top of page
SANTA MARIA
Tourist capital of Cape Verde
Also, watch our film about
Santa Maria on Youtube
We will be pleased if you like this article.
It costs you nothing, but a good deed is done :-)
Of all the cities of Cape Verde or, as we called this state in the last century, "Cape Verde islands", the most tourist-oriented place is the capital of the island of Sal with the beautiful name of Santa Maria. Several years ago, the country's authorities determined that it will be key for the development of tourism infrastructure. And so, after a long flight Amsterdam - Lisbon - Sal Island, we walk along the main street of the town of Santa Maria.
First impressions of the city: It is safe here as the streets and intersections are patrolled by the police. In order to provide quality security for travelers, in some places the police simply stand around the clock and monitor their stations. The second vivid impression was the Polish speech. Here she is everywhere! On the plane, while we were flying, we managed to meet a couple from Poland. On the streets of Santa Maria, it is a second language after local Portuguese, even the sellers of excursions on the embankment have prepared advertising brochures in Polish, and some are marked with the Bedronka logo - the ladybug is a popular sign of the famous trade network in Poland. Yes, what can I say: the guys with whom we became friends at the hotel were called Marek and Magda and they (unexpectedly) also turned out to be from our neighboring country. The conclusion we made from our communication with them: for the Poles, Cape Verde and the Canary Islands, today they play the role of the main resorts, like Egypt and Turkey for the Ukrainians. Third impression of the country: men in Cape Verde are very tall, this is the first country where, with my 1.84, I had to regularly turn my head up when communicating with a local. Where does the tourist go first? Of course, in the souvenir rows. The peculiarity of this market is that in the center there are a lot of idle guys who are not doing anything, but only trying to persuade white tourists to "see my mom's shop."
One of these "mothers", to which we were led by the "caring son" in the photo below. She unashamedly asked us 70 euros for a small doll made of wood. “This is Chakoroba's grandfather himself!” She convincingly explained to us (Chakoroba is a grandfather who is considered either the founder of the state or the first ancestor of the islanders). We were not "reduced" to this argument, and after this incident, our communication with the "sons" on the central streets stopped 😊 Fortunately, the main slogan of Cape Verde is "No stress", so no one bothers too much when refusing, but simply tells you: "No stress, mista "😂
It is impossible not to note the brightness of local clothes, as in my opinion, they are trying to compensate for the dullness of the surrounding landscapes with the bright colors of their outfits. Whoever called these islands "Cape Verde" was either color blind or a joker. Most of the territories here look like a desert. Greenery is practically absent here and man-made plantations are pleasing to the eye only in tourist areas. Therefore, it would be more correct to call the country the "Islands of the yellow-gray cape".
The next photo shows souvenir layouts on the main square of the city. The key content is Chinese consumer goods + fragments of marine life (most often shark teeth and jaws). And one more feature of Santa Maria - grocery stores in the city are kept exclusively by Chinese families. You go into a store, and there mom is at the checkout, dad puts out the goods, and my daughter writes price tags. And so on in several stores that we visited.
In addition, we were able to visit the head office of "Facebook" in Cape Verde 😂😂😂 Here the company focused not on software, but on fast fish food and drinking water 😜😜😜
We were fortunate enough to be in Santa Maria for Christmas and watched a beautiful service at the local Catholic church. Padre was very serious, and the children who came with their parents were very smart. I was surprised that even the smallest girls attended Mass with bright makeup on their faces. We even photographed one of these "princesses" at the holiday.
A couple of photos from our hotel:
1. Hotel logo in the form of the sun
2. I teach everyone how to pull up on an invisible horizontal bar in the pool 😜
In the next photo, I am holding the flag of the state of Cape Verde. It has 10 gold stars, each symbolizing a separate island from the archipelago. And I think that this informative information will be enough 😊, it's time to go to the beach!
The beaches of the island are his pride! Beautiful, with a colorful ocean, with magical sunsets.
What was especially memorable were the yellow dogs that walk along some beaches. Apparently the sailors brought only one dog here - yellow. And since we visited the country in the "Year of the Yellow Dog" according to the Eastern calendar, we considered the dogs we met - a good sign.
Look through the photos of the gallery below, there is an old lighthouse and the only sand dune on the island, and just the beauty of Santa Maria. (Photos below are clickable)
 |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  |  |
 |
A separate word must be said about kiters. It seems that Santa Maria is one of the world capitals of this sport. Since there are practically no trees on the island, the wind blows constantly, and the wind for a kiter is all that is needed in life. And they are everywhere, no matter where you go to the coast of the island - everywhere there will be flying sails of kiters. In our opinion, sometimes they behave very recklessly when, at the risk of their lives, they fly among the high waves or very close to dangerous coastal cliffs ...
At the beginning I already mentioned that the nature of Cape Verde is mostly deserted, but even in the desert you can find beautiful creations of nature. Here are a few of them:
Of the plants that we met on Sal, we were especially fascinated by the cotton that we met at the roadside, and the flowering cotton became a discovery for us.
Walking around the city on Christmas Day, we now came across the Protestant Church of Santa Maria. Outside, this building looks more like a hangar made of corrugated board, but inside we were fascinated by the beautiful songs that sounded at the service.
We filmed a fragment of one of them.
And now about the main thing ... 😜
The main tourist attraction of the city is its pier. Here, around 11-12 in the morning, fishermen bring their catch for sale, souvenir sellers put their goods there, and young divers, hoping for a tip, jump from there into the water, tumbling beautifully.
You can see this in more detail in our Youtube movie .
When traveling, we are very interested in photographing the life of local residents, which does not bear the imprint "made for tourists". That is, when life goes on as usual.
Here are some of these shots:
1. A boy and a girl are playing near their yard.
2. The guy drives a couple of horses to another pasture
3. An important football match takes place in the "stone jungle" of Santa Maria
The following photos can be seen:
What a typical Santa Maria street looks like, where the locals live,
the only casino on the island near the "Hilton" hotel,
the assortment of the souvenir shop, where the seller turned out to be very educated and at the word Ukraine could remember as many as 4 words: Shevchenko, Klitschko, Euromaidan, Poroshenko. As a rule, in all countries they know Shevchenko, and in some places also Klitschko. But, so that 4 words at once, yes in Cape Verde !!!
Apparently in ordinary life he works either as a geography teacher or as a local political scientist 😜
The popularity of Andriy Shevchenko in the world, it seems to me, is underestimated by Ukrainians. Here's a look at the next photo our hotel's animator is an Italian from Milan. When he was a kid, Shevchenko played for the club of his city and now, forever, this boy has the best football player in the world in the entire history of our Andriy Shevchenko 👍👍👍
A visit to such a distant and little-known country as Cape Verde leaves a mark for a lifetime. In such places, everything is interesting, and the nature and life of local residents, and food, and music. To convey the Cape Verde atmosphere, listen to the song we brought from there .
If you love kite, surf and other words associated with waves, then Santa Maria is definitely recommended to visit. If you are interested in the life of the islanders, their cuisine and entertainment, then you are also here. Well, if you are a connoisseur of beaches and beautiful sunsets, then you must visit here! Be sure to travel !!! ✈🚂🚗
We would be glad to receive your comments on this article. If you have been to Santa Maria - share your impressions in the comments. If you are going to visit there - ask your questions , we will be happy to answer them. And we take your posts and likes as a good assessment of our blogging work.
Yours faithfully,
Vitaly & Nataly
bottom of page