The environment has found an ally with camping in Cape Verde

In São Lourenço dos Orgaos, in the interior of the island of Santiago in Cape Verde, young people decided to clean up the protected area where camping was born “step by step” using a lot of local and recycled materials that are now in the care of everyone.

The project mentor is Aristides Vaz, 46, a native of Tarrafal de Santiago, who in mid-2017 was invited by a friend to visit the city of Longueira, located 4 km southwest of João Teves, the center of the district, and 1.5 km from him. km west of San Jorge.

Having visited the area during the rainy season, when small “waterfalls” form in the streams, attracting many visitors from all over the island, a foreign language professor and tourist promoter saw the potential in the area and offered an English course. and tourist entertainment at an elementary school in the locality.

“During the course, we decided to clear this protected area. The initial task was simply to clean up this area, which has practically turned into a dump,” the promoter recalled in an interview with the Lusa agency in a development where recycled colors stand out somewhat, many are caught in neighboring gardens.

Aristides Vaz said that when the training ended, they decided to “create something so that the young people who participated in the course could put into practice what they had learned”, recalling that the space began with a kiosk where recent graduates received tourists and were selling a product.

“First we built a hut that served as a reception. People began to come, bring tents, set up tents, leave tents for the next visitors, and so it grew,” he said.

Subsequently, the space, a multifunctional campsite, was named Eco Camp Lemba Lemba, named after a local tree, which also means building step by step.

With its calm and tranquility, the scent and shade of majestic eucalyptus trees, the space invites visitors to relax, escape from the hustle and bustle and stress of urban centers.

With two huts and tents, you can also spend the night in the space, taste local products and even take excursions to the valleys and mountains, since Lemba Lemba is located in one of the valleys with the most attractive fauna and flora on the island and not far from Pico de Antonia, the highest point of Santiago, with a height of 1394 meters.

“Everything can be enjoyed here. You can read about it, wedding ceremonies and many other events have already taken place, the only thing not to do here is to fight,” joked the project manager, who has the particularity of using recycled and local materials such as tree trunks and leaves, glass bottles, tires, straw.

“From the very beginning, the goal was to care for the environment. Caring for the environment is not a vanity, it is a duty, because the environment is our best home. And when we care about the environment, we get something in return, and Lemba Lemba is the result of our concern for the environment,” he stressed.

Recognizing that the idea was never to create a business, and nowadays the enterprise is not seen as a business, but rather as an “obligation” to take care of the environment.

The space is also, according to the promoter, a kind of collective museum among the eucalyptus trees, where visitors have the opportunity to find several items that remind them of their childhood, as well as offering items they no longer use for further enrichment. collection.

“Now items like televisions and refrigerators are not thrown away but reused, so Lemba Lemba is already fulfilling its mission of environmental re-education,” insisted Vaz, who is more frequently visited by citizens of the country, especially young people, in an average of 50 people a week to be in complete harmony with nature.

“Our goal is to give visitors good family moments. Of course, everything has its price, but we talk, we adapt, and I always say that no one comes here to starve or stay without sleep because he has no money. We’re trying to capture the spirit of the marabese [a arte de bem receber] here in the countryside,” said the same official to Luce, who prefers to talk not about employees in space but about employees who provide services.

Nature lover, Aristides Vaz thanks the population and local authorities for supporting the project and invites everyone to discover the naturalness and simplicity of the space, which is also an example of ecotourism and rural entrepreneurship, which he believes should be replicated around the world .

“Because we live in nature and must take care of it. Otherwise, we are very proud, thinking that we own the world, despite the fact that the environment was created for us, so we have such an obligation, ”she urged. a travel promoter who has no idea about expanding space, but tries every day not to lose the original focus.