Cabo Verde 2026

In July 2026, I am pleased to be making my third visit to the country of Cabo Verde (Cape Verde) an independent nation in the north Atlantic and former Portu guese colony. My two prior visits had been in 2006 to lead Bridgewater State (College) University's first travel course to the country -- many more were subsequently led by colleagues in education and in art. I then returned in 2024 to lead my Geography of Coffee travel course -- my 14th offering of that course but the first outside of Central America.

This time, I was not leading anything -- my visit has been in support of the BSU-UNICV-UTA-Biosfera collaborative project known as HERITOR. Colleagues in biology and science outreach (CASE) have received a grant for a very well crafted, three year research project involving teams of undergraduate researchers -- and one amazing graduate student leader. 

Assemblage piece at CNAD, the fantastic art museum of Mindelo.
Both in the subjects of the art and the materials used, this museum teaches about
the entire country. I chose this piece, because it represents part of what the
HERTIOR collaboration intends to protect.

I know that the participating students have taken thousands of photographs of their entire experience -- I have just a couple of hundred gathered in my Cabo Verde 2026 folder on Flickr. As of this writing on my last day in the country, I have posted all of my photos (edited) but not yet many annotations. This post is mainly for the convenience of the students I have been visiting. 

Also for the convenience of those students, I am including a link to my little corner of Goodreads. These students are such avid readers and curious citizens of the world that they have formed a book club for their "spare time" during the project. Several of them commented that they enjoyed books that they read in courses they took with me in the past, and several of them have asked me for further recommendations. My reviewed shelf includes my thoughts on about 150 books several genres, in no particular order. 

Lagniappe 

I had several reasons for wanting to visit the HERITOR group in the first of its three field seasons. One is that this might be a vehicle for realizing long-standing ambitions to bring Project EarthView to Cabo Verde. I am no longer directing that program, but have had many conversations about this with my successor, a former student of mine who also has a longstanding interest in the country. 

Another important reason for making this journey has been to prepare for my next and final sabbatical, to take place in February to May of 2027. That will be focused on coffee on the island of Fogo. I knew that some language and travel experience would be helpful -- I had the unexpected bonus of meeting owners of two different coffee farms during this trip and of actually visiting one of those farms. Both are on Santo Antão. With a day trip to that island, by the way, I have now been to half of the islands of the archipelago. 

Mapping Habit

I came of age as a geographer just as digital mapping technologies were gaining ground. One of my undergraduate professors invented MapQuest -- a couple of years after I had barely passed his fully analog cartography course. During my master's program, I learned about computers in general and computer mapping in particular during many hours as an assistant in our new digital cartography lab. During my doctoral program, I taught a rudimentary computer cartography course because I knew more about the subject than any of the professors -- a situation that began to change dramatically with a brilliant faculty hire that took place at the end of my second year. 

All of which is to say that I was poised to become a GIS hotshot. I even took some online courses with ESRI in my "spare time" as a professor. But gradually, other interests squeezed out my GIS pursuits, and I am a rank amateur at this point. 

See Google MyMaps for annotated links to many of these maps.

Enter Google Maps. Flawed as it is in some important ways, it is a convenient way for me to make and share maps, so I use it a lot -- one could even say compulsively. I use it to make cartographic "life lists" of many places that have mattered to me, as a planning tool for personal or professional travel, or even as a supplement to articles or stories I encounter -- even a song can sometimes need a map!

At this point, I have created almost 100 Google Maps. I can see them all at once by typing "mymaps.google.com" but the resultant list is visible only to me. Above is a snapshot of the top of the list at the moment. If some reader knows a way to make such a list shareable, please let me know. Until then, I have created an annotated list of just a couple dozen. maps -- including some very new ones. Spoiler alert: the newest one as of this writing is Todas las Casas -- a life list of every place I have resided. 

Cabo Verde e Sua Geografía: HERITOR

 

I am very pleased that several of my university colleagues have received a grant for an ambitious environmental project in Cape Verde. The HERITOR project will involve more than a dozen undergraduate students over the next three years. 

They will conduct field-based research on important questions of coastal water quality AND assist in science outreach with youth in the study area. The HERITOR project is a collaboration among the Biology Department, the CASE program, and the Pedro Pires Institute -- plus many non-BSU collaborators and the National Science Foundation. 

I am not officially part of this project, but my broader experience in Cape Verde enables me to contribute to the preparation of the team. This will begin with my  CAPE VERDE GEOGRAPHY   presentation for the opening class session. I share it here as an easy way to make all of its illustrations and its many links available to the HERITOR participants.