Cape Verde-where love does not last long

The first year we came to Sal island in Cape Verde was in 2010 - a second vacation choice after Malaysia, which is farther. We stayed in Belo Horizonte Hotel which is close to the Sta Maria beach. We were newly in love, so everything we saw in this island with a brown landscape of rocks, pebbles and few wild thorny bushes was exciting, an adventure of two people just re-starting a life together. Where else was a better beginning than a faraway island in West Africa. Africa, afterall was exotic and challenging for anyone whose interest in life went beyond sandy beaches, sunshine and blue sky.

Since we were starting life together, we sold our individual homes in Sweden and bought ourselves a nice spacious apartment with a view of the Stockholm harbour. In 2010, during a walk in Sta. Maria's small commercial center, we looked at some properties advertised on the glass wall of a British property company. The property that caught our fancy was a beach flat in a condominium  by the sea, which was obviously one of the very best locations in town. By the time we returned to Stockholm, that beach property was off the market and in the hands of the lawyer we hired to do all the transactions.

It was the following year in 2011, when we embarked on an Atlantic sailing adventure from Las Palmas, Canary to Sal, Cape Verde. It took nine days and six hours to reach Sta. Maria in Nov. 21, 2011. Today our lifestyle straddles between two continents. From the months of November to April, we live in Sal island, and travel to other islands of Cape Verde where the sceneries vary from mountains to valleys and deep ridges along the coastlines.

Living in Cape Verde if you are retired from full-time active work is ideal because there is nothing to stress about except what fish is available in the fishing wharf, or whether fruits and vegetables are newly-arrived by cargo ships from their source. As long as you are stocked with books to read on those lazy hours, energized by a sun that always rises to explore places already explored, and have occasional encounters with new friends on short holidays, life is best equated with the degree of enthusiasm you can have for a book that lumbers slowly in search of a climax.

The hours of monotony and boredom are tolerable because as I said, energy is from within not outside. It is making things happen not waiting for things to happen. It is smiling first hoping to get a smile back. Since we have been coming to this island every year, the problem of visa has surfaced everytime. During the first three years, we did have an intermediary doing the visa round for us but it had become one problem and another, if not the instability of agency then the rising cost of agency itself. This year, we decided to do it ourselves because a Cape Verdean friend with position in the local government promised to help with the long process.

As it stands today, and I stress today because rules and regulations here are in constant motion, the requirements for a residential visa are: Property title, proof of tax payments, proof of economic sustainability (bank accounts), police criminal record and health certificate. In all these various offices, you pay a fee for the certification. It appears that we are now late with our visa which expires on Jan. 6th, just because no doctor is available until Jan 8th, to give us a health clearance. So we have to pay a fine of 100 euros each. And while those sittting behind these tables are taking life without stress, we- the minority population that tries to inject much needed financial resources into a deeply-starved economy are stressed beyond the limits of love and loving.#