Connection with myself

by Tainá Almeida (Brazil)

I didn't expect to find Cape Verde

Sometimes I think being in Cape Verde was just a dream. I can say for sure that this was the most incredible travel story that I have in my hands. First things first, my husband’s family is from CV and we decided to go there and surprise the whole family with the announcement of our engagement. This was a perfect plan, right? But nothing in a fairy tale is so easy like that, for example, it would be perfect if had my passport on time in order to the visa. I lost my passport a month before the trip and the department that could issue one for me was on riot, I just got the passport and the visa a day before. Imagine how I was terrified without knowing if I would get on the flight or not. Well, I made it. I always give thanks to my ancestors because I didn’t know that was just the beginning of my journey. Awesome beaches, incredible resorts, five stars restaurants, this was not the kind of trip I was about to take. The air company was about to bankruptcy and had only a few aircrafts available, the flight got late and we needed to stay in a hotel room waiting the next flight. Because of this we could meet Praia city, and I need to say, I was not expecting it at all. I was not seeing people with smartphones on their hands all the time. The talking was in a more personal level. I could feel in that warm summer breeze that the best time of my life was about to start. The next day we went to Sal island to a wedding, yes remember I said we would visit family? Keep it in mind. I felt like all the 30 km length island was at that wedding party and everyone was family, a really big family. Was amazing be part of that a learn about their culture, just amazing. I could learn a bit of Criolo, a local language, I visit a lot of aunts and could learn their culture since how they wash dishes until the experience of get local public transportation that is not made by bus, but by van. Be with locals gave me a different experience. I could eat the things they eat and this says a lot about a people. I did not know that there was so many ways do prepare tuna, the base of their cousine. And of course, I had a lot of 1 euro icecream, apparently this is a tourist thing. Get near to the sharks in the wild, visit Buracona, the beaches, buy some local crafts all of this was such an experience, I only could have it outside a resort. This is my advice, go local. To the perfect closure we went to São Vicente island and got there just in time to see the carnival with some Brazilian sambistas like Dudu Nobre and also the Music festival Baia da Gatas with the performance of Joelma, a Brazilian singer. Be in this festival helped me to learn a little bit more about their music, please listen to Elida Almeida, she is just amazing. And the announcement, we need to tell several times because his family is spread through the islands. I need to admit, I cried every single time because all of his aunts said that we were the perfect couple and they said they could see in our eyes why we would get married. In our last dinner we invited the friends that was travelling with us to be our best man and maid of honor. Perfect closure, right?