Today is the 14th of February which means it’s Stupid Cupid day or Valentine’s Day. But it is also planning day for my upcoming trip to Cape Verde.
So, I started working with a project somewhere in September last year and I knew from the start that it would be over sometime early this winter. I figured the project would be quite intense and that I could use some vacation after that. I was right! The first month of this year I’ve spent more time at work than at home. February looks to be full of work too.
Anyway. Why Cape Verde? Well, first of all I was thinking I wanted to go some place sunny which can be nice at this time of the year. We do not see the sun so much here in Sweden during the winter.
Cape Verde has always been interesting, this small group of islands off of the African coast. I was actually considering going to Cape Verde last year but I decided for my roundtrip in Africa instead. Some other places I looked into was Dubai, Gran Canaria or possibly Senegal/Gambia. None of these places felt as a good choice.
Another thing that made me think of Cape Verde was the relatively short flight time (about 9 hours) to get there. I was looking at places where I might find sun and stuff and things to do would be somewhat cheap. I had an idea that the trip should not cost me more than 10000 SEK, which equals about 1150€ or 1570$.
Anyway. I found both a flight and hotel for more or less 9000SEK total. I found this through one of the major charter companies in Sweden which surprised me. I thought I would find it cheaper on my own but finding a roundtrip flight that was cheap and didn’t include lots of switching planes at airports around Europe proved to be hard. Specially if you wanted the travelling time to be somewhat durable too. I also found it hard to find a hotel that was cheap and wasn’t located in the middle of nothing.
So, I ended up flying charter and living in an all inclusive hotel for cheaper than finding it on my own. And it’s located right at the beach with the diving company right outside. Speaking of diving, I needed something to do in Cape Verde and since the islands are quite barren islands there is probably not so much to do inland as there is to do in the sea. And prices on diving and diving courses are quite fair in my opinion so I made a decision. I’m going to upgrade myself to Advanced Open Water which should open up for some more interesting dives in the future.
Another reason to go there is the supposedly cheap seafood and local beverages!