Santiago, the island that awakened Charles Darwin, is the largest and most populous island in Cape Verde. Its first capital, Ribeira Grande, today Cidade Velha, is a World Heritage Site.

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The Cape Verdean island was the stage for the young naturalist's first encounter with tropical ecology, island volcanism and the anthropological world of creole and slave-owning societies.

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In the 23 days that he spent on the island of Santiago, Charles Darwin created an enormous intimacy with the islet of Santa Maria, Monte Vermelho and with Trindade and its poilão. He inventoried and sampled plants, animals, and rocks. Not even the mist passed him by without registering.

The island remained etched in the naturalist's memory and affection to the point that, almost at the end of the trip, after traveling around the world and discovering ecological paradises in the four corners of the Earth, when he found it again on the way home, he confessed to recognition. Santiago remained in his memory as a kind of first love.

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Hence, it is worth visiting the island that was and represents Darwin's passage across the border, which marks the turning point, to know the sites that constitute the zero point of observation and reflection on the long chain of life and the environment, in short, the places where it all began: the island of Santiago.