Let’s continue our trip to Boa Vista, Capo Verde: a world into a world, an island that guards its past like a treasure chest. You can read the first part of our journey here.
Curral Velho
Traveling along the southern coast, you can find Curral Velho, an old fishing village hat dating back to the 17th century.
Although the village is deserted, with its stone houses now in ruins, it has an extemporaneous charm, as if it had remained suspended in the folds of time. The village lived from fishing and salt trade. The most important salt pans of the island emerge here, which give the name also in the capital, Sal Rei. Literally, “the king’s salt”!
Salt, also called “white gold”, was a powerful means of exchange. Curral Velho was abandoned around the 19th century due to drought and pirate attacks.
Boa Vista: Rabil oasis
Boa Vista is also a heritage of biodiversity. Rabil oasis is known for the presence of numerous plant species, such as the tamarind with which ice cream and drinks are produced. In the oasis there are also numerous palm trees and a baobab.
Dance and culture
As in all African cultures, music and dance also play a very important role in daily life in Boa Vista. In ancient times dance was an expression of the sacred.
The Morna represents Cape Verdean national music and dance, while the Funanà expresses the sense of liberation.
Dancing to the rhythm of drums is part of Cape Verdean popular culture. Maximum expression is the Batuko, a sensual dance performed mainly by women who position themselves in a circle and take turns getting up to dance to the rhythm of the percussion.
The Landum is the dance for weddings and the Valsa, similar to the Waltz, during traditional festivals.
Like every place on this earth, Boa Vista, this teardrop in the ocean, is a world into a world, a part of that immense nesting doll that is the earth, with its arid authenticity that fills your heart, with the strength of its shrubs bent by the wind, with the turquoise of its waters invading the eyes.