A short trip report for Cape Verde
We have just come back from a week on the island of Sal in Cape Verde.
This is the most easterly island of the archipelago, approximately 500km out in the Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of Africa.
Sal is a flat barren rock approximately 30km by 12km; it has 350 days of sunshine each year, tropical temperatures, virtually no rainfall and very little vegetation. Its primary reason for existence these days is as a holiday destination.
Although Cape Verde has limited scheduled air connections it is not too difficult to get to from Europe. TAP Portugal fly daily from Lisbon, other scheduled connections tend to be weekly. There are also several package holiday operators that run weekly flights.
We booked a weeks package with Thomson Holidays flying from Manchester and stayed B+B at the Hotel Morabeza in Santa Maria on the southern tip of Sal.
There are several other all-inclusive resorts up and running in Santa Maria with a significant number more in various stages of construction. The Morabeza is really nice and I would be happy to recommend it.
Santa Maria is little more than a village but is growing rapidly. There are a small number of shops that have most of the essentials for a holiday and a couple of banks with ATM machines. Surprisingly there are also some really good restaurants for those looking to escape from the all-inclusive resort.
Everything needed on the island is imported so this is definitely not a cheep destination. This also extends to the cost of diving.
We went with Cabo Verde Diving who are based at the Hotel Djadsal about 10 minutes walk down the beach from the Morabeza.
A six dive package cost us 185 Euros(US$265) each with BCD and Regulator hire at 10 Euro each per day. Their rates were not significantly different from other operators. Cabo Verde Diving is Italian operated and most divers were Italian also. This wasn't a problem as everyone spoke reasonable English.
The dive shop facilities available were good, a couple of decent sized equipment washing tanks, hanging racks for wet suits, showers and a locked room for overnight equipment storage. The hire equipment was fairly new and in good condition mostly ScubaPro and Mares. Air tanks were steel, 12 or 15 litres. Nitrox did not seem to be on offer.
Diving was from RIBs, generally a group of 8 divers plus 2 dive guides. The guides were very competent and didn't fuss us around once they had established that we were competent.
Diving conditions were definitely challenging. Currents could be very strong and unpredictable, several times we had to abort intended dive sites and move on.
There were some viscous thermoclines (I don't do cold water!), 27c at the surface, 20c down at 30 metres. I had a 3mm suit which was only just adequate.
Visibility was variable between 10 and 20 metres with currents stirring up the silt quite badly at times. There was very little in the way of coral, it was mostly rock and sand. Dive sites were a mixture of walls, pinnacles and wrecks, we didn't do any caves.
We were pleasantly surprised by the amount and range of marine life to be seen, some really big rays and more scorpion fish than I have ever seen.
There wasnt the abundance of a coral reef but it was good though. No sharks or mantas to be seen.
Every holiday destination has a downside and Cape Verde is no exception. Santa Maria has a plague of touts (all seemingly to come from West Africa) trying to sell poor quality tourist junk and an endless stream of people looking to be your best friend for the duration of your holiday. Thankfully I've got immune to this over the years but it's still a pain constantly having to tell people to shove it. This was a pity because the native Cape Verde people seemed to be genuine and friendly and not overtly on the make.
So was it worth it ? Yes, just.
Cape Verde is a nice place for a do-nothing break and it's worth diving if you are there. I'm not so sure I would go there just for the diving though.
We have just come back from a week on the island of Sal in Cape Verde.
This is the most easterly island of the archipelago, approximately 500km out in the Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of Africa.
Sal is a flat barren rock approximately 30km by 12km; it has 350 days of sunshine each year, tropical temperatures, virtually no rainfall and very little vegetation. Its primary reason for existence these days is as a holiday destination.
Although Cape Verde has limited scheduled air connections it is not too difficult to get to from Europe. TAP Portugal fly daily from Lisbon, other scheduled connections tend to be weekly. There are also several package holiday operators that run weekly flights.
We booked a weeks package with Thomson Holidays flying from Manchester and stayed B+B at the Hotel Morabeza in Santa Maria on the southern tip of Sal.
There are several other all-inclusive resorts up and running in Santa Maria with a significant number more in various stages of construction. The Morabeza is really nice and I would be happy to recommend it.
Santa Maria is little more than a village but is growing rapidly. There are a small number of shops that have most of the essentials for a holiday and a couple of banks with ATM machines. Surprisingly there are also some really good restaurants for those looking to escape from the all-inclusive resort.
Everything needed on the island is imported so this is definitely not a cheep destination. This also extends to the cost of diving.
We went with Cabo Verde Diving who are based at the Hotel Djadsal about 10 minutes walk down the beach from the Morabeza.
A six dive package cost us 185 Euros(US$265) each with BCD and Regulator hire at 10 Euro each per day. Their rates were not significantly different from other operators. Cabo Verde Diving is Italian operated and most divers were Italian also. This wasn't a problem as everyone spoke reasonable English.
The dive shop facilities available were good, a couple of decent sized equipment washing tanks, hanging racks for wet suits, showers and a locked room for overnight equipment storage. The hire equipment was fairly new and in good condition mostly ScubaPro and Mares. Air tanks were steel, 12 or 15 litres. Nitrox did not seem to be on offer.
Diving was from RIBs, generally a group of 8 divers plus 2 dive guides. The guides were very competent and didn't fuss us around once they had established that we were competent.
Diving conditions were definitely challenging. Currents could be very strong and unpredictable, several times we had to abort intended dive sites and move on.
There were some viscous thermoclines (I don't do cold water!), 27c at the surface, 20c down at 30 metres. I had a 3mm suit which was only just adequate.
Visibility was variable between 10 and 20 metres with currents stirring up the silt quite badly at times. There was very little in the way of coral, it was mostly rock and sand. Dive sites were a mixture of walls, pinnacles and wrecks, we didn't do any caves.
We were pleasantly surprised by the amount and range of marine life to be seen, some really big rays and more scorpion fish than I have ever seen.
There wasnt the abundance of a coral reef but it was good though. No sharks or mantas to be seen.
Every holiday destination has a downside and Cape Verde is no exception. Santa Maria has a plague of touts (all seemingly to come from West Africa) trying to sell poor quality tourist junk and an endless stream of people looking to be your best friend for the duration of your holiday. Thankfully I've got immune to this over the years but it's still a pain constantly having to tell people to shove it. This was a pity because the native Cape Verde people seemed to be genuine and friendly and not overtly on the make.
So was it worth it ? Yes, just.
Cape Verde is a nice place for a do-nothing break and it's worth diving if you are there. I'm not so sure I would go there just for the diving though.
