Vale de Cavaleiros Port

The small working port north of town where ferries leave for Brava

Vale de Cavaleiros is Fogo's main port, a small bay about three kilometres north of Sao Filipe where the island's ferry connections are concentrated. The harbour is nothing grand — a concrete pier, a few warehouses, fishing boats pulled up on a dark-sand beach — but it is where the island connects to the wider archipelago, and watching that process is more interesting than it sounds.

The ferry to Brava runs from here, a short but often lumpy crossing on a vessel that carries both passengers and cargo. If you're heading to Brava, check the schedule in advance and allow for delays. If you're not, the port is still worth a visit: the fishing boats are painted in vivid colours, the men repairing nets on the pier are happy to talk, and the views back toward Sao Filipe on the bluff above are among the better perspectives on the town's dramatic setting. A shared taxi or informal moto-taxi can get you here from the centre in ten minutes.

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The ferry crossing from Vale de Cavaleiros to Brava takes about an hour in good conditions, considerably longer when the Atlantic swells are running. The boats are small, the sea between Fogo and Brava can be rough, and the schedule operates on island time — which is to say, it operates when it operates. But the port itself is a good place to spend an hour, watching the fishing boats come and go and the cargo being loaded by hand onto vessels that look like they have been making this crossing for decades. Some of them have.