Experience the best of Brava

Brava lies at the western end of the Sotavento group, west of Fogo, with ferries from the port of Furna crossing the channel. Its highest point, Monte Fontainhas, reaches 976 metres, and the island is greener than most of the archipelago, with hillsides given to terraced fields of maize, potatoes, bananas and coffee. Nova Sintra, the main town, sits about 500 metres up in cool hills, where a plaza with a music pavilion is named for the poet Eugénio Tavares.

Tavares, born on the island, wrote mornas, the slow songs of longing that are Cape Verde's best-loved music, and his former home in Nova Sintra is now a museum. Settlers from Madeira and the Azores arrived in the 1600s, joined by refugees from the 1680 eruption on Fogo. From the late eighteenth century American whaling ships called for supplies, and some Brava men who sailed with them settled near New Bedford in Massachusetts.

Cachupa, a slow-cooked stew of maize and beans with fish or meat, is the daily dish across Cape Verde, and Brava adds its own coffee and the catch landed at the fishing harbour of Fajã de Água. Grogue, a strong spirit distilled from sugar cane, is poured at village gatherings. The hillsides are greenest after the late-summer rains.