Immeriswas
Contributor
Just back from a 4 week island hopping trip . Mainly there for hiking and the carneval in Mindelo, i did some diving on the way.
First in Tarafal on Santiago, the biggest island. The dive operator now 500m outside his previous location , the King Fisher Resort, in a kind of selfmade beachbar. The equipment in a very good condition , the briefing okay ,but don"t exspect a dive site plan or sketch. The diving along the rocky coast in 23 degree warm water with 15 m visibility was mainly looking for small stuff like nudibranch and frogfish. That we found a few. Not to much fish arround. You could notice that fishing here is one of the main source to sustain their living.
But I got extremly lucky and encountered on one dive - the colonaden , a place with a lot of black coralls - at 20m a 10 to 12 m seized humpback whale. Definatly one of the highlights of all my dives!
On Sao Vincente I did only one dive at the wreck in the middle of the bay, because at the other days the extremly strong wind prohibeted the diving. It is only 5 to 15m deep 100m long , but already quite deterioated. Only at two places you actually can dive into a kind of leftovrt freightroom. Nicly covered with sponges and quite a bit of fish here. Coralls a gernerally in the area not so abundand.The dive base near the ferry station - Dive Tribe- has another base in San Pedro on the southwest coast.Their rental equipment was in good condition. No nitrox ,the same as in Santiago.
The third spot was on Santo Antao , the most impressive of the 4 visited islands and great for hiking, in Porto Novo. The operator is located in the Antaro Art Resort and the rental equipment was a bit on the very used side. But the could offer Nitrox. Because I was the only guest, the two dives were close to the harbour and not too impressive. Some nudis , a bit of fish , visibility 10 to 15 m.
As a resume : not a destination for somebody like me, spoiled thru various trips to the Maledives and Indonesia, for a pure dive vacation . But a good alternative to interupt the hiking or kiting and windsurfing ,the other main attraktion especially on Sal and Boa Vista for a few days.
First in Tarafal on Santiago, the biggest island. The dive operator now 500m outside his previous location , the King Fisher Resort, in a kind of selfmade beachbar. The equipment in a very good condition , the briefing okay ,but don"t exspect a dive site plan or sketch. The diving along the rocky coast in 23 degree warm water with 15 m visibility was mainly looking for small stuff like nudibranch and frogfish. That we found a few. Not to much fish arround. You could notice that fishing here is one of the main source to sustain their living.
But I got extremly lucky and encountered on one dive - the colonaden , a place with a lot of black coralls - at 20m a 10 to 12 m seized humpback whale. Definatly one of the highlights of all my dives!
On Sao Vincente I did only one dive at the wreck in the middle of the bay, because at the other days the extremly strong wind prohibeted the diving. It is only 5 to 15m deep 100m long , but already quite deterioated. Only at two places you actually can dive into a kind of leftovrt freightroom. Nicly covered with sponges and quite a bit of fish here. Coralls a gernerally in the area not so abundand.The dive base near the ferry station - Dive Tribe- has another base in San Pedro on the southwest coast.Their rental equipment was in good condition. No nitrox ,the same as in Santiago.
The third spot was on Santo Antao , the most impressive of the 4 visited islands and great for hiking, in Porto Novo. The operator is located in the Antaro Art Resort and the rental equipment was a bit on the very used side. But the could offer Nitrox. Because I was the only guest, the two dives were close to the harbour and not too impressive. Some nudis , a bit of fish , visibility 10 to 15 m.
As a resume : not a destination for somebody like me, spoiled thru various trips to the Maledives and Indonesia, for a pure dive vacation . But a good alternative to interupt the hiking or kiting and windsurfing ,the other main attraktion especially on Sal and Boa Vista for a few days.
