Bofareira Restaurants

3 more images

We stopped in the tiny village of Bofareira during a tour of Boa Vista island in May 2011.

After a good few hours sitting in the back of a pick-up truck, soaking up the hot sunshine, we were in need of cold refreshments.

Our driver parked the truck up on the edge of the small sqaure that the village is centred around and our guide explained that Bofareira was the birthplace of his maternal grandmother and that he knew everybody living in the village.

A dozen or so low rise buildings surrounded the square, many with brightly coloured walls and window frames, and most of these appeared to be homes.

One of these buildings, whitewashed with blue doors and window shutters and boasting brightly painted pink window frames and exterior wall, was Mercearia Elvis – a grocery store-cum-cafe bar. It was the only building that appeared not to be a home and as well as selling basic foodstuffs and household items and dispensing cold bottles of Strela beer, it may also have served cooked food (but I can't remember for certain if it did).

A lone elderly gentleman in a straw hat was sitting on the wall outside the bar when we arrived. He didn't have a drink and he sat there silently as we enjoyed our beers. There was a wooden bench, a plastic table and a few plastic stools out front, but we followed the local man's lead and took up position on the wall.

330ml bottles of Strela beer cost 100 CVE / 1 Euro each, a price that seemed to be standard for a beer on Boa Vista island.