Among the many delights offered by the Senegal travel, one of the most accessible and is sensitive to less than one quarter of an hour browsing from Dakar.
Senegalese called Beer and Dutch Goede Reede renamed to finally keep the name of Gorée. Whoever comes here cannot but be fascinated by the magic of colored houses among gardens restallante emerging green. Since almost all the balconies is the sea and its sandy streets reflected in the footsteps of fishermen, small craft and a good amount of visitors that landed on the island each day, including many artists for inspiration.

But Goree is a small and quiet paradise of Mediterranean appearance. This tiny island has a history between fascination and horror, a feature that makes it one of the central points of the collective memory of humanity.
Since its discovery by Europeans in the fifteenth century, Gorée was used by colonial powers as a shuttle of the slave trade. The island became the place where young blacks were concentrated captured on the African continent before being transported in appalling conditions to the Americas.

For three centuries, tens of thousands of people set foot here, one last time in his life, warm African soil. Of that ruthless business practice is seen as the Maison des Esclaves, a building declared by the UNESCO World Heritage site and that clearly reflects the contrast between the chambers of the slave traders, surrounded by all kinds of luxuries, and the narrow dungeons where they were crammed for weeks for people to slave labor.  And the sale of human beings who for centuries held the burgeoning society of the island, especially in the eighteenth century, when they drew the streets and houses were built the mansions that now form part of the island. Gorée until 1749 to have a botanical garden.

During the golden age of Gorée, the governor and the richest families on the island have replicated the kind of life style in which the European courts are held daily feasts, dancing and chamber concerts.
No surprises that end here’s the juicy history of the island. Goree knew the appearance of «Signares» mulatto married temporarily Europeans who came to acquire real power and prestige in the small but sophisticated society dues. When European men returned to their home country to be reunited with his wife and legitimate children left their wives in Africa a rich dowry that guaranteed them a luxurious life and spring to the end of his days.

The Signares (the word comes from the Portuguese Senhora) came to enjoy an elevated position and independence, actively controlling the slave trade. They had the habit of dressing the best costumes were brought from France and pipe smoking. In his trips around the island are always accompanied by a cohort of Christian slaves to their hair braided in gold thread. These servants were accustomed to wear the jewels in its Signares to emphasize the power of rich merchants.
In one particular way of understanding life was a rich deposit reflected in the folk festivals of Goree, where women dress in European fashion of the eighteenth century and look over their heads the curious njumbel, played in a conical shape up Chennai questioned.

Goree is fascinating destinations where you look you look. His visit will be an intense experience that wants to extend, and is rarely a place of such small size can be very suggestive. If not we will only walk through the streets, nothing prevents us from climbing to the castle overlooking the Gorge and offers a magnificent view of Dakar. We can approach the history museum located in Fort Estrées or discover something about the inhabitants of the waters surrounding the island in the famous Museum of Sea.