet.
The volcano itself is a most impressive sight and we are able to drive right down into the caldera and across the caldera floor to a little village called Cha das Caldeiras, where a few hardy souls carve out a subsistence surrounded by fresh lava flows and blowing piles of cinders. The last eruption was in 1995 and that lava is very fresh and delighted the several professional geologists who are sailing on National Geographic Endeavour on this voyage.
The people of the islands, and especially the people of Fogo, are delightful as well. They are a people with a proud heritage who have been tested by their living conditions, but who carry on with hope and joy about the world and about their beautiful islands. We are always greeted by smiles and waves and almost everyone has a friend or relative living in the United States in the large Cape Verdean communities of southeastern New England.
