Behind the Shutters of Mindelo

What a contrast today had been. After visiting some of the poorest countries in Africa, the Cape Verde Islands provided a welcome relief and a prequel to the Caribbean Islands that await us over the next ten days.

Cape Verde is a group of rugged, volcanic islands located about 350 miles off the west coast of Africa.

Docking in the port city of Mindelo, it was a bright sunny Sunday morning and all was quiet except for the sounds of singing that came through the windows of the Church of the Nazarene, a small building just off the main square.

The buildings of Mindelo have a Portuguese charm to them - clay tiled roofs, pastel coloured walls and wooden shutters in various states of repair.

The swaying palms, bougainvillea and hibiscus seemed to soften the narrow streets, many of which are cobbled.

Down on the waterfront it looked as though Sunday was "dog bathing day". Locals took their canine companions on leashes into the bay, ruffling their coats in the salty water. Man and dog unified in their pleasure of the cooling water.

The sleepy feeling of this colourful town perhaps hides many a secret behind its shutters because the history of the islands is quite a story.

Portugal claimed the uninhabited islands for their empire in the 1400s, bringing enslaved Africans to work in their newly established sugar plantations.

Entrepreneurs and those seeking solace from religious persecution in Europe followed, adding to the potent ethnic mix one sees in today's residents. But its interesting that of the million or so Cape Verdeans, over one half live elsewhere in the world.

The Cape Verde Islands became independent in 1973 after a particularly nasty struggle in the jungles of Guinea-Bissau on the African mainland - an ultimately failed attempt to join both countries into one nation.

A far cry from today's sleepy Sunday morning as the colour of the buildings intensified in the morning sun and the shutters of its buildings slowly opened to let in another day.