Last Monday, Ken and I rented scooters to get a good view of the island.
I found three places in Mindelo that rent out scooters, Zoom Zoom Mindelo, Djambai Tours, and Scooter Aventure. Zoom Zoom Mindelo has a 4.9 Google rating and raving TripAdvisor reviews, but it is the furthest away from us, about a twenty-minute walk.
I don’t mind a walk. Actually, I very much enjoy it, and with Google Maps on the phone, getting lost is a thing of the past. On Friday, I walked to Zoom Zoom Mindelo with Google Maps in hand and promptly passed my destination three times before I noticed a tiny sign on a wall beside a bright blue-painted wooden door. I had been looking for a storefront. None of that here, not even a window.
A young man in his twenties answered my knock on the door. Behind the door is a narrow storage place with timber lining the walls and two mountain bikes parked on the concrete floor. I inquire about the possibility of renting two scooters. For Monday at nine, that would be great. Much to my surprise, he told me they don’t rent scooters, just bicycles. First, I thought we had a bit of a communication breakdown, their website clearly showed pictures of scooters on one of the pages. And what about those TripAdvisor reviews? But no. No scooters. He gladly would take my phone number and try to organize something for us, but right now, not looking all that good.
Alright, second best on the list, Djambai Tours. This one is on the other side of the marina. I stopped at one of the many small supermarkets in town to buy two 5-liter bottles of water, coffee and tea taste so much better with it, dropped them at the boat, and continued following Google Maps to the rental place. This is in a residential area. I know I’m in the right place. I am right where the website picture was taken. However, that picture had scooters in it. Where I am standing, there are none. And nobody around to talk with.
Option three. Scooters Aventura. No bad reviews, just not as high a rating as the previous two. It was also near the marina, a mere five minutes away. But I had walked by that place many a time, it’s between a hotel and a sports bar. I walk by it to go to one of the supermarkets we frequent, but I have no recollection of it. It turns out Scooters Aventura parks a couple of scooters in a small parking lot right across from the hotel.
Two scooters, one is being rented to a young French guy who had come in the day before on a catamaran delivery job to the States. A Bali 49, built in France. He had paid his money, left a deposit, he must have and was now shown how to operate the scooter. But he thought he knew. You could tell by his demeanor. Helmet on, left hand on the break, right thumb on the starter, and the engine purred to life. Off the stand, out of the parking lot, and turning left on the narrow cobblestone road. Halfway in the turn, he inexplicably, and I’m sure unintentionally, opened the throttle. His left leg went up in the air as if hit from behind, and he plowed straight into a minivan parked in front of the hotel.
For us bystanders, hilarity all around, not so, of course, for the young French fellow and the minivan driver who hastily appeared from the hotel lobby. Some scratches on the scooter, some on the minivan, but after a few minutes of discussion between the lady in charge of the scooter rental and the driver, the Frenchman was good to go, and the driver took off in his van with some passengers.
I asked the lady for two rentals for the coming Monday. No problem. No need for a reservation. I’ll remember you. Do you want to pay now or on Monday? I think I prefer Monday. Alright.
I certainly did not leave feeling that I had secured two scooters for Monday.
Monday turned out to be May first, a big holiday. Even the bar and restaurant at the marina are closed. Ken and I got to the small parking lot at about a quarter to nine, and of course, nobody there, no people, no scooters. We pretty well saw this expedition going up in smoke, but we were going to give it until nine, the time I had asked for.
At five minutes to nine, a man pulls up in a Chevy Impala, who knew they would have these here, opens a window, and ask if we are the people that had asked for scooters today. He takes us across town into a residential area, opens a gate, into the parking lot of an apartment building, opens a garage, and beckons us in. There was my ride. Instead of a 49.9cc little scooter we expected, an internet search showed that as the maximum I could ride, I rode away on a 300cc piece of machinery.
To the airport. Ken has a fascination with airports. Only a few roads on this island, and after we had hit the airport, the road became much narrower and ended one kilometer beyond in the town of Sao Pedro. Not much of a town, very small, but one can swim with turtles near here, a popular tourist attraction.
Nearby, on a dirt road, is an extensive development that promises to be a beautiful resort one day. It looks like an abandoned project. However, it’s May first, and nobody works today, so I can’t say for sure. And why here? It is not a pretty place, with no plant growth, and the beach is volcanic rocks. And no entertainment in the area. Soon we found out that most of the island is like that.
We rode our scooters back to Mindelo, made a right, and found ourselves on the way to the settlement of Calhau on the other side of the island. About a 20 kilometers ride, and most of that on cobblestones. Not the type I remember from living in Holland, the rounded stones that shook your bicycle to bits. No, these are pointy vicious rocks that could shred a brand-new tire in no time.
We followed an old river bed. I never saw any water, but an occasional water well was constructed near the bedding with some palm trees and shrubs around them. No agriculture whatsoever. August and September are the rainy seasons here, and they get some tropical rainstorms during that period.
Calhau had little to offer, a hotel and a restaurant, not much else. Also a very small town. They had some big May First celebrations on the beach, with lots of fish roasted and fried. The beaches on this side of the island are of white sand. We would have liked to have walked around, and Ken would have sampled some fish, but we didn’t dare to park our bikes and leave them unattended.
We followed the coastal road back to Mindelo, beach after beach. Ken thought he spotted a restaurant on one of them. Ten minutes later we were hopelessly stuck in the sand with our scooters. Bad idea.
It wasn’t a restaurant after all, and we did make it out without any help from the laughing crowd.
The center of Mindelo is very attractive. Built-in the colonial way. Beautiful buildings and squares. Narrow cobblestone roads. Many restaurants and a significant cultural center. Café Mindelo, there is no better place for a morning coffee. Outside of the town, I’m not feeling it.
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