Cape Verde - from slave trading to freedom

Sal is one of 9 inhabited islands that make up Cape Verde. According to history, Cape Verde which was discovered by the Portuguese in 1450, rose from the bottom of the Atlantic ocean many million years ago after a series of volcanic eruptions took place. Due to its strategic location, shipowners exploited the North Atlantic route to take advantage of the wind and current patterns.

Cape Verde soon became a known stopover for vessels crossing the Atlantic. In those years of inter-ocean trading of various good and commodities including the slave trade - Santiago, today's capital became a regular stopover. Cape Verde, along with Mozambique,Angola, Guinea Bissau were overseas provinces of Portugal. In 1975, it became an independent country and Amilcar Cabral became its first President.

Cape Verde is a melting pot of cultures that vary from island to island. Even agriculture and industries are different in each area. Sal appears to be a flat brown land from the airplane, engulfed by a vast ocean of turquoise blue and a very long coastline of dirty white sands.

The 1900s saw Cape Verde in a dismal economy situation owing to the downturn in the shipping industry and a terrible drought. With the introduction of newer technologies,inter-ocean shipping using oil as fuel no longer needed Cape Verde as a stopover point. Today, tourism is the hen that is laying the golden egg for Cape Verde. The heart of tourism development - in terms of real estate development is in Sal Island. The government is committed to embracing "responsible tourism", where there is a balance in ecology, diversity and beauty.# ( The view is from the penthouse of a seaside apartment complex for sale through Cape Verde-Living. See even: www.capeverde-living.com)

Cape Verde, paradise islands in the Atlantic

The Cape Verdeans aptly call their land " No stress" and they live by the line. It was sheer luck with Divine intervention that I and my other half discovered this unspoiled group of islands in West Africa when we were looking for a place to recapture lost energies at the end of 2009. It was a hectic year and it ended with a plunging temperature that is today freezing the depths of the Baltic sea.

The Swedish travel company called "Fritidsresor" (Leisure Travel) offered a price for two persons that was hard to refuse, and because I was in the clutch of severe colds and influensa, we hurried ourselves to Arlanda on an early Monday morning to fly to Sal Island via Boavista. Suddenly we found ourselves on a 7 hour flight to the Atlantic, in a country we have never been and with a language that was foreign. Portuguese I did learn when I lived in Mozambique for five years in the early 1980s to 1988.

We were greeted by an island in a property development frenzy. It is a flat brown land from what one sees in the plane as it approached the island which is engulfed by a turquoise blue ocean and a long coastline of nearly white sands. The hotel we were booked was unspecified and instead of finding some rundown apartment, we were pleasantly surprised to find ourselves in an area with many small bungalows just a short walking distance to the beach.

The hotel complex is neighbour to other hotels and it is very close to Sta. Maria, which is the commercial center. Sta. Maria is a small place with a fast developing property market. The seaside is lined with new apartment complexes and commercial buildings that are now being offered to foreign buyers and investors at very attractive prices. It is forecasted that in five years, the place will be another Canary island.

In the course of this blog, I will show pictures I have taken of our trip and portray why Cape Verde is an attractive second home.