Casa das Mares II Peniche

... of black volcanic cobblestones making for an interesting if somewhat jarring and noisy journey. Sunday 18/01/09 at sea wind force 8-9 sea 5-6m Monday 19/01/09 At sea but a much better day today with the wind having dropped to force 4-5 and the sea much calmer, with temperatures of 27-29 °C. We cross the equator tomorrow so there'll be an interesting ceremony I've no doubt.

Today we went together with Monica's friend to Peniche. We were told to find some nice beaches here. Peniche used to be an island, so it has water allmost all around it. The beaches are big, and a plus for surfers are the big waves. In the old town you can find some of the best seafood I've ever tasted. At evening time the happening ...

Landed we have on this desert island of Sal. At the arrival those persons having a valid visa can go through a passport control and out. But those that do not have a visa-stamp in their passports have to go to a small, hot room at the left corner of the arrival hall. One meets there two CV-officers. If you have paid for your visa via a travel agency your name should be on the excel list they have in the ...

... looking them in the eye before shooting them. El Loco's technique involved a more hit and miss approach, ie I expect he shot the spear gun 20 times for each fish he caught. With that in mind it was amusing to see that they both caught the same amount of fish - 10 each. Antonio was so pleased with the days catch that he gave up 10 of the fish for us to barbeque. He was also kind enough to make a special ...

... guys, Klause and El Loco. El Loco, 35, is a funny guy from Hamburg who is the master of ingenuity and invention! For example a local friend of ours goes spear fishing pretty everyday and one day caught too many and so we started preparing for a big bbq. El loco found a wheel hub for the coals to sit in¡K.. he then decided that because he lived on the second floor of the house that he would dangle chairs and cutlery over his balcony to ...

... a kite! (hurray we were on the right track). This made us pick up the pace in the heat and within no time we had arrived at shark beach where we were greeted with 15 knots of wind and more kites than we could count. The folloing day we got a lift in a pick up truck and went out kitesurfing. The following few day the wind had dropped to 10 knots, not enougth for kitesurfing so we spent many hours dangling our legs off the rickedly old pier trying to catch ...

... well. I was lucky and did not have anyone in front of me to recline the seat. Otherwise it gets really cramped. I have no idea how some of our fellow passengers could have sat through that flight given the size limitations. As far as how full it was from Cape Town to Atlanta I counted about 5-10 empty seats out of about 100 in the back third of the plane. Some people just ...

The two Spaniards had to take off, back to work, and Uli and me continued down the coast to Peniche, a cute little beach town with magnificent views. We stayed at a hostel right at the beach for two nights and it was gorgeous. Did some shopping had a good time walking up and down the beach, and met a pervert. He was sunbathing in some kind of a little bay maybe a hundred meters down the beach but he kept stepping forward to look at us ...

We were given two options - stay on the plane or go to the terminal - during refueling. I chose the terminal because that meant getting up and walking. Of course, I didn't think that there would be nothing other than a large room there. So it was standing around for 1-1/2 hours while they refueled the plane.

Well it's -38 deg C when I boarded the first plane. the 727's heater froze over night, they pass around blankets and off we go. eventually by Minniapolis the plane defrosts. New York was around freezing and I had a couple hours to wait so it was walk around JFK. The South African Air 747 took off in the evening. A fuel stop in Cape Verde allowed us a streach and a visit with the three legged dog. Landed in Jo'bergurg and took the bus into ...