20 January 2009



A descent of Pico do Fogo - the bit you can run is about 600m (2000 feet) vertical drop and a 60% slope, very steep. I accidentally dislodged a small boulder at the top of the slope - it nearly made it to the road some 2km away after tumbling through 1000m of descent in about 40 seconds. Make sure you go with a guide so you get the safe (sheltered from rocks) route up - and wait until the party ahead is well clear before starting your descent.

You can see the village - an amazing place to live



High boots and ski goggles are recommended - it can be very windy and the dust gets everywhere



I saw a view like this through Googleearth - and booked my flight to Cape Verde shortly afterwards. Fogo is just the volcano, rises straight out of the sea and goes up to 2800m - the only flat ground is in the caldera and a few lava flows.



It looks steeper on the seaward side - but the guided route and descent is always from the landward, caldera side.



The folks who stayed down on the beach complained about the miserable weather - it was fine at 9000 feet.

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