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Text of the page (random words):
rt playing christmas songs round about the 20th of december it s heaven i know as everything that is sold here has to be imported and subjected to a hefty import tax not much can be bought it s a bit like east germany 25 years ago sometimes you get lucky and sometimes there just is no turkey or goose to be had anywhere on the island but we had duck roast and red cabbage and dumplings so all was good christmas day is of course a public holiday not surprising in a country where most people are catholics traditionally free days are spent on the beach something we did last year this year we opted for a different kind of amusement our nanny who takes care of the little monkey when we are working has never seen any of the sights sal island has to offer so we treated her to a private island tour in our pickup which of course included a visit to one of the most historic places on the island the salt mine salinas at pedra de lume east of the island capital espargos the place holds a special significance for the island after all salt is what the island was named for and salt is what brought the first settlers here granted today sal island makes its living mostly on tourist dollars but the living museum the pedra de lume installations are today still exhibits how lucrative the winning of salt must have been back in those days remnants of the old haulway the shipping terminal has seen better days of course the pedra de lume salt mine is not only historically interesting it is also breathtakingly situated in the crater of an extinct volcano first glimpse while approaching through the artificial access tunnel the caldera gets super hot in the tropical sun ideal for the production of salt from sea water the crater is actually a natural salt pan as its bottom lies below the sea level and the surrounding porous volcanic rock allows for sea water to enter when the salt production was industrialised in the 18th and 19th century a number of interconnected salt lakes was created an access tunnel blasted into the crater rim and a cableway for more efficient transport was built nowadays salt is not as valuable a commodity as it used to be so the production stopped being profitable instead tourism has taken over the salinas although declared a protected landscape by the capeverdean government were sold to a foreign investor who has established some kind of spa at a steep 5 one can enter the caldera and take a dip in one of the shallow lakes where the high salinity makes you float like in the dead sea salt is still produced on a very small scale and sold in souvenir shops in santa maria i m not sure i would want to put this into my food what i found most intriguing was wandering around and admiring the artwork that the salt has created with a little help from wind and sun ice crystals or not sugar uhm salt coating salt floes sometimes the salt looks like icing and sometimes the resemblance with ice crystals is astounding and some areas appear to be snowed in in 30 c just looking at it makes me shiver personally i much prefer mock snow over the real deal anyway whereever in the world you are whether you have snow or summer or something inbetween i wish you a great start into the new year may it be full of adventure and happiness posted in where i live tagged cape verde living museum pedra do lume sal sal island salt salt mines 9 comments december 9 2013 by sandra parsons developing and getting there dear readers today i saw a crew of municipality workers putting up a christmas tree here in sal s capital town espargos which reminded me that one of my previous posts featured last year s plastic bottle tree which in turn made me realise just how long i have not posted anything in this blog i have no excuse except my kids and my general laziness moving on in my last post i added a link because after all this time i don t expect anyone to remember this i promised to tell you a bit more about the down sides of living in my little tropical paradise i ve changed my mind i mean there are annoying things happening on a quite regular basis and i am diligently making notes to compile a nice rant but then i never really feel in the mood to actually complain mostly because i am just too knackered in the evening i guess so i decided that instead i am going to educate you a little more on my adopted home cape verde i came across this little infographic the other day and it went straight into my marketing file how come only very few people back home in europe have ever heard of this country it s about time this changes have a look image compliments of master of finance degrees if you go to their homepage http www master of finance org africa economy they give you a bit of background information on the individual indicators for each category i like that cape verde s national security scores 100 cross border tensions government involvement in armed conflict domestic armed conflict political refugees internally displaced people in other words the likelihood to become victim of a terrorist attack here equals zero one of our major arguments in the effort to divert egyptian tourism into our direction cape verde is one of only two countries that ranks among the top 5 in all four categories impressive isn t it being married to a saffer i should probably not say this but eat your heart out south africa so next time my bread isn t finished in time for dinner because a power cut interrupted my bread baking machine i will find comfort in the fact that i live in a place that has the highest score of all african countries in the human rights section and this here might help as well kite surfing south of serra negra or this don t move here if you can t stand kitsch or this here just another day at the office sorry i couldn t resist posted in where i live tagged africa cape verde developing countries diving human rights infographic kite surfing national security sunset tropical paradise 10 comments march 17 2013 by sandra parsons be prepared to cry dear readers i know some of you have been dying to learn what on earth made me move with my family to a remote place like cape verde the answer is certainly a mix of different reasons but in short it boils down to one word sun now i am experienced read old enough to realise that sunshine alone won t make me happy in the long run why do you think did i bring my family dummies but seriously there are other aspects that made husband and me take the leap and leave two perfectly normal bourgeois lives behind for the time being we don t particularly care for normal we wanted to try something else we wanted to live our dream which of course can turn out to be a sizeable nightmare to be sure but that s another day s post today i would like you to be jealous very jealous of the sunny sides of live on sal island santa maria beach atrocious i know this is a 3 minute walk from where i live and about 3 seconds from where i work picturesque isn t it fishing from the pier dinner definitely sunday beach day with the family just hanging out water sports this beats winter in europe by a loooooong margin next time on islandmonkeys how to cope with power outages water cuts limited supplies broken appliances and other niceties just so that you don t get too green in the face posted in where i live tagged africa beach cape verde fishing living the dream sal santa maria water spots 36 comments december 31 2012 by sandra parsons of recycling rubbish and rethinking before christmas i have posted pictures of our town s recycled christmas tree strolling through santa maria i noticed that there seems to be quite the recycling theme going on this year so on my next visit to town we live a few walking minutes outside i took my camera and caught some of the awesome ideas wine bags as a garland probably my favourite flowers made from the top bits of plastic bottles stars made from the bottom of plastic bottles more recycled bottles christmas trees made from egg cartons the other night we went to the christmas party that my little monster s day nursery had organised they also had a large display of artificial christmas trees hand made by the kids and not few of them from recycled materials i love the one in the front made from flotsam and jetsam including bits of plastic fishing nets toilet roll leftover recycling as linda of one of my favourite blogs rangewriter said in a comment for now that s a lovely way to squeeze extra life out of all that silly plastic i agree and i am just glad they are teaching the kids here the value of resources and creative recycling linda continues but what happens at the end of the year very true and i only hope that one day they will do away with all the single use plastic water bottles altogether and go over to a reusable scheme 2012 has actually seen an island wide campaign to get rid of plastic bags more effort than england can claim as i complained about in another era unfortunately the plastic bag ban here seems to be working only in theory i generally have to fend off the plastic bags that i am given when shopping even though i am usually there with the little monkey s pram and its generous basket underneath plus waving around my cloth shopping bag with the berlin motive sigh the going argument is that people here in a developing country have more basic problems to worry about than a bit of plastic spoiling the landscape really a nation that increasingly relies on tourism as an income source can afford to have foreign guests disgusted with litter strewn beaches the other day i was watching a team of workers without doubt paid by the municipality cleaning the salt pans one of the attractions of santa maria the relentless wind here carries all kinds of garbage around and the little salty lakes are first class collecting basins would you like to use this sea salt to season your food not very attractive my hope is that the young generation is learning now that avoiding rubbish is cheaper in the long run than cleaning it up the rethinking is probably not going to happen in 2013 but one day to all of you a very happy and successful new year with lots of adventures friends love and laughs posted in where i live tagged christmas christmas decorations new year plastic plastic bags recycling rubbish 14 comments december 21 2012 by sandra parsons from island to island dear readers my life has changed not only did we have another baby we have also moved to cape verde an island nation in the middle of the atlantic ocean what made us move here is a story for another day for now i wanted to explore the options of this blog i have neglected writing for a while if for a good reason i mean apart from this baby business moving to a different country has shifted my focus somewhat so life in the uk and the quirks of the brits suddenly didn t seem all that important to me anymore no offence but then i love writing okay i m not a bored housewife anymore so i won t be able to produce anything too regular however after only a few days here on our new island i feel the urge to put my experiences into words i briefly considered starting a new blog but then i am also an attention whore so forfeiting a faithful hard earned wordpress followership of believe it or not 51 was absolutely out of the question plus we do live on an island again don t we so i have decided to highjack my own blog name and re dedicate it to my new adventures on the island of sal i know i will have to adjust my about page and the mission statement but bear with me there are only 24 hours in my day for today i will leave you with an impression of what christmas in a tropical developing country looks like cape verde is an up and coming tourist destination but one of the many sustainability problems that needs to be resolved before long is rubbish here is a creative and very capeverdean way of recycling building a christmas tree getting there the finished artwork in all its splendour happy christmas to all of you may you get to spend some quality time with your families and friends and may the quantity of presents only play a minor role in measuring your happiness posted in this blog where i live tagged africa cape verde christmas recycling 16 comments july 18 2012 by sandra parsons tap dance ok this one has been bugging me for a long time who on earth thinks of a design like that i mean look at it notice anything strange faulty design through and through it s in need of a clean yeah i knew you were gonna say that i ll get to it as soon as this post is published promised after all a girl needs to get her priorities straight anything else the taps what my american readers might know as faucets are too short definitely they do not combine well with my little monster s short arms or my big hands for that matter the handle design doesn t exactly lend itself to opening the taps with soapy sticky hands oh yes but that is not a typically british issue unfortunately no what i am really peeved about is the fact that there are separate taps for hot and cold water a standard here on the island and i can t help but wonder why sure my basins at home are all equipped with a plug so i could mix the water in the basin which is absolutely fine when i want to fill my bath tub to take a bath but who takes the time to fill the basin for a quick hand wash especially one as shallow as this one that needs to be almost overflowing to give you enough depth to submerge your hands apart from my little monster of course whose arms are too short to reach the taps anyway so why don t island monkeys do mixer taps they are so much more convenient and faster and in a public toilet pretty much the only way to wash your hands with warm water without adding more germs than there are on them to start with honestly when i see a construction like that i wonder why they even bothered putting in a second tap for the hot water what a waste of material especially when the basin in question does not possess the added amenity of a plug what am i expected to open both taps and then alternately let cold and hot water run into my cupped hands until the temperature is right how does that work with the dinky little hands of a three year old and how do i then close the taps again while i clean my hands with soap oh yeah i forgot i can t close them because it s impossible to re open them with soapy hands so cold water it is then i swear since i have moved to the uk roughly three years ago i have never washed my hands with warm water the sad thing is it s not like mixer taps aren t available in this country you can buy them at any diy store people here just don t it s a mystery if there is anyone out there who can explain this to me please do much obliged posted in humor humour rants tagged mixer taps separate taps taps 20 comments june 25 2012 by sandra parsons when you hear crisp do you think of lettuce dear readers i have to apologise when i started this blog in november last year i did so with the unexpressed but underlying in...