On our second day in Cape Verde, we decided to enjoy the activities offered by our hotel and we registered for the visit of São Pedro, the nearby fishing village. What a surprise when we found out that it was actually a terribly voyeuristic tour. We, 10 French people, arrived in this tiny quiet and very poor village to visit the places where villagers were getting water, see barefoot kids playing soccer and other stuff. We didn’t even have the opportunity to discuss or share with the villagers who were pointed out to us from afar without any possibility of interactions. We’ll remember the obnoxious behavior of some of our compatriots who did not hesitate to openly denigrate the place (“Waouw, I’m glad I took sneakers! Look how dirty it is!”) and disrespected our hosts. We were so ashamed to be associated with this kind of individuals that we were very quiet and have avoided to unsheathe our cameras, unlike some, to photograph misery. Some even dared to proudly pose with children without even deigning to speak to them and went on their way. It must have made a beautiful picture and some stories to tell friends back home. It was awful! This consumption tourism that is to travel to clump together only with your fellows in a luxury hotel and only go out in groups of 15 to see how lucky your are and carefully avoid any contact with the locals is a thousand miles away from our idea of travelling and it was pretty awful to be confronted with this kind of mentality. Never again!

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