Top 5 things to do in Tarrafal
November 2022
Enjoy the laid back little village in the north part of the island. In the village everything is within walking distance and the local people are very friendly. You can eat some great fish here! What they serve with the fish is very basic though…
The beach is amazing and you can have spectecular sunsets here!
1. Visit Tarrafal Beach
My airbnb host arranged a taxi for me from Praia to Tarrafal. Once I left the city the scenery became more beautiful and beautiful!
The drive is about 1.30 hours, but you won’t get bored with these sights!
So I noticed something crazy when I was in the back of the car. But I wasn’t sure if it was really what I was seeing. So I asked my driver, and later got a closer look…
Along the road there were these huge spiderwebs everywhere!
I couldn’t capture it on my camera very good but I have never seen anything like this before. The area between the trees under the electricity cable, is all spiderweb! And you will see these almost the whole road from Praia to Tarrafal.
Luckily (for me), the coastal areas don’t have them. It’s just inland.
Arrived on Tarrafal beach…
2. Serra Da Malagueta National Park
The scenery of this park is amazing! The park has several routes to hike, some for the experienced hiker and some for the non-experienced hiker. The easy trails are well marked and you won’t need a guide for these ones. The trail I did was a 6 hour hike for the experienced hiker. This one will take you through the Gongon valley and you will walk through some overgrown parts, so a guide is recommended to not get lost.
You will walk on a lot of rocks so good shoes are a must! Usually I do these things on my regular sneakers but because I was told to wear good shoes (I don’t have hiking shoes) I decided to wear my fitness sneakers. This was a bad choice, because the soles of those shoes were too thin, I could feel all the rocks under my feet. After 6 hours of walking this was a painful experience. So it is possible to walk on sneakers, as long as the sole isn’t too thin. PS. the locals who live in the valley walk barefoot on this terrain!
My advice is to visit the park at the end of the rainy season or the beginning of dry season. Everything will be green and beautiful! My guide told me when you visit the place during dry season everything looks dry and it can be dusty because of the Sahara sand.
I knew I wanted to visit Serra Da Malagueta, but I didn’t plan anything. When I was chilling on the beach I met 2 solo traveling women. One of them visited the park the day before with a guide she met on the beach. She was really enthusiastic about the guide and was recommending him for the hike. A little while later we saw him on the beach so we asked about the tour. He is a friendly guy named Jao Paolo, but people call him JP. The other woman was also interested to do the hike and JP told us that he met another girl who also wanted to do the hike so within a few minutes it was arranged to do the hike the next morning.
The price of the tour was €32, transportation and food was included. The only thing we had to bring was enough water. The next morning we got picked up by an aluguer (minibus) that brought us to the entrance. JP is an experienced guide who knows about the flora & fauna in the area. He knows the people who live there and will help them along the way if necessary. Like carrying something to the next farmer. You will see some of the plantations on the hike, and we got some fresh sugarcane to taste!
Here is JP’s contact information:
+238 994 31 56
[email protected]
https://www.instagram.com/tarrafal360tour/
Bananas! And more spiders…
3. Natural Pool Ribeira Da Prata
This is an rock formation where a natural pool is created. It’s located close to the black sand beach so it’s ideal to combine these 2 spots.
The cheapest way to get there is to go by aluguer and tell de driver you want to go to Piscina Natural Ribeira Da Prata.
But I decided to walk… To get there by foot it will take over 2 hours. So my plan was to first walk to the black sand beach and then to the natural pool. I had no navigation so before I left my Airbnb I checked the route on Google Maps and thought how hard can it be. Just follow the shore and I will arrive at the black sand beach.
Turned out it was a little harder than that…
So I left Tarrafal and kept following the shore, it was getting more and more remote. And then I had to change course a little because there was a very angry dog barking right in front of me. I decided to walk to a more crowded road and kept walking from there. Then I saw a sign with an arrow that said: Piscina Natural Ribeira Da Prata. I followed the sign and thought I should be close. Turns out I wasn’t and the sign didn’t make any sense because I ended up in a dry grassland.
So I walked back to the mainroad and decided to ask someone. In Cape Verde the people speak Portuguese, but a lot of people also speak Creole. Especially in the little villages. I speak neither one of them…
So I asked a lady who was sitting at a bus stop: Piscina Ribeira Da Prata? Then she began to explain to me in Creole so I didn’t understand a word of it. With gestures she tried to explain to me how I should walk. By the way, she was shocked that I was walking all the way to the place. I thanked her and started walking in the direction she showed me. A little while later I asked someome else who luckily spoke English. This girl was also shocked that I was walking all the way. She told me it’s still a long road from that point and helped me to get an aluguer to do the last part.
I was sitting in the back of the aluguer and the road got really bad, there were huge holes and rocks so I thought the driver was going to let me out and that I had to walk the last part of the road. Surprisingly he kept driving. I was amazed that he just kept driving on these road conditions! He dropped me off at the natural pool so I finally made it!
4. Black Beach Ribeira Da Prata
This is a very quiet beach with black sand. It’s located in a very quiet area and close to the natural pool. Well, by foot it’s still 45 minutes of walking. There are no signs, so for me without navigation it was a little bit of searching. I didn’t see anyone the whole walk except for 3 little children. But then I finally saw someone so I could ask where the beach is located. He was a german guy who bought a house there. This was so random because you really would not expect this in that area.
From his house it was just a 5 minute walk to the black beach…
5. Watch The Sunset
Enjoy some amazing sunsets on Tarrafal beach…
