13 May 2024
My husband and I took this hike as a shore excursion off of the Norwegian Viva cruise ship. We were docked in Cape Verde overnight and thought this would be a great way to see the island on the first afternoon/evening.
Paulo, another guide and his driver picked us up right outside the cruise port gate, it super easy to find them as they were on time and easy to spot in the line up of taxis. There were two other groups from the ship also on the tour, so a total of 9 tour passengers in all. We drove to the base of the mountain and started our hike. I would say that it is definitely not for those with any sort of mobility issues, but was a moderate hike overall - the first part was the more difficult as we were winding through smaller mountain tracks, but halfway up we switched to walking up the cobblestone road. There was a sandy haze over the whole sky this day, but we could still see for miles and it was truly beautiful.
Both Paulo and the other guide were excellent, lots of history was explained, gave us time for talking photos and made sure everyone was doing ok. The hike ended at the top of the mountain with a sampling of tea, coffee, island liquers, papaya jam and cookies. We then drove back down the mountain to our ship.
*We HIGHLY RECOMMEND this tour company and would definitely use them again if we ever make it back to Cape Verde.