Palmeira and anchorages
When you arrive by boat in Cape Verde, you first have to get your papers sorted at the authorities in one of the 3 entry ports. Palmeira on the Island of Sal is one of them. The procedure is uncomplicated and rather fast (when the officers are there…) in comparison to the Maghreb countries. How pleasant! Palmeira is quite a nice little fishing harbour, where the sailing boats anchor in the protected bay behind a long harbour wall.
On the other hand, if you’re motivated, like we are, you can anchor at several places along the east coast or, the rollier version, in the south in front of the tourist area of Santa Maria. Since we arrived, we were really hoping to see turtles! Actually, we did get a quick glance at 2 big ones heading out to sea when we were coming into the bay of Murdeira for our first anchorage. However, we haven’t seen any traces of turtles nesting on the beaches yet, but the season (June to October) has only just begun.
Where are the tourists on the Island of Sal?
The most international flights to the Cape Verde Islands, land on the island of Sal. Tourism is concentrated at the south tip of the island in hotel complexes as well as the big all-inclusive hotels, like RIU, Robinson, Hilton, just to mention a few of them, located along the over 8 km white sand beach. In that region, the prices are European ! or even Swiss, if you prefer ! Without asking for the price first, we naively ordered 2 balls of ice cream each for the boys at a beach restaurant: 4 Euro the scoop!!!
All year long you can roast in the sun and drink nice cocktails, in winter you can kite or surf, but other than that, there is not much to do or see on Sal.
From far, the island of Sal, approaching from the north 
You anchor in the harbour bay of Palmeira for clearance 
The small fishing harbour of Palmeira on the island of Sal 
… where you can watch the fishermen emptying the fish directly on the pier 
Jean-Luc found a friend straight away 
The dogs seem to live in peace on the streets and in harmony with the locals and the cats 
Looking for a SIM card and the police office for the entry formalities 
We assure you, there is a turtle on this picture! 
The anchorage in Murdeira bay, south of Palmeira, in the evening 
The same setting in daytime 
Illika looks very small and far away 
A perfect little bay infront of the village of Murdeira to land with the dinghy, sheltered from swell and waves 
In the evening, view from the beachbar 
We had a very nice evening at the beach bar 
… with enchanting cape verdean live music 
… and a BBQ 
Fantastic setting and colours in the bay of Murdeira 
The phantom crabs in all sizes rush and hide in the sand when you get too close 
Santa Maria, big tourist area with a beautiful 8 km long sandy beach
How to visit the Island of Sal
The, let’s say, 4 tourist attractions can be seen in one day by renting a car either with air-conditioner (nicely protected from the dust) or driving around in a group of quads or going on an open 4×4 island tour, getting very dusty. So, if you have a pool and nice shower waiting for you, one of the last 2 two options is what you would maybe want to do. However, if you live on a boat and don’t have much water, and have to go shopping for food at the end of the day, you probably prefer to choose the first one!
Salt, sharks and…
We enjoyed the day in our Dacia “Duster”: we were allowed to see the “Blue Eye” for 5 seconds (!!) and we went to see the salt mine from the top of the crater rim instead of sitting in one of the salt pans with 30 other people. To get there we had quite bumpy drives over dusty and potholed tracks.
The best thing of the day though, was standing in the lava stone heated water along the east coast, with baby lemon sharks (up to about 1,2 m)They actually swim around our legs! This is a big tourist attraction, but they don’t overdo it and take care that you don’t try to touch the sharks. So yes, they attract them by dipping a wrapped piece of fish in the water, but they don’t actually feed them. Sometimes, one of the sharks, by accident, anyway manages to get hold of the hand of a local guide. What a feeling, when they lightly brush your leg swimming by!
…turtles!
We had to wait until the last day to see more turtles. In fact, the boys saw one when snorkelling close to the beach, and we all saw another one when we started our 6 hours sailing to Bao Vista. They’re so calm… Cabo Verde – no stress! as says the local motto…
Salt extraction in the crater of a volcano 
We decided to see it from the edge of the crater, without paying 5€ each 
The ruins of the salt warehouses and cable car for transporting the salt from the crater to the boats, are still there, but look very dangerous! 
THE national cape verdean dish: cachupa, available everywhere and anytime, even for breakfast 
From far we didn’t know what these white heaps were: its broken shells from Atlantic triton’s trumpets (Buzio), another traditional dish 
One of the tourist attractions, the Buracona lagoon 
The Blue Eye. We had about 5 seconds to take the photo and then free the space for the next visitors! 
Escorted by one of the “guides” we reached this parking place in the middle of nothing on the east coast, for the shark experience 
You walk in for about 50-100 meters in the shallow warm water 
They make sure you don’t try to touch them 
The babies are already 60-120 cm long and have sharp teeth 
Their adullt sharks don’t approach as the water is too shallow, but they keep watch over the nursery further out 
It was an extraordinary experience to be with them in the water 
…especially when they stripe your leg swimming past. So soft the touch! 
And how are we suppose to bring all the souvenirs home? This is only Alexander’s part…
It looks absolutely lovely and the sharks swimming around your legs sounds like a real treat. €8 for an ice cream… Wow!
Dear Pip, don’t want to have the adults around my legs though!
Generally, even in supermarkets and at the market we find everything quite expensive. Don’t know how the locals pay for it…
Xxx
Sharks! If the babies are over a metre, how big are the adults?!
Found the turtle!
All looks very interesting anyway, even if there’s not so much to do.
xxxx
The adults get up to 3,4 m!
The beaches are stunning and snorkelling has been good, so plenty to do anyway 😉