The one where Cabo Verde showed me pepper.

Cabo Verde Airlines is the king of trash. If trash airlines had a whatsapp group, Cabo Verde Airlines will be the group admin.

If you follow me on IG, then you may have known that I visited Cape Verde in December.

Sigh.

I suffered.

I initially thought it was my fault for doing a low budget trip and seeing low budget troubles but in retrospect that made no sense. Crappy service can’t be explained away by the cost of the service. If a business does not profit the owner, it is best to shut it down than dish out crap because you aren’t breaking even. Cabo Verde Airlines only started operations in Nigeria in December 2019 and they are by far the worst airline that ever existed in the world of terrible airlines.

The flight was scheduled for 3:10am, it was later rescheduled for 4:30 am about a few weeks to the trip. Anyhow, we got to the airport for 1am, bear in mind it was a workday and we all came from work to the airport. By the way, MMIA is fine now o, they had Christmas trees and stuff.

Back to my ordeal, there was a long queue to check in as expected since half of Nigeria was going to Cape Verde for Christmas. Dearly beloved, we did not finish checking in till 4am. I spent 3 whole hours to check in for a 4-hour flight. We finally got to the boarding gate and by then we were all ready to drop. We were at the boarding gate waiting for our flight to be called, 30 minutes passed and no word, 1 hour same thing, at about 6am someone finally blew into that scratchy mic they use to say the flight had been delayed for 3 hours!!! Bear in mind this announcement came at about 2 hours after the flight was scheduled for which means we were going to be delayed for 5 hours. I cussed at everything I could, my friend’s sister had her kids with her suffering since 1am. No one offered us any form of relief either in the form of food or accommodation or even ticket or mileage.

This experience is another of the myriad of trash we experience daily as Nigerians. Not only are we shitty, other countries then have the gall to cross the border and shit on us as well. This kind of foolery will never happen in another country, airport authorities wouldn’t even allow you keep passengers stranded for 10 hours without any remedy of any kind. It’s worse because I was also resigned knowing we will never get any compensation for our stress because enforcement of travel laws is zero and the helplessness made me sad, just sad. I no longer had anger to dissipate at this point.

To cut a very annoying story short, we boarded at about 9:45am and taxied off about past 10am, which means I spent about 10 hours in the airport. I slept throughout the trip and we all dropped immediately we got to our hotel. Buttttt, I am not going to allow the mess the flight was detract from the absolute beauty that Cape Verde is.

The first thing that hits you as you step into the island of Sal is the refreshingly clean air, oxygen so pure it should be bottled for sale. Oh, and the breezy atmosphere which is expected as it is an island. We stayed in this massive and very impressive all-inclusive resort called Melia Dunas. It has flats with 1, 2 and 3 bedrooms, 8 bars and 4 adults pools, there are some villas which are exclusive, and I know not much about but Google’s got you though. The resort has everything such that you may not need to go into town for anything till you leave.

Santa Maria is the major bubbly area in Sal, best place to buy supplies and especially street food. If ou ever find yourself in Sal, there is a cute Italian restaurant called Leonardos and they have the best food. Writing this is making me crave it all over again. Cape Verde is CLEAN. I mean not a speck of dirt in sight throughout our stay there. Santa Maria is like a market area where one would expect it will naturally be dirty but NO, that place looks almost cleaner than Rwanda (I have not been to Rwanda yet).

I put it to you that Cape Verdeans are the finest people in Africa. My goodness, these guys look good enough to eat. They have such soft curly nappy hair that makes you want to run your hands through it. Their men look like a dream come true. Phew, don’t take my word for it, visit Cape Verde and hope one of them offers to marry you.

The most profound thing I realized while there though is how life means different things to different people. Their slang or mantra in Cape Verde is “no stress’. I saw first hand how people derived joy in the jobs they do. An example is the tour guide we had on the island tour, he had so much passion while doing his work. There was a taxi we got talking to and I asked if he wanted to do something else or better and he said he was okay with what he does. Contentment is so beautiful to see. The guys that drive the buggy that takes people to the rooms look somewhat happy as well. During the time I noticed those things I realized we all don’t have to do the most to be happy. Just finding what makes you happy whether massive or not is more satisfaction that some people will ever have in their lifetime, this gave me a whole new perception of success.

I didn’t try their local food even though I wanted to. One time I did though it ended in hot tears and about €15 down the drain.

Cape Verde was colonized by Portugal, it has 10 islands. Santiago is the suburb and densely populated one, Sal is the more laid-back touristy location and one of the islands will soon be submerged in years to come. Sal has beautiful beaches, clear blue waters, so picturesque and some of the attractions are the Blue Eye cave, the Shark Bay (you see live sharks),the salt mines, the Lionhead Murderia and several other of nature’s blessings.

Will you be visiting Cape Verde any time soon? If yes, my advice to you is that you trek there. You are welcome.

PS: One racist idiot asked me and my friend how we could afford to stay in the resort we stayed at. His wife apologized on his behalf on the pretext that he is always rude. LMAO. Men forever embarrassing their wives in public.

P.P.S : There was a 5 hour delay on the return leg of the flight back to Nigeria. Every flight that left Lagos to Sal and back the same route was delayed in December. Someone’s flight was delayed for 2 whole days and he had to buy an Emirates ticket probably flying to Dubai first then Lagos. A mess and then some.