Week 50 - More Cape Verde

52 Week Challenge, Week 50 – More Boa Vista, Cape Verde

I have so many images from our recent holiday that I just had to make another Cape Verde panel this week.

The Catholic chapel of Our Lady of Fatima was built in 1923 by a Jewish man for his Catholic wife. The chapel fell into disrepair and was eventually abandoned until in 2015 it was renovated and given to the Catholic church.

The MS Cabo Santa Maria was a Spanish cargo ship carrying luxury goods for Franco. It ran aground off the coast of Boa Vista in 1968. No crew were harmed but the cargo took more than a year to be unloaded by the people of Cape Verde. Now there is very little of the ship left to see and eventually the sea will swallow up the rest of the rusty carcass.

Cape Verde has the 3rd largest population of nesting loggerhead turtles in the world, mostly nesting on Boa Vista. From July to October they come ashore at night to lay their eggs. A guard lives in this little hut for these months and keeps watch over the beach and the turtles.

Curral Velho was an old fishing village, now deserted and in ruins. It’s remoteness along the southern coast of Boa Vista, the lack of fresh drinking water especially in the dry season and the regular pirate attacks encouraged the inhabitants to move north to the larger towns.