In the Valley – Countryside of Santo Antão

Santo Antão is unlike any place I’ve ever been or even seen. It requires time for contemplation and observation.
The southern part, with the back turned to the dusty-lit coast reminded me of depictions of the plant Mars with breath-taking basalt mountains with impressive formations from the top to the bottom. As I approached the north-eastern region, very quickly one tone of green populates the base of the mountains being noticeable the plantation of bananas, papayas and yam.
Here I felt the balance between people and its environment with plenty of food being cultivated by locals, as well as some animals like pigs, goats and chickens, and houses made of local materials, many of them very colourful like the whole archipelago. Earlier at a local restaurant there was no humming of engines, no buzz of electric devices, just the soft-sounding work and conversation of people, sometimes punctuated by music – morna or reggae. One is then able to hear a few species of bumblebees when they hoover around red and purple flowers that pop all around.
People call each other through the mountains and play with the acoustics. Even I had an exchange with someone I haven’t even seen.

Sitting down in the valley with crumbling walls, I would once in a while hear what it sounded like an old can dancing with the wind, but it turned out to be a dry leaf of the Sodom’s Apple (Calotropis procera), which curls and hardens.
Listening with a promise to comeback and the curiosity of what it is like to hear this place in the short rainy season.