When we woke up the next morning, we found a town of stunning beauty. Varela is not only surrounded by fields and forest, most of the town itself is field and forest. Less than 200 people live there in scattered houses tucked under trees off of winding paths. 

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Home for our 3-day stay in Varela was Chez Helene. It was not a difficult choice, as it is the only hotel in town. In fact, after the first night we were its only guests. Fortunately, it was the perfect place to enjoy such a peaceful town. This photo is of one of the bungalows.

Chez Helene is run conscientiously and with great warmth by Fatima and Franco and their friend Pino. Franco is Italian and met Fatima when she went to college there. Fatima was born in Guinea Bissau to a woman of Portuguese descent and a man originally from Rio de Janeiro. He himself had a French/Portuguese father and a black mother.
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Abraham, in the blue shorts, joins in and helps haul a canoe up the beach. A small section of one of Varela’s beaches is a base for fishing canoes. We went down one afternoon to discover the canoes coming in with the day’s catch.
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