New Year’s usually entail being stuck in traffic on the way to parties that end badly, listening to friends talk about resolutions you know they will never fulfill. So, to avoid situations like these, we pack our bags and head off to somewhere remote. This time around, we entered the New Year on Cape Verde, in the beautiful town of Nova Sintra, up near the rim of the Brava Island.
The funniest thing about the New Year is that all it celebrates is the transition of one day into the next. Yet, no other occasion is celebrated so globally, and with such enthusiasm.
In Nova Sintra, we stayed at the Pension O Castelo. It is a guesthouse owned by a Cape Verdian-American, repatriated back to her home island of Brava. According to the locals in town, Eugenia threw the best parties. Therefore, her New Year’s bash was definitely the event to go to. Euginia invited all the guests staying at her pension. We anticipated an evening filled with great music and colossal amounts of food. Moreover, an endless stream of that delightful Cape Verdian white wine from Fogo.
New Year & Cape Verde – a Winning Combination
It truly was a magical night. Behind the guesthouse, Eugenia owned a beautiful colonial mansion framed by an ancient baobab tree. The sight immediately reminded me of my grandmother’s home in Kuching, Malaysia. Perhaps unsurprisingly, many post-colonial islands share a similar architectural heritage. Inside, her garden and home came alive with the sounds of live morna music and the aromas of a feast in preparation, transporting me back a century. The gathering brought together a fascinating mix of guests. Shabbily dressed nature enthusiasts like us, local Bravarians elegantly dressed in tailored suits and embroidered dresses, and repatriates like Eugenia and her best friend, who bridged the gap between the two worlds.
It was the most memorable night, filled with such colourful characters straight out of a movie. I felt then (and still feel now) that this sort of experience is exactly what we look for on our trips abroad. As a traveller, you can never be truly a part of the places you visit, but sometimes, you can come pretty damn close.
We went to bed way too early, by Cape Verdian standards. The party actually went on past dawn. Only, it had moved from the house to the streets and the square in the centre of town. It was funny, being in this little town as the New Year rolled in, strolling amidst the party goers salsa-ing up and down the streets. The whole affair was straight out of a book.
