Page 19 - 2003 - Atlantic Islands

The first educational session today was a lecture on the Cape Verde Islands which

addressed the volcanic origins of the archipelago rather than its cultural history.

However, we did learn that Darwin is important in the history of these islands since

he did some of his studies here as well as in South America and the Galapagos. He

was particularly interested in the similarity of animals and plants on these islands to

those of Senegal on the African coast. Now we know that the Cape Verdes broke off

the African Continent when various tectonic plates shifted.

Cape Verde has northern and southern sections which are different in their dryness

and in their positions relative to the winds off the Sahara. The Northern Section

where we are to visit has the hot & dry winds of the Sahel while Sao Tiago where the

capital of the country, Priya, sits is relatively moister and more able to produce

vegetation and to permit agriculture. So windward is wetter and leeward is drier. The

Cape Verdes sit near the Inter-tropical Zone of Convergence where the warmer

waters of the tropics meet with colder waters coming from the North and create a

richer supply of sea life than in the tropics.

The island we are to visit is called Sao Vicente and its capital is the second largest of

the Cape Verdean cities, Mindelo, with 55,000 inhabitants. The highest point on the

island is Mt. Verde which is 2539 feet high. The island is characterized by dry, stony

plains, sand dunes, barren hills with some pitiful attempts at forestation with

introduced acacia trees.

This is another country where there are more natives living away from their home

country than actually living in it. There are about 700,000 folks living here and more

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