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Making a local connection is what makes traveling individual and what sticks in your mind after your journey has come to its end. Where it was actually more of a coincident that me and my friend have chosen Boa Vista, one of the Cape Verdian islands, while lying in the sun on a lovely spring afternoon, we still reminisce nostalgically today about how many worthful moments we had, where the locals of this beautiful island had a big impact on. The journey started on the 12th of July in 2017 with me, my sister and two friends. While we were looking forward to discover the desert island, eat amazing food and experiencing the lovely culture, so much more was waiting on us. Each day was delightful, 700 words are not enough to cover the whole experience. I choose one day to give an insight into the beautiful souls of the Cape Verdian people. A morning we decided to paddle over to the little island about 500 meters in front of Boa Vista with a canoe. There was not much on this island, some little broken houses, dry plants, little crabs and unfortunately lots of garbage on the beach, left there probably by people and flowed to the beach by the Atlantic. We walked across the island and met inhabitants on the other side which were fishing and having a barbecue. We sat close to them and they immediately invited us to join them. The fresh fish they fished got put on the grill and seasoned with salt and lemon. I am a real food lover and was fascinated by this simple seasoning and by that delicious, fresh and tender taste, definitely the best fish dish I have ever had, even it was so simple. We had a real blast eating, listening to music and enjoying the sun. We also had really interesting conversations with the islanders. They shared with us about their life on the island, and also how tourism brings issues for them, for example, the garbage I have mentioned we discovered on the beach of the little island. Fast we developed the idea of cleaning the island, so we paddled back to the main island, organized garbage bags shared our idea with everybody we met during the process of getting everything we needed and paddled back to the island. This of course with the help of the islanders. So, we turned our barbecue party into a barbecue beach cleaning party, of course music was not missing. We were up to 20 people in the end celebrating and cleaning the little island until our garbage bags were full. It was the second last day for us on the island, and definitely one of the best. We bonded with the islanders and had an incredible time in Boa Vista, so we were happy to be able to give something back. I went back to the Cape Verde islands last year, where I discovered 3 other islands. Sal, Santo Antão and São Vincente. Where all the islands have different contrasts, like desert, mountains, volcanoes, waterfalls or natural water pools, the islands have one thing in common- the beautiful souls of the local people, which make you feel welcome from the very first moment!