Mon, 03.11.2025: São Filipe on the Fire Island of Fogo

Flight to the volcanic island of Fogo. City tour through the charming historic centre of São Filipe with its colourful houses and the city museum. A panoramic drive takes leads up into the crater area. Along the way, stops to photograph the different lava landscapes with magnificent views. The host family welcomes us to a typical Cape Verdean dinner. Domestic flight: 30 min. City tour São Filipe: 1.5 hrs. pure driving time: 2 hrs. Overnight stays: 2 nights, Pension Casa Marisa II, standard room

After a long wait for the plane to Fogo we changed islands in order to experience the largest volcano of Cabo Verde. The long drawn-out tour of the colourfully painted ex-colonial town of São Filipe was thankfully punctuated by a sort stop at a pizzeria apparently belonging to a namesake of mine. There were views of the smaller island of Brava partially enveloped in cloud.

A drive round many hairpin bends took us up amongst the lava to the floor of the Caldera at about 1800m. The view into the Caldera, which is itself the remains of a massive ancient volcano, is dominated by a more recent and sometimes active volcano raising to 2,829m. Inside there is little green although there was some agriculture before the most recent eruption in 2014. We were staying in some African style round huts which had been built from the lava since then. They are rather cute, and look a bit like the ones I once saw at Albero Bello in Italy.