INTO THE ISLANDS

Visitors to Cabo Verde for the first time must bring with them particular time, muse, patience and condescension. Tourism has not yet taken hold on all the islands of the archipelago. The visitor can still enjoy the simple, warm and spontaneous welcome of Cabo Verde and that sort of "splendid isolation" in which the home country, primarily for geographic reasons. But this microcosm isolate is more cosmopolitan than you might think infat years and years of of emigrations across the planet have transformed Cape Verde into a nation of "world citizens", . The many cultural influences that this country have exposed throughout its history, have left deep marks in a society that has long known substantially only the hunger and struggle. If you ask to a Caboverdean if is african he will simply replay that is Caboverdean which is not being "racist" to the word african but it is simply the reality infact a Creole is a mixture of lots of different culture that Africa is too limited to describe their culture. If you will be lucky enough to "penetrate" into their life you will be amazed of how lively and warm are with foreigners, of course be aware that like in any countries there's the good and the bad so respect those little rules that normally should be followed when going in another country.

Try to eat, drink, dance and think creole for a day and you will immediately captured by this amazing culture.

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DRINKS

In Cape Verde the word grogue (grog or grogu in Creole) refers to the spirits distilled from simple sugar cane, or rum. The methods are essentially craft and almost all the sugar cane is used for the production of grog. The milling of the cane is made in Trapiche.

Cape Verde is made based on a drink called grog pontche, including lemon and sugar or the best ones is made wjth honey from sugar cane. It's pretty similar to poncha of the island of Madeira.

The production of sugar cane and grog is greater on the islands of Santo Antao and Santiago. With the low production of grog in Cape Verde is grown the production of grog adulterated produced from sugar.

After preparation, can also be dipped in grog herbs such as rue, the rosemary and fennel.
In some tourist sites, you can also find caipirinhas made with grog.

MUSIC AND DANCE

ZOUK
The zouk is a musical genre coming from the Antilles very popular in Cape Verde too.

MORNA
The MORNA is a musical and dance genre from Cape Verde. Traditionally played with acoustic instruments, the warm reflects the reality of the island nation of Cape Verde, the romanticism of their intoxicating love of the people.

In recent years, the Morna became internationally famous by its various artists Thanks to the most famous capoverdean artist Cesaria Evora.

BATUQUE
As a musical genre, the Batuque is characterized by having a moderate tempo, a bar of 6/8 or 3/4, and traditionally only be melodic, ie only be sung, unaccompanied polyphonic. Compared with other genres of music from Cape Verde, the Batuque structure is the corner-response, and is the only one that presents a polyrithmic. Infact, analyzing the rhythm, it is possible to discovers that it is a superposition of a rate of 3 times on a rate of 2 times.

Dancing the traditional Batuque comes with a precise ritual.

At a meeting of Batuque, a set of interpreters (usually only women) organize themselves in a circle in a scenario called terreru. This scenario does not have to be a specific place, can be a backyard of a home or abroad, in a public square, for example.

The musical begins with the performers (who may or may not be both batukaderas and kantaderas) playing the first movement, while one of the performers is targeted to the inside of the circle to perform the dance. In this first movement the dance is done only with the sway of the body, with the reciprocation of the legs to mark the time of the strong pace.

In the second movement, while the performers interpret the rhythm and singing in unison, a performer who is dancing the dance moves. In this case, the dance (call the tornu ku) is made with a quaver of hip, achieved through rapid inflections of the knees, following the rhythm.

When the musical ends, the performer who was cut up to dance, another replaces it, and start up a new piece. " These interpretations can drag for hours.

COLADEIRA
As a musical genre, the Coladeira is characterized by having a process variable of the andante Allegro, a bar torque, and in its most traditional form, have a harmonic structure based on the fifth cycle, while the poetic structure is organized in stanzas that are alternating with a chorus. The Coladeira is almost always monotone, ie, made only one pitch. Compositions that use more than one tone are rare, and usually it is a key crossing low to high, or vice versa.
How to dance the dance of Coladeira is a lounge, dance in pairs. The performers danced with one arm to entwine the partner while the other arm to keep the hands. The dance is done printing two oscillations of the body and a ripple of shoulder, to one side, a bar of music, while in the bar following the oscillations are made to the other side