Vale do Paúl

Green comes as a shock after the ash-brown of the other islands: banana fronds, cane brakes and arabica coffee stacked in hand-built terraces up walls that are nearly vertical. Water runs everywhere, threading stone channels beside the paths on its way down to the sea at Vila das Pombas.

Paúl is the moist north-east corner of Santo Antão, and centuries of terrace-building have turned its basalt walls into one continuous farm: yams, cassava, sweet potatoes, papaya and mango growing between the cane. The cane feeds the island's oldest industry, grogue, the sugarcane spirit distilled on Santo Antão for centuries and drunk neat or stirred into ponche; tastings at working stills are part of the valley's guided walks. The island's signature route arrives from above, dropping off the rim of the Cova crater and switchbacking down through the terraces, a long morning of descent with the Atlantic filling the view ahead. It ends where the valley does, among the fishing boats and kitchens of Vila das Pombas.