Boa Vista

To this day one can only begin to imagine the joy that a sailor in the midst of a tempestuous Atlantic Ocean swell had when he spotted the glorious island of Boa Vista.

This most easterly outpost, and closest to Africa, of the Cape Verde archipelago is said to have earned its name from such a moment as a sailor, peering out from a porthole of a ship, shouted "Boa Vista" - meaning good view and loosely translated from "Captain, good sight" - as he caught first glimpse of what would be a happy island refuge from the stormy swell.

A good sight, indeed, it was and a happy refuge Boa Vista remains for thousands of visitors who come to the third largest of the Cape Verde islands annually to savour its unique treasures.

It may not even be overstating the mark to suggest that Boa Vista is to beach lovers what the Mona Lisa is to artists - an absolute masterpiece. Like the great painting, Boa Vista is modest in size - just 620 sq km - but has its own captivating charm.

An island of starkly contrasting landscapes, Boa Vista stands out, however, more than anything else for its incomparable, porcelain-like sand dunes. They, in turn, envelop a mostly lunar-like, barren landscape of volcanic origins that has an allure all of its own but punctuated by oases of palm and coconut trees.

A living postcard, the extraordinary beaches create the most spectacular of Atlantic shorelines which are lapped by rolling surf and turquoise waters. It is said that the fine sands here have blown from the Sahara over thousands of years.

While only the third largest island in the archipelago, Boa Vista boasts by far the longest beach, Santa Mónica. With its 18 km of virgin sands, it is also one of the most beautiful. The capital, Sal Rei, is itself surrounded by dunes and beaches and made up of a patchwork of old colonial houses and superb restaurants serving up all kinds of exotic fish dishes. At night, Sal Rei throbs till daylight to the sounds of native Cape Verdean music, the Morna, and a fusion of Brazillian and African sounds.

Air access to Boa Vista is by its small international airport at Rabil, where the Church St .Roque was built in 1801, while another village, Estância de Baixo, is one of a number of miniature oases of palm and coconut trees dotted throughout the island.

It is highly recommended that visitors take a tour of the Boa Vista countryside where they will find such villages suspended in time. It is here in these villages that they will find the famous Boa Vista goat cheese, which is of an exquisite flavour.

Boa Vista, which is the least populated - just over 5,400 people - of the inhabited Cape Verde islands, is carefully managing its tourism growth so as not to challenge the ongoing preservation of its unique ecosystem. The serenity of the sandy beaches became a perfect spawning ground for marine turtles and today Boa Vista is the largest reproduction centre for the eastern Atlantic Caretta turtle.

So, like the sailor many moons ago, the only advice one can give in relation to Boa Vista is to go explore.