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You'll never know if anything happens overhere, until you find out...

Korrie & I and two friends are leaving for an 11-day vacation to Tunesia. The plane will leave Amsterdam tomorrow, januari the 1-st at 10.15 AM. We hope to see some sunny days and maybe even take a tour in the Sahara.
Tunesia is a rather small (three times the Netherlands) Arab country inbetween Algeria and Lybia. Don't think it's dangerous there. It is even rather touristic. There are no fundamentalist moslems, women don't walk around completely covered like they do in Afghanistan.
Of course I take my camera with me. I'll try to keep you informed if possible!

We (Paula, Laurens, Korrie & me) had a great vacation together in Tunisia in January 2005, so we decided to go on a vacation together again, in July 2005 to the Cabo Verde islands. For us this is the second time, for them a new experience.
We arrive at Sal at July the 21-th, fly from there on the same day to Santiago, fly from Santiago to Santo Antão 6 days later, stay there about ten days, go by boat to São Vicente, stay there for 4 days, fly to Sal and then directly back home.. Want to see maps? Go to

http://public.fotki.com/johnvanhulst/reizen-travel/cabo_verde_revisited/

Some descriptions.

The Cabo Verde islands is (are?) an independent nation since the sixties, before that a Portuguese colony, with about 400.000 inhabitants, and some 700.000 Cabo Verdians are living in the rest of the world, many of them in the USA, 20.000 in Rotterdam. Most of the national income comes from these outside workers, and a lot from international aid.
The political system is a stable 2 party democracy, no corruption, no political prisoners, no aids, no criminality, children go to school, no real poverty, so not like what you might think of a 'common' African country!

About 65% of the people is black, 1% is white, the rest is mixed. The island were not inhabited before they were discovered bij Vasco Da Gama in (I believe) 1430, and they were an important intermediate station for the slave trade..., laying in the Atlantic Ocean inbetween Senegal and the Carribean. Many black people descent from escaped slaves...

Portuguese is the national language, but all people speak a mix of African languages and Portuguese. Music is an important part of daily life -maybe you know Cesaria Evora-, and that's one of the reasons we're going there (again).

Not much tourism exists, and it exists mainly on the island Sal, 'cause that's where the international planes arrive. Traffic inbetween the islands is by plane, the distances are too big for a boat trip. We leave Sal the same day for Santiago, fly to Praia, and go by bus to Tarrafal in the North of Santiago after two days. Yes, very far away from the main road...

I hope I can find Internet Cafés to keep you informed...

Cheers, John