Mondrianesque buildings- Espargos, Cape Verde

In our last post, we showed you a super sick extinct volcano with saline marshes, which you can float in on the island of Sal, Cape Verde. Now we head to nearby Espargos, the administrative capital of Sal.

'Espargos' means asparagus in Portuguese, and from what I read online, the town was given this name because of all the wild asparagus growing on the island, decorating the dusty little island with yellow flowers. Maybe it wasn't the right season when we went, but there wasn't much growing on the island in general, except for a few palm trees here and there near resorts. When driving around the island, it often felt like we were the on the back of a Mars rover as the landscape looked so barren and dusty it could've been Mars. Unsurprisingly, vegetables and fruit were quite hard to come by as they all have to be imported. By the end of our trip, there was a mint shortage - NO MORE MOJITOS! 😭 Holiday blasphemy.

The guidebooks say that there isn't much to do in Espargos, due to the fact that it's inland, and more of a place where locals live and government establishments on the island are located. Despite this, from the back of the pick up truck we were in, we were captivated by the many different colours and the geometry of the otherwise unremarkable buildings. Doesn't this building look like it came straight out of a Mondrian painting? What a funky house to call home!