Just recently, the Cape Verde village of Monte Trigo experienced its first 24 hours of electricity. The 60-family community is only reachable by boat and is completely dependent on fishing and its trade with nearby villages. The need for ice to preserve fish is vital, and villagers must travel five-hour by boat to purchase it.

A reliable and clean source of energy was needed to enable sustainable and affordable electricity. It would not only provide basic needs like lighting, communication and community services, but also be useful for ice production.

With the support of the ACP-EU Energy Facility programme, local groups responded to help finance and develop an off-grid solar energy project. The installation includes a rural multi-user solar micro-grid with a photovoltaic generator mounted on a special wooden pergola. The pergola also provides shade to the village’s schoolyard.

The needs of the village are supplied with standard electricity of 230V, 50Hz AC delivered through an 800m aerial distribution line to 60 users including households, one school, a church, a kindergarten, a health centre, a satellite TV dish centre, three general stores and 22 street lights.

Studer Innotec contributed with technical know-how, supporting Trama TecnoAmbiental (TTA), the designers of the facility, in accomplishing this original solution where two micro-grids share excess energy. Their Xtender inverter-chargers allowed a flexible management of the system’s energy production and consumption.

The 214 A-130P modules (each containing 36 polycrystalline cells) were supplied byATERSA, that also designed the pergola to aid the installation of the modules and supplied the batteries, regulators, converters and all the structures required for installation of the system.

The PV micro power plant can produce an average of 74kWh per day. Part of this energy is consumed during the daytime and part is stored in batteries with a capacity of about 370 kWh for night-time consumption. The old 20kVA generator can be used as a backup burning expensive diesel fuel, so it is essential that users understand the implications of their behaviour on the electricity service and cost.

Batteries with 370 kWh capacity for energy storage

In the initial phase of the project, TTA interviewed users to assess their energy needs and their willingness to pay for the 24 hour service. Then the concept of Energy Daily Allowance (EDA) was introduced.

The EDA makes the demand-management more intelligent and flexible by capping the power and energy available to each user to an agreed maximum. This ensures the plant operates within its rated design and prevents black outs or unforeseen increases in operating costs because of higher back-up diesel fuel consumption. This limit is, nevertheless, flexible, depending on the plant’s condition. On very sunny days users may make use of the surplus generation at no extra cost.  Each family chose their EDA from five possible options:

EDA tariff options

Tariff collection is based on fixed monthly fees related to the contracted EDA and sustains operation and maintenance activities and pays back part of the capital costs. Users are very happy with this scheme because it allows them to have an energy budget cost that they can count on.

The implementation is done through a special type of meter – called an electricity dispenser – that permanently shows the available energy allowance and provides a signal to encourage or prevent consumption, according to the plant’s condition.

Major changes are already shaping the life of this community: one user already has bought his first refrigerator. It is expected that with the two ice machines, capable of up to 500 kg/day production using peak-of-the-day, surplus generation will improve the commercial activity which sustains the village’s economy.

Written by Simon Rolland, Secretary General of the Alliance for Rural Electrification.

Source

Four hundred and fifty kilometres off the west coast of Africa you’ll find the Atlantic archipelago of Cape Verde – a cluster of tropical islands that for centuries were popular with seafarers and slave traders travelling between Europe, Africa and the Americas.  Over the years, development has been slow, but since gaining independence in 1975, foreign money has been invested and tourist infrastructure has improved.  With the additional bonus of year round sunshine, Cape Verde is attracting European holidaymakers and now with direct flights from the UK, word is spreading – Cape Verde is one of the hottest new must-see destinations.

Sal was the first island in the archipelago to erupt from the sea over fifteen million years ago and it’s where I headed to get my first taste of the islands.  When budgeting for a holiday in the current economic climate it makes great sense to go all-inclusive, especially on an island that’s still relatively undeveloped.   I therefore opted for an all-inclusive break at Hotel Melia Tortuga.    The majority of hotels on the island are in and around Santa Maria, the main tourist area.   The Melia Tortuga is a good  hour and half walk along the beach to Santa Maria (be sure to try it at least once, you’ll welcome the exercise to walk of the excess pounds you’ll no doubt gain from all the delicious food on offer) or alternatively it’s  a 10 minute 3  euro taxi ride.  By being slightly apart and smaller than the large Rio hotel along the coast, with two pools and beautiful landscaped gardens, the hotel has an air of exclusivity about it.  If you’re looking to just literally fly and flop, gaze over the turquoise Atlantic Ocean whilst soaking up the guaranteed year round sunshine then it’s the perfect choice of hotel. For someone more used to action packed holidays, I surprised myself how   easily I adapted to the quieter routine.  As most of the island’s attractions can be seen in half a day, you’ll be spending a lot of time within the hotel and it therefore makes perfect sense to base yourself somewhere so aesthetically pleasing, peaceful and relaxing.  Most of the guests I talked to welcomed the ability to just do nothing and with a flight time of only 6 hours from the UK, it’s a great alternative to the Canaries as a winter sun break.

The hotel has 271 suites, apartments and villas.   My 2 bedroom suite was particularly spacious, styled with contemporary furnishings and had the added bonus of a large flat screen satellite TV in both the lounge and master bedroom.  The resort also has 3 & 4 bedroomed detached beach front villas with their own private garden and plunge pool.   For the spa enthusiast, the YHI spa offers a range of treatments and a thermal circuit including a sauna, steam bath, essence shower, sensations show, colour and contrast show and pediluvio.  I’m afraid I have no idea what the latter is as I was too busy doing my daily laps in the choice of two large pools.  Of these, one is livelier with an adjoining swim up bar and music and the other is slightly smaller and quieter.  There’s also a children’s pool.

Typical of an all inclusive, there’s a good selection of restaurants, so you can alternate lunch and dinner in different venues, the O Grille Beach Club bar and Grill being particularly popular at lunchtime.  It’s a great setting and has recently been voted one of the best bars in the world by CNN’s travel website, Global Experiences.

Sal is an island that is best enjoyed by beach lovers.  The pristine white sand beaches rival any of those found in the Caribbean and literally go on for miles.    In fact with a blend of African, Brazilian and Portuguese cultures, Cape Verde has been dubbed the African Caribbean (but without the hurricanes).   There’s no denying that Sal’s beaches are its biggest USP.    However, the island’s once mountainous topography has been whittled down by gusty Saharan winds and any vegetation has been obliterated.  At first glance the barren interior can be a tad depressing, it’s not as green as the name implies.   None the less, there’s still some impressive sights to see and it’s well worth doing the island tour.

Sal was discovered by the Portuguese in 1460 who named their new territorial gain Llana, which means ‘flat’.  It wasn’t until some time later, when salt was uncovered at the lake at Pedra de Lume, that its name was changed to Sal, meaning ‘salt’.

Pedra de Lume is a definite highlight of the island tour.  The salt lake is situated inside a long extinct volcano and if you’ve not been to the Dead Sea a swim or float in its shallow waters makes for an interesting experience.  The lake water is twenty six times saltier than sea water with saliency levels on a par with those found in the Dead Sea.  It’s therefore not difficult to get the requisite reading a newspaper whilst floating shot.  There’s a shower where you can wash of all the caked salt and a small café.  It’s a very atmospheric place, especially with the backdrop of the volcano and long abandoned conveyor system to transport the salt from the mine to the small port below.

Along with stunning beaches, Sal’s other claim to fame is wind.  The steady ocean breezes have made Sal one of the top places in the world for kite and windsurfing.  So although you might not get to enjoy swimming in the sea, the Atlantic rollers making it too rough, the breeze is a welcome respite from the heat and the champion surfers leaping off the waves make for a spectacular sight.

The slow pace of life on Sal grows on you and for city dwellers used to a frantic way of life there’s something very appealing about just lazing on the sand and relaxing by the pool.    If you’re looking for a first class, friendly and all inclusive hotel in a year round sun and sand destination that’s just a little different then the Melia Tortuga Beach on Sal in the Cape Verde Islands comes highly recommended.

Source

Jan. 30, 2012

LONDON, Jan 30, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Interval International, a prominent worldwide provider of vacation services and an operating business of Interval Leisure Group IILG -3.43% , announced the affiliation of The Resort Group Vacation Club based in Cape Verde, a group of 10 islands in the Atlantic Ocean 350 miles off the coast of Western Africa. The first resort to be included in the multi-site club is the Tortuga Beach Resort & Spa on Sal, one of the islands in the Cape Verde archipelago. Two other resorts are currently under construction, both on Sal Island.

The Resort Group Vacation Club comprises spacious two-bedroom apartments at the Tortuga Beach Resort and Spa that also includes a hotel managed by Melia Hotels & Resorts, together with additional apartments and private villas. Each vacation club apartment has a private terrace or balcony, an Italian kitchen, and an open-plan living area with a 42-inch TV.

“The Cape Verde islands, already a favourite destination of British, Portuguese, Italian, and German tourists, are gaining renown as an international destination,” said Darren Ettridge, Interval’s senior vice president of resort sales and business development for Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Asia. “Sal is the most developed of the islands and the setting of Tortuga Beach Resort & Spa makes the most of the island’s natural beauty.”

In addition to spectacular ocean views and a pristine white-sand beach (a nesting site for turtles), the lushly landscaped resort offers a range of luxury amenities, including an adult pool with a swim-up bar and children’s pool, YHi Spa, a state-of-the-art gym, and several restaurants and bars. Guests can choose from AQUA – a gourmet restaurant specializing in Italian and Mediterranean-style cuisine, Spices – the resort’s main restaurant featuring an international buffet, and O-Grille Beach Club Bar & Restaurant, included in CNN’s “World’s 50 best beach bars,” which offers some of the island’s best seafood and is the ideal place to watch the sunset. There is also the stylish Late Bar, the first and only Champagne Bar in Cape Verde.

“Sal Island is one of the world’s most idyllic locations,” said Adam Ellis, marketing director of The Resort Group Vacation Club. “Tortuga Beach Resort & Spa has been designed to the highest standards, weaving luxury and impeccable service into a true oasis of tranquillity. We look forward to sharing it with Interval International members.”

Tortuga Beach Resort & Spa is five minutes from restaurants and shopping in the town of Santa Maria and only 15 minutes from the Sal airport.

About Interval International

Interval International operates membership programmes for vacationers and provides value-added services to its developer clients worldwide. Based in Miami, Florida, the company has been a pioneer and innovator in serving the vacation ownership market for 35 years. Today, Interval has an exchange network of approximately 2,600 resorts in over 75 nations. Through offices in 15 countries, Interval offers high-quality products and benefits to resort clients and approximately 2 million families who are enrolled in various membership programmes. Interval is an operating business of Interval Leisure Group, Inc. IILG -3.43% , a leading global provider of membership and leisure services to the vacation industry.

SOURCE: Interval International

Santa Maria, Cape Verde – Soak up the sun, go for long walks on shimmering beaches and laze around on loungers – that is exactly what Uli and Heike are doing before the cold winter months begin.

The pair from Munich were not keen on flying to the Canary Islands again and so they chose a more unusual destination. ‘The Canaries get pretty full in the winter unlike the Cape Verde islands,’ said Heike.

Even in the main winter season there is little sign of hectic activity on Sal and neighbouring Boa Vista – even though these two are the most popular islands in the entire archipelago, which lies off the coast of West Africa.

Compared to the other eight inhabited Cape Verde islands, Sal, with its largely barren landscape, seems to have little of cultural or geographical interest to recommend it.

Santo Antaos boasts rugged mountains and fine hiking territory, Santiago is thoroughly African while Fogo has huge volcanic craters and the picturesque colonial town of Sao Filipe. Sal’s attractions are easily summed-up: Endlessly long white beaches lapped by a turquoise sea.

The island reminds 32-year-old Heike of Fuerteventura. The sparkling white beaches are certainly similar and the parched interior of volcanic cones, stony outcrops and shimmering red salt marshes reminds some well-travelled visitors of the Spanish-speaking island in the Atlantic. ‘The difference is that here it is not crowded and there are no architectural eyesores,’ said Uli. ‘The Cape Verde islands look like the Canaries must have done 60 years ago.’

This applies to the other Cape Verde islands but only to a certain extent to Sal. The international travel industry took some time before discovering the archipelago but it is now firmly on the tourist map. Sal already has its first high-rise hotels.

At the same time, Santa Maria can hardly be compared with established holiday resorts in Spain or Italy. The colourful housefronts in orange, yellow and turquoise are a legacy of the Portuguese colonial past, which has produced a colourful and enduring mix of Africa and Europe.

A good place to get acquainted with the locals is down at the harbour. The fishermen nudge up to the quayside in their boats and toss their catch straight onto the wooden pier. The area lies close to the handsome beach of Praia de Santa Maria which stretches more than two kilometres to Ponta do Sino. Thanks to the strong Passat wind, the south-west tip of the island as far as Ponta Preta ranks among the best of the world’s surfing spots.

Visitors who admire the lonely beaches on Sal will probably fall down in their knees in joy when they catch sight of the sandy expanses along the coastline of neighbouring Boa Vista. Around 80 per cent of the tourists venture no farther than the broad Praia da Chave beach, where two large holiday complexes have been built. This leaves the remaining Boa Vista beaches almost completely devoid of visitors. At Praia da Varandinha beach for example, the solitude is almost unnerving.

There is a logical reason for this. The unsurfaced tracks to most of the beaches behind dunes are difficult to negotiate. There are few signposts to go by and those without a good sense of direction and a robust set of wheels will simply not find them. Praia de Santa Monica, regarded by many as the most beautiful Cape Verde beach, is only reachable by four-wheel-drive vehicles.

Boa Vista has been dubbed Atlantic Sahara on account of Deserto de Viana with its huge shifting sands. Further inland the eye roves over a rocky desert with no sign of human life. The landscape is made up of eroded rocks and the stumps of volcanoes worn down by the eternal winds.

Source:  http://www.monstersandcritics.com/lifestyle/travel/news/article_1685894.php/Breathtaking-beaches-lure-tourists-to-the-Cape-Verde-islands

JANUARY 20TH, 2012 

Here is a sampling of some of the other wines that I found interesting at the Boston Wine Expo, and I will be posting about even more wines this week too.

Long a fan of South African wines, I am even a lover of the Pinotage grape, a rather divisive variety which I don’t feel gets enough credit. The quality of Pinotage wines continues to improve all the time. At the Expo, I found a delicious Rosé wine made from 100% Pinotage, the 2010 Fantail Pinotage Rosé.

Fantail is the second label of the Morgenhof Wine Estate, situated on the slopes of the Simonsberg mountains outside Stellenbosch. The winery dates back to 1692 and is currently owned by Anne Cointreau, part of the famed French liqueur company, and she was the first women to invest in South Africa post-apartheid. The winery is small, with 74 hectares under vines and only producing about 35,000 cases each year.

The Pinotage vines for this wine average about 15 years, and the juice receives about three hours of skin contact. It is a small production wine, sells for under $15 and has an alcohol content of 12.75%. It possesses a rich pink color, with a nose of red fruit, and on the palate it is crisp and dry, with tastes of strawberry and bright cherry. It is more an Old World style, and does not possess any of the negative characteristics that some try to attribute to Pinotage. If you tasted this wine, you probably would not even guess it was produced from Pinotage. But you very likely would enjoy it and it is well worth giving it a try.

Several New England wineries were present at the Expo and one of my favorites is Turtle Creek Winery of Lincoln. I posted about some of their wines last year, have written other posts about the winery, and am back with an update on some of their new wines. Kip Kumler(pictured above) is the owner and winemaker of Turtle Creek, a small, artisan winery which produces around 900-1000 cases annually. Kip is very passionate about wine and I believe he is a skilled winemaker.

As a treat, Kip was pouring a barrel sample of his 2010 Pinot Noir, the grapes being from the Carneros region. Though a bit rough, it showed plenty of potential with excellent red fruit flavors, good acidity and a touch of earthiness. This promises to be a very good wine when it is ready for bottling and I look forward to its release. The 2009 Syrah seemed to me to be even better than the 2008, possessed of deep, rich flavors, and being powerful but not overly tannic. Its complexity was attractive and it screamed out for a hearty steak. Check this one out.

Kip is introducing a special Reserve line and those wines will be identified with a black backed label rather than the usual white (and you can see that label above). Most of Kip’s wine are priced $18-$20, and the Reserve line will be priced around $30. The 2009 Cabernet Franc Reserve appealed to me, possessed of ripe black fruit flavors, a spicy backbone, and no green, vegetal notes. This is my preferred style of Cabernet Franc so I was very taken with it. It has plenty of complexity, a long and pleasing finish and is well balanced. Another recommended wine and I look forward to more of his Reserve wines.

One of the most unique offerings at the Expo were two wines fromCape Verde, which was the first time the wines had been shown in the U.S. Cape Verde is an island country in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of about ten islands. During the 15th century, Portugueseexplorers found the islands, soon after settling there and planting grape vines during the 16th century. Cape Verde gained its independence in 1975.

The island of Fogo (which is a Portuguese term for “fire“) has an active volcano, which includes a nine kilometer wide caldera, and the island rises to almost 3000 meters above sea level. There is a small village, Chã das Caldeiras (“Plain of the Calderas”), situated within the caldera, not exactly the safest place to be cause of the active volcano. Most of the grape cultivation of Cape Verde occurs on Fogo, and actually within the caldera itself at altitudes of 1500-2000 meters. Wine has been produced in the caldera for about 120 years. The manual agriculture and harvesting is difficult work in this terrain. Two cooperatives, Chã das Caldeiras and Sodade, produce all of the wine and production is very small, only about 160,000 bottles annually.

The first wine I tasted was the NV Chã Branco, made from 100%Moscatel and with an alcohol content of 14%. It has a light yellow color with an amber tinge and a nose of perfume and herbs. On the palate, there were flavors of flowers, herbs and spices with a mild grapefruit taste as well. It had decent acidity and a touch of sweetness. I would have enjoyed this with some spicy Asian food. The second wine was the Chã Passito, also made with late harvest Moscatel grapes but which had been dried in the sun. It only has an alcohol content of 10.6%. This was a sweet wine, though balanced with nice acidity, and there were flavors of honey, dried apricot, raisins and with some floral notes and even some minerality. Both wines were good and I would like to try more wines from Cape Verde.

Next time you visit a large wine tasting or expo, skip the California Cabernet and French Bordeaux and seek out the less common wines, the more unusual choices.

Source: http://passionatefoodie.blogspot.com/2012/01/boston-wine-expo-pinotage-rose-to-cape.html 

26 January 2012

A report by the campaign group Reporters Without Borders has suggested that press freedom in the UK has declined over the past year due to “archaic” libel laws, the Leveson Inquiry and the London riots.

The 2011/12 Press Freedom Index shows Britain has dropped nine places in the world rankings to 28th, falling below the likes of Cape Verde and Namibia, the first two African countries to break into the top 20.

The UK now stands at its joint lowest position since the survey was first carried out in 2002.

RWB England and Northern Ireland representative Heather Blake said the UK’s decline could be attributed to the Leveson Inquiry, which she said was “discussing regulations that should not even be considered” and “archaic” libel laws which “threaten freedom of reporting”.

The accompanying report added: “[The UK] caused concern with its approached to the protection of privacy and its response to the London riots. Despite universal condemnation, the UK also clings to a surreal law that allows the entire world to come and sue news media before it courts.”

Citing the impact of the London riots, RWB said it was “worried” about cooperation between the BlackBerry manufacturer Research in Motion (RIM) and the police after the company provided Scotland Yard with information about a number of BlackBerry users following the disturbances.

RWB claimed this “jeopardised” their personal data.

Arab Spring

The rankings are based on a country’s score in a 44-question survey covering areas including violence against journalists, censorship laws and freedom of the internet.

As has been the case in each of the surveys put together over the past decade, Scandinavian countries dominate the top of the table, with Finland and Norway taking joint top spot this year.

Meanwhile, Eritrea, North Korea and Turkmenistan make up the bottom three for the seventh year in a row.

This year’s figures also drop the United States 27 places to 47th, after some journalists were arrested during coverage of the Occupy Wall Street protests.

Niger climbed 75 places to 29th after a “successful political transition”.

Of particular interest to RWB was the movement of the Middle Eastern nations where large changes occurred during the Arab Spring.

Tunisia (130th) and Libya (154th) saw the biggest advance in press freedom, according to RWB, while Egypt fell 39 places to 166th and Syria (176th), Yemen (171st) and Bahrain (173rd) received their worst-ever rankings.

RWB said in a statement: “This year’s index sees many changes in the rankings, changes that reflect a year that was incredibly rich in developments, especially in the Arab world.

“Never has Freedom of Information been so closely associated with democracy. Never have journalists, through their reporting, vexed the enemies of freedom so much. Never have acts of censorship and physical attacks on journalists seemed so numerous,” it said.

“The equation is simple: the absence or suppression of civil liberties leads necessarily to the suppression of civil liberties leads necessarily to the suppression of media freedom.”

Source: http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=48635&c=1 

Cape Verde is a fantastic place to invest and has seen a huge growth in GDP over the last few years.

Tourism growth is running at a recent rate of 20% per annum and this is set to continue but even long term growth in tourists runs at 7.2% per annum which is helping keep the country in a continuous state of undersupply and healthy returns for investors in well managed resorts.

In addition Boa Vista is clearly the island everyone wants to be on and it has eaten into market share rapidly as new hotels open with Sal in particular losing out.

Our other blog in January referred to the BBC Radio 4 visit to Cape Verde and Evan Davis’s surprise over the strength of the economy.

Boa Vista island, Cape Verde is a fantastic place to invest in a world of uncertainty.

This news story has come from the Santa Monica Resort development blog.

Source: http://news.assetz.co.uk/articles/6086.html 

Mário Moita is an accomplished singer, composer and piano player in fado style, and his new CD can perhaps be described as an “Afro-Latin American Fado” album, with Portuguese fado meeting and connecting with other music, such as Argentinean tango, Cape Verdean creole “morna”, Southern Portuguese Moorish influences, Brazilian bossa nova, African beats and more.

The song form of fado can be traced back to sailors and their loved ones in the Portuguese colonial era, separated by the oceans. Indeed, the poems on which fado lyrics are based often refer to loved ones while away at sea, and the sadness and longing (saudade) at the thought of not seeing one’s love again. The sixteen tracks on this album make for just over 50 minutes of fine listening, and push fado (literally) to new frontiers.

With maritime explorers such as Vasco da Gama, Portuguese culture spread across the globe. Throughout the 15th and 16th centuries the Portuguese were among the world’s leading explorers, establishing colonies in parts of South America, Africa and Asia.

Throughout his life, Mário Moita himself travelled to many of these places and saw how Portuguese culture was integrated with local traditions. On this album he experiments with other instruments not usually associated with fado, such as accordion, soprano sax and string quartet. Still, at heart, the soul and texture of the songs is distinctly fado.

Born in Evora in Portugal, Mario began singing fado at the young age of seven, and stuck to fado though he studied engineering. Early influences include the pianist Fortunato Murteira who played fado with the piano. Mario has performed extensively abroad in Japan, Romania, Cyprus, Estonia, Spain, France, USA, Canada and Brazil.

The album Fado Navegante blends fado sound with the music of other regions and takes Portuguese music on a new 21st century voyage across the seas. The CD begins with accordion and piano along with traditional guitar in the opening tango-fado track Imperador e Cleopatra, and prepares the listener for a new experience. The third track Tantas vezes saudade begins with African percussion and rhythms and really brings new influences into fado, as does the next track Fado crioulo, with fine soprano sax weaved in. This track is in Cape Verdean style; Cape Verde was a key strategic port for Portugal to explore the African coast and the onward sea route to India in the colonial era.

The song Minha moura encatada brings in a romantic Moorish influence as well. The track Praia secreta is woven around a Brazilian samba rhythm. Other upbeat tracks which will transform you to dance mode include Beleza Raiana and Nao misturem flores. The closing track Meu anjo querubim brings the listener back to traditional fado style.

Mario Moita also has a Web site in Portuguese, at http://www.mariomoita.com, for those who want to explore the work of this musician further. The CD also comes with a 28-page booklet with lyrics, packed with details of the themes of each song: separation, longing, fondness, nature, messages from the birds and the moon, and memories of a first kiss. In sum, this is a great album to add to your collection, for new explorations in fado!

Source: http://worldmusiccentral.org/2012/01/29/new-explorations-in-fado/